I was looking through the old Spaceflight Chronology and stumbled upon the Canopus class advanced research ship. The more I looked at it the more I liked it and I decided to redraw it a bit and explore what the other sides might look like. I did find a starboard elevation on line, which might have been from Rick Sternbach's original art for it back in circa 1980, but the ship overall looked very flat (too flat) and I decided to give it a more conventional arrangement. Here's the redraw of the dorsal plan:
And here are the starboard, forward, and aft elevations:
I don't have a ventral view drawn but I do have it pretty well in mind. The Constitution class in silhouette is there for scale. It's rakish angle is proof that it was included as an afterthought.
The SFC gives it a launch date four years later than the Enterprise. That, plus it's bulky "Baton Rouge" look make me think that it was built to be a good sized research ship using the time-tested (and likely cheaper) technology from the Baton Rouge era but also represents a final transitional design that incorporates Constitution era improvements. I don't imagine it's as well armed or versatile as a Connie. Just really sort of a last throw-back to an earlier technology.
I was thinking I (might!) build one of these in 1:1000 scale to fly alongside my Polar Lights Enterprise(s).
Questions? Opinions? Brutal criticism? I await your feedback.
And here are the starboard, forward, and aft elevations:
I don't have a ventral view drawn but I do have it pretty well in mind. The Constitution class in silhouette is there for scale. It's rakish angle is proof that it was included as an afterthought.
The SFC gives it a launch date four years later than the Enterprise. That, plus it's bulky "Baton Rouge" look make me think that it was built to be a good sized research ship using the time-tested (and likely cheaper) technology from the Baton Rouge era but also represents a final transitional design that incorporates Constitution era improvements. I don't imagine it's as well armed or versatile as a Connie. Just really sort of a last throw-back to an earlier technology.
I was thinking I (might!) build one of these in 1:1000 scale to fly alongside my Polar Lights Enterprise(s).
Questions? Opinions? Brutal criticism? I await your feedback.
