Toying with where to place navigational thrusters, or widening the impulse engine assembly to provide some vectored control thrust. Hmmm
Traditionally, the RCS assemblies are found at the diagonal points on the saucer: so to say, half past 1, half past 4, half past 7 and half past 10. They don't need to be that big, as long as they're recognizable it's good enough.
Thanks for the suggestion. This is what I have so far; when these are updated with RCS assemblies, they will be placed in alcoves on the lower side of the saucer.
... but the RCS system needs a way to move the ship every direction it needs to. So you'll need them facing up, outwards and down. Have a look at an Excelsior or Constitution II, they're quite clearly visible as yellow assemblies on an otherwise white/greyish saucer!
Oh I’ve seen those, I’m just thinking of making them non-descript as they were never really obvious on the TOS Enterprise, and only apparent on the 2009 Enterprise when in use which is curious... just thinking about that, I may have a sheet that details the thruster ports if I go with the non-descript look, by way of explaining why they weren’t obvious to see on the TOS Connie...
As an "old school" draftsman - I would suggest laying out a topside and possibly keel view of the ship before trying to do the fore and aft views. In particular, you want to be sure about the position of the engine struts relative to the hull. That's easier to project to a "plan" view and then from that to the fore and aft views.
Ordinarily I would, though I have used some measured WIP dorsal sketches and internal layouts to work out where everything goes on the bow and stern elevations... to quote Starfleets most famous engineer, ‘I know this ship like the back of my hand’
So here's a list of the data sheets, I'm creating for this project - Ranger Class III Scout: Outboard Profile - Portside Inboard Profile Outboard Dorsal Plan Outboard Ventral Plan Outboard Bow and Stern Elevations Deck 1 - Crew Deck Deck 2 - Main Service Deck Deck 3 - Machinery Deck Bridge Layout Engineering Layout Hanger Deck Layout (Including Close-up of Inboard Profile on Decks 1 and 2) Quarters and Staterooms Fire Control Shout if there are any other data sheets you want on this ship, any compartments you want close-ups of etc...