S.S. Valiant Appearance

[Gepard]

There's enough facets on your model in the prior images that it should smooth away fine with the right smoothing angle. They're pretty simple shapes, so you shouldn't need a lot of geometry.

EDIT: Looking at it again, you've got enough facets that the surface should have looked smooth even with a 30º smoothing angle. Weird.

 

[Warped9]

I've been doing a little reading and this issue might be a peculiarity of Maxwell working with SketchUp because other users have encountered the same thing.

 

[Warped9]

I've added as much physical detailing as I care to at this point. The only thing left is deciding where the running lights will be then it's a matter of drawing up and applying the markings. I've also begun to understand how the lighting elements work in Maxwell as well as the materials and textures--that's how I got my windows to light up at this point.



The smoothing issue is something I'll address in the next model because I think it's mainly a matter of having more facets to the curves.

 

[blssdwlf]

On retrospect, the facets do give it some scale. I'm reminded of how plates on modern sea going ships eventually look a little "indented" from all the punishment from the water hitting the sides.

 

[Warped9]

For a sense of scale note the circular docking port/air lock on the side along the centreline. There's one opposite on the port side as well. As I referenced earlier I see the main section being roughly equivalent to the Enterprise's secondary hull.

 

[Warped9]

A bit of signage.

 

[Bernard Guignard]

Looks Very nice

 

[Warped9]

A bit more signage and a Never seen pre TOS scene.



All that's left to add are the running lights and doing some photomanip pics.

 

[Warped9]

I think I've taken this as far as I can.



I think the silvery alloy look gives this something of a '50's era retro look to it even though the design isn't something we would likely have seen in '50's era sci-fi. I think it does look suitably more rudimentary than the TOS era yet certainly more advanced than the DY-100 series. I think it also looks suitably more devolved than the ringship Enterprise which will come some decades later.

 

[Patrickivan]

I've never really been a fan of ring ships, but I have to say that I really dig this. Looks really good.

 

[B.J.]

Very nice! Other than the known smoothing issues, I don't see anything wrong with this! Would it be possible to render a side view with the ring cut away? I'd like to see the main fuselage in one shot like that.

 

[publiusr]

Do to the great width of the main hull, I can see this as a follow on to a nuclear-pulse Orion, that had the similar bullet shape. What might be interesting might be to have warp actually come before impulse drives, with this things sublight being a NSWR.

Ironically, any real warp ships will be ringships that look like this, only with a shorter nose.

 

[Warped9]

Would it be possible to render a side view with the ring cut away? I'd like to see the main fuselage in one shot like that.

This is also where you can really see the pulp sic-fi rocketship element as the basis for the design. You have the bullet shaped main body flipped on its side and detailed grafted onto a more contemporary looking lower (or aft) booster section. The fins of the rocketship have been morphed into support struts for the space warp ring and the navigational deflector pod.

 

[aridas sofia]

I really like it. I would perhaps add a small sub "sail" at the bow section to further tie in to the DY lineage, but it also works without that detail. Great work.

 

[Warped9]

I haven't really been too specific about what certain things are on this design, but there are some specifics. The small rectangular shape seen on top of the main hull and towards the bow (before it slopes downward) is meant to be the long range communications array, shown here in retracted mode. In this era there is no subspace FTL radio so when then want to broadcast or beam a signal back home a dish like array pops up and is aimed in the desired direction. Just aft of the LRCA (Long Range Comm Array) is a half cylinder looking part that is the housing for a retracted deep space telescope. I have a vague idea the ship's bridge is located between the LRCA and the deep space telescope although it doesn't protrude beyond the ship's main hull.

The navigational deflector pod on the lower support strut also holds the ships main space and planetary sensor arrays.

Of course the airlock on each side of the hull should be recognizable. The darker rectangle on the forward bottom of the hull is a bomb bay door setup where the ship's single landing craft is kept. The spar at the bow is a targeting sensor for objects to be destroyed by the navigational lasers, the nub on the upper side of the bow. The part hanging under the ship and just aft of the bay doors houses the ship's recorder marker.

 

[Warped9]

Before I finish with this I have an idea for the ship's landing craft which I'd like to realize. I'm also toying with an idea for what could have been Cochrane's prototype.

Later I'd like to tackle my 22nd century starship deign as well as a pre TOS cruiser. I also have a far future Enterprise design I'd like to see realized in 3D.

 

[Warped9]

It's a bit amusing to see how this came out. After following this thread initially I simply had a basic idea that I sketched out on a piece of scrap paper. Later I sketched out a somewhat better drawing and scanned that into my computer. From that I drew up some basic shape lines in Illustrator and from that I then built up the basic shapes in SketchUp. But once I got started I couldn't resist adding a bit more and a bit more until I had a completed design. Most of the detail I thought up and built on the spot without any detail drawings to refer to.

Weird.

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

Warped9 - This is an amazing piece of work! This is why I love coming to this forum

 

[Warped9]

I'm going to redo the font for U.E.S.S. Valiant because I'm not happy with it. I will use the same font idea I worked up for XCV-205.

 

[Warped9]

I really like it. I would perhaps add a small sub "sail" at the bow section to further tie in to the DY lineage, but it also works without that detail. Great work.

I avoided the "sub sail" thingy because I couldn't justify it design wise or function wise. I found it looked just too tacked on even while it works for the DY-100 because its main section is so comparatively small. I didn't think it needed that overt visual connection. I felt the Valiant"s main section being cylindrically shaped was enough of a visual connection in terms of evolution.