NX-01 Deck Plans, Version 2.0

[AstroSmurf]

^ Well C Deck (which I started on yesterday) is about 8 feet. If I was to base a quick estimate on that, just the saucer for E Deck will probably close to fourteen! Include the warp farings and nacelles, we are looking at 22 to 25. That one is going to be massive. When I get a moment, I think I might try and figure out the precise scale this thing is. Since I chose the measurements for the detail plans based on computer screen sizes, I never did work out the actual scale.


And over the last month, I have also been producing a few new space paintings. (It helps me to relax and order my thoughts when I have a lot going on.) My latest one was a nebula, one of my favorite stellar phenomenon to paint. I usually start out with a tiny piece of an actual gas cloud, usually Orion, and then build and sample from it. I find that it helps me get the right texture and luminosity. Anyway, about midway through, I realized it would be perfect to pair with a render of the NX-01 that I had lifted from Doug Drexler's blog as reference for the Deck Plan Project. So here it is and I think they look great together. (Actually I am using it as my desktop wallpaper at the moment.) Enjoy.

http://www.waxingmoondesign.com/images/EnterpriseNX2.jpg

 

[sojourner]

Hehe, Maybe you should just start working in 1:1 scale?

 

[AstroSmurf]

Please don't say that to loud. My computer already hates me.

 

[AstroSmurf]

Hello all. I thought it would be cool to post a few highlights from B Deck. I had intended to pull some new detail plans from the finished schematic this week but I realized that I was still making to many changes to do that. As I am working on C Deck, I have found a few anomalies that needed to be corrected on the upper deck so everything lines up properly. The sharply curved upper hull of the warp farings makes it difficult to cram certain pieces of equipment in as well. Several times I have had to pop back into B Deck and move pipes and support struts so that I could get something in below.

Here is a taste…

This is a snap shot of the astrometrics lab. To the left is the deuterium fill port (accessed from one of the two large round hatches on the dorsal surface of saucer). Just above that is the port deuterium tank, which is compartmentalized just incase of a hull breach. You can also see the control room for the tanks and an airlock accessing the fill port and the tank area. If you look closely at the airlock, I have also included a rack of blue hazard suits. No one wants the crew working with cold deuterium without suitable protection. Safety first!

This is the top portion of the main plasma accelerator. Just to the right are the port fuel tanks and above is the emergency venting system.

This is one of my favorite areas, the research labs. I am not sure why though. It is just an area that crew can use to do research, go over lab results or use to set up experiments.

This is a special area for set aside for sample storage. After some thought, I realized that they would need a place to store samples that the ship had collected from the interstellar medium such as dust particles, comet fragments, etc.

Does anyone remember the Jefferies Tubes that the Borg took over in the second season episode, “Resistance”? Well this is it. To the right is the warp plasma relays. To the left is the drop off to the next deck. The two pill shaped vents in the middle are emergency plasma vents.


And as I promised, I finally got around to calculating the scale of the detail schematics. They come out to roughly 1:52 scale or about 4’4” per inch. I plan on figuring out the scale of the full plans when I actually figure out what size I am doing them at.

Oh and please… please… feel free to give feedback. To be honest, the reason why I posted the plans here again was to get different perspectives. It makes my view of things less myopic. So, positive or negative, all input makes the work better!

 

[judexavier]

^ Well C Deck (which I started on yesterday) is about 8 feet. If I was to base a quick estimate on that, just the saucer for E Deck will probably close to fourteen! Include the warp farings and nacelles, we are looking at 22 to 25. That one is going to be massive. When I get a moment, I think I might try and figure out the precise scale this thing is. Since I chose the measurements for the detail plans based on computer screen sizes, I never did work out the actual scale.


And over the last month, I have also been producing a few new space paintings. (It helps me to relax and order my thoughts when I have a lot going on.) My latest one was a nebula, one of my favorite stellar phenomenon to paint. I usually start out with a tiny piece of an actual gas cloud, usually Orion, and then build and sample from it. I find that it helps me get the right texture and luminosity. Anyway, about midway through, I realized it would be perfect to pair with a render of the NX-01 that I had lifted from Doug Drexler's blog as reference for the Deck Plan Project. So here it is and I think they look great together. (Actually I am using it as my desktop wallpaper at the moment.) Enjoy.

http://www.waxingmoondesign.com/images/EnterpriseNX2.jpg

Wow, amazing detail and planning...makes my mind numb
Your nebula work reminds me of the old Carl Sagan "Cosmos" book, and some of the wonderful old airbrushed spaceart it had. Like to see more of that.
Anyway, a confession of sorts...that panel texture along the top and bottom of the wallpaper...I borrowed that a few years back as the template for the hull texture on that "Enterprise STII conjecture" thing. I had no memory of where I had found that, now I know. Just wanted to give belated credit.

 

[AstroSmurf]

^ Really? I think everyone has borrowed that hull plating. I built it for a now defunct game website several years ago. And after all this time, I will still run across it on the web. It has taken on a life of its own now.

And lately I have been in the mood to produce some more "space paintings". Along with gas clouds, I love painting planets. After I get through this latest NX-01 bent, I might stretch my legs a little with some painting before moving on to the next leg of the project. Thanks!

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Man, these deck plans are impressive.

Despite what I may feel about the quality of the Enterprise (series not ship), the NX-01 still remains one of the better designed ships of ModTrek. Doug Drexler, John Eaves, and Herman Zimmerman did a fantastic job creating a ship, and sets, that had more verisimilitude than the Enterprise-D, Voyager, or the Defiant. The damn thing felt as if it could take off.

And you've done a smashing job of laying out the ship with the same amount of verisimilitude, maybe even a bit more.

 

[AstroSmurf]

^ I have always thought the same. After fourteen years refining the production and Starfleet design, I thought the team knocked this one out of the park. Now don't get me wrong. I think every show expanded the universe in its own way (and Deep Space Nine will always be a personal favorite) but the NX-01 was a full confluence of all the departments to create something awesome and interesting.


And just an FYI, I may or may not post something new today with the plans. I have C Deck almost finished. I just need to finish placing the furniture in a couple of rooms and then lay in the floors. Placing and shadowing the floors are, for lack of a better word, tedious so I may put it off until tomorrow. And the hallways especially. Not only do I have to put in the shadows, I also have to texture the carpet and merge them with that rubber mat in the middle. Basically it ends up being a rotoscoping nightmare so I tend to put it off until the last possible minute.

 

[doctorwho 03]

Anything worth doing is worth doing well, and this project is definately worth doing well. I especially like how you were finally able to get the Jefferies Tubes from 'Regeneration' in there. I remember when you did Version 1, you couldn't get those tubes in because of space and the arrangement of certain sections.

 

[AstroSmurf]

^ Actually I couldn't get the tubes into that area as they appeared in the show. But they are in the originals.

And here is C Deck. To be honest, this deck is rather boring to me. It is nothing but mechanics, water processing, atmospheric handlers and a few labs. Needless to say, drawing this one out was a snooze with all the mechanical bits. I have found that it is easier to be vague about the technology since I have no idea how some of the it will progress in the next hundred years. Besides, advance sewer treatment is not something that I want to spend the afternoon contemplating. I am glad to have it done though. I did enjoy drawing out all the gym equipment and the internals of the plasma accelerator though.

I am not sure how many people will notice this but I pulled a large amount of the science labs in favor of adding some support systems. I thought that the atmospheric systems could use some bolstering up. I would also like to point out the removable waste tanks in the aft section. These tanks correspond to the detachable hull plates on the CG model. I also added a small crawl space along the outer section of the saucer. It was always there in my head but I never put into the original plans.

The original file is 8838 x 8234 pixels (or just at 8 feet wide). And this deck was just to large for the computer to handle so I chopped in half. But both files collectively clocks in at a 470 MB.

Now I am on to D Deck, one of my favorites. I plan to post a few more close-up snap shots of this deck later in the week.

 

[fleetcaptain]

Well the detail is amazing. Love the plans so far and glad your still working on them. Never know if we will ever get any technical manuals on the NX-01.

 

[AstroSmurf]

^ As stingy as Pocket Books has been over the last few years, I doubt it. That is really the reason why I started doing these in the first place. And once I get the deck plans redone, I intend on doing a few more technical pages, like I did for the transporter and the warp systems.

I have been a little busy this week with work so I haven't had a chance to generate snap shots of C Deck. I might get to it tonight. But I have started work on D Deck already. This one is going to be a mother to do so it may take me a while. D and E decks share most of the continuity load when it comes to details and equipment, E Deck especially. Due to that fact I am being very careful with the details, pulling out my old research notes and doing some new. For example, I spent the last two days completely overhauling the Warp Core. The only thing that survived mostly intact were the plasma conduits. The rest of the core is a completely new rendering. I have also redone the transporter from the ground up. I am quite proud of them both though. They turned out very well and are ten times more detailed than the previous versions.

I hope to have some work to post soon. Stay tuned.

 

[AstroSmurf]

Here are those snap shots of C Deck I promised. (I was going to attach to this to my last post but I didn’t get here in time. I hate double posting. Sorry!)

This is the aft section of the port warp faring. You can see the port plasma conduit (which you can see dives down into D Deck), the open drop off to the next deck and the support structures.

This is the port cargo bay doors on the dorsal side of the saucer. Just to the bottom of that is the upper area of the large cargo bay on D Deck.

And next we have the gym area. You can see the smaller starboard gym area with its equipment. I did bikes, treadmills, weight machines and free weights, all drawn to match what was seen on the show. I also included the human gyroscope that Trip used in “Vanishing Point”. To the right we have the forward water tanks and to the left we have the game room with the ship’s pool tables (which Archer mentions to Trip in “Vox Sola”). And the long tube things just below the gym are the starboard long range sensors. If you look at the front of the ship, you can see them peeking out under the ventral cowl. Above the gym area is the ventral forward airlock.

This lovely little thing is the first stage warp plasma accelerator. You can see the upper portions poking out the top of the warp farings. The accelerator is housed in its own docking bay which I padded like the cargo bay of the space shuttle. The glowing bit is the plasma being magnetically “spun-up” before it is sent aft toward the nacelles. Just to the right of that you can see the main deuterium pump and the cargo lift.

Last but not least is the port water treatment center. To the right are the processing tanks. To the left is the waste holding tanks. These tanks can be lifted out and replaced through the detachable plates found on the aft ventral surface of the saucer. I padded their bays like the cargo bay of the space shuttle as well. If you look in the middle, you can see the control platform for the processing system. This area is also open to the deck above. The large windows on the back of the saucer look down into this area as well. The upper portion of the transporter (located on D Deck) is housed under this raised deck on the starboard side.

Let me know what you think. As always, I am happy to answer questions and take suggestions.

 

[judexavier]

This is really an amazing project. Your artwork is simply top-notch. Really nice, very polished. I could imagine this in a published book. On top of that, you've put an incredible amount of thought and planning into all of this...how it all fits together...
In my opinion, "the new, official way to render deck plans"...seriously. Can't wait to see more (your ship designs?

 

[AstroSmurf]

Why thank you! And it may be a while before I roll out any of those ship designs. I plan on keeping focused on the plans until I get them finished. I am focused and on a roll so I don't need to get sidetracked... again.

 

[largo]

"nice deckplans!"
"thanks!"
"but what are those yellow marks?"
"BAD PORTHOS!"

 

[judexavier]

Why thank you! And it may be a while before I roll out any of those ship designs. I plan on keeping focused on the plans until I get them finished. I am focused and on a roll so I don't need to get sidetracked... again.

I was just curious, you've described some of your file sizes (understandably huge ), I was wondering, how many layers do these puppies average? Or do you merge (similar elements, etc.) as you go?

 

[AstroSmurf]

Actually I am merging as I go so the files contain about twenty layers. And I am grouping elements together so they are easier to locate if I need to move or delete something. The basic ones are floors, color fields (for spaces that don't have a floor), doors and windows, hallways, walls, outer walls, greeblies, computer consoles, furniture, hatches, wall decor, support beams, pipes and special parts/areas. So far that has kept things organized and the file size manageable for the computer.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Outstanding! Truly impressive work as everyone else has stated. Makes you truly appreciate the size and scope of the starship. I would be interested to see your take on the Enterprise-E or really any of the other Enterprise's.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I would be interested to see your take on the Enterprise-E or really any of the other Enterprise's.

Me too, especially the good ol' NCC-1701.