New ships designs from me...

[darkwing_duck1]

First, three different classes of Kzinti ships, circa late 2160s:

"Fast, maneuverable, and armed with formidible particle cannons, the Kzinti 'Rrralisash' (Standard translation 'Scream and Leap')-class raider made life miserable for remote Federation colonies in and around the border with the Patriarchy during the decade following the end of the Romulan War. The Starfleet designation for this class is 'Cheetah'."

(The example shown here is seen skimming the surface of an L-class desert planet in Sector 727.)

"Emboldened by the perceived weak response by Earth/Federation forces (who were busy rebuilding and reorganizing Starfleet), the initial wave of raider activity was followed by more serious incursions by larger ships, such as the 'S'ssurrash' ('Lone Hunter')-class cruisers. The Starfleet designation for these ships is 'Tiger'-class."

"Perhaps the pinnacle of Kzinti ship design was the 'R'rrnizharru' ('Patriarch's Pride')-class battleship. It's main armament consisted of fore and aft batteries of particle beam cannons that had the astonishing (for their day) range of nearly 150,000km, and enough power to punch through most Starfleet shields in one volley. Only a handful of these monster (again, by the standard of the day) ships were ever built, and all were scrapped in accordance with the Treaty of Sirius disarmament provisions in 2177. The Starfleet designation for these ships was 'Lion'-class.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

Not every encounter by the newborn Federation Starfleet was hostile, as evidenced by the discovery of the Agorites (a canidoid race) by the USS Magellan on it's maiden voyage in late 2262.

Seen here is a Stalking Hunter-class vessel.

 

[Bernard Guignard]

Very nice work here.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

Agorite Chaser-class patrol ship, usually encountered operating in groups of 3-5 vessels:

 

[blaXXer]

While I like your designs, I do not in the slightest like your textures, which look like genereic hull textures applied randomly to your beautiful ships. Perhaps if you enlightened me as to which 3D-app you were using, I could give ya a few pointers on proper UVW mapping.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

While I like your designs, I do not in the slightest like your textures, which look like genereic hull textures applied randomly to your beautiful ships. Perhaps if you enlightened me as to which 3D-app you were using, I could give ya a few pointers on proper UVW mapping.

You just ran right up on the limitations of my program...as stated in the credits, I use a 3d "parts box" program called DOGA. All my design work is is taking the existing parts and manipulating their scale, positioning relative to each other, and their dimensions/size, including the texture maps I use for "greebling" the surfaces.

I have neither the time nor the skill to work in anything more sophisticated (at best, I am a "mesh tinkerer"). I know I'm a rank poseur by the forum standard, but I'm only really in this for fun anyways.

 

[Rattrap]

Having bashed my head into the stone wall of program limits (modeling in Bryce 3, anyone?) I can appreciate your limitations. Though I'm now a confirmed Lightwave user, the best program for the dabbler who wants to get into real 3D modeling at the ground level is Blender. It's open source, extremely cross-compatible with other programs, and the price is right (FREE!).

Your design work is nice. Blender will let you move on to that next level.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

Having bashed my head into the stone wall of program limits (modeling in Bryce 3, anyone?) I can appreciate your limitations. Though I'm now a confirmed Lightwave user, the best program for the dabbler who wants to get into real 3D modeling at the ground level is Blender. It's open source, extremely cross-compatible with other programs, and the price is right (FREE!).

Your design work is nice. Blender will let you move on to that next level.

I appreciate the suggestion, Rattrap, I really do, but I don't have the time to invest in learning and futzing with a "ground up" modeling program. I've followed WIP threads here and at Sci-Fi Meshes, and I'm well aware that even simple progs are complicated enough that just to build a simple shape can take hours and hours of work.

I can take a design in my head, and go from concept to final render WITH post production (color balancing, etc) in less than an hour (often less than 30 min) with DOGA (it's like building with virutal LEGOs, really). Granted it may not look entirely like what I wanted (limits of my parts box and all), but it suits the amt of time I have to work.

Again, thanks for the suggestion, and keep looking in, as I'll have more.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

"Not all species who attain FTL capability begin the starfaring portion of their existence using the S'terisek-Cochrane Gravimetric Space Displacement Manifold as their initial/primary means of propulsion. One of the more elegant, if not the most pracitcal FTL alternatives is the "tachyon sail" drive.

Utilizing a tailored steady-state particle field, the TS drive catches tachyons in the same manner as a physical sail catches the wind on a "wet" (ocean-going) sailing ship or a solar sailer. Since tachyons only exist and move at FTL velocities, the ship is therefore pushed forward at FTL speeds.

The TS drive has the advantage of being highly efficient, as the ship only need expend power to maintain the particle field "sail". However, a TS ship suffers the same limitations as all sailing ships, in that it's speed is limited to that of the prevailing "winds", and direction of travel is likewise restricted.

Space-time conditions and tachyon patterns within the Federation Treaty Zone are such that in the majority of areas, TS sail ships are limited to speeds in the WF4-5 range with a good "following wind", and as low as WF2 if forced to "tack into" the wind.

Here is a good example of a Betazoid Tachyon Sailer from the mid/late 22nd century:"

"Some historical documents suggest that the Orions utilized TS drives in the earliest days of their expansion phase before switching to more conventional warp drive systems.

Seen here is an artist's representation of what an Orion Tachyon Sailer might have looked like, c~2900 BC (Old Earth Calendar):"