Shuttlecraft Renderings

[Kirkunit]

Holy Cow, it's been forever since I posted here! I just wanted to share something I've been working on for fun. I decided to teach myself SolidWorks not too long ago, and after exhausting all the tutorials, I picked something a little more fun.

This is obviously the Galileo Shuttlecraft from TOS. I built it based on Phil Broad's drawings on the Cloudster site. I made a couple of "minor" tweaks based on what I saw in some reference pictures, but, as with anything from TOS, so much of what we see is open to interpretation.

As I mentioned this was built in SolidWorks as a solid model. While not quite ready for manufacturing, the geometry you see could be further developed for kit production, etc. The model was rendered in Keyshot, which is an awesome package for quick evaluation.

 

[The Axeman]

I'm just getting into Keyshot right now. For this kind of rendering it's awesome.

 

[Sarvek]

Awesome rendering. The craft looks quite accurate. Great work.

 

[Bernard Guignard]

Very nice work there

 

[TowerPower]

The Galileo is one of my favorites. Looks great. Never heard of SolidWorks though - interesting.

 

[B.J.]

^Solidworks is a 3D CAD package for creating solid models, like CATIA or NX (Unigraphics), not a mesh/rendering package like Lightwave or 3DS.

*Very* nice model, Kirkunit!

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Phil Broad's plans are awesome. I used them to build the CG shuttlecraft for Exeter some years ago - they're very detailed.

 

[Klaus]

...way cool!

 

[Kirkunit]

Thanks everyone! Yeah, what B.J. said. SolidWorks is a solid modeler (hence the name). In my profession (industrial design) it & Pro/E are pretty much the standard for generating CAD geometry suitable for manufacturing.

Generally speaking, when I build models (kits or CAD), my goal is hyper-accuracy. I research the heck out of my subjects & make every attempt to make it "right." In this case, however, I was teaching myself how to use the software, so I relied on Mr. Broad's drawings for accuracy. As I mentioned above, I made a few tweaks, but from what I can tell his drawings seem spot-on.