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So, I made this.

I dunno, it’s a little strange to see the weapons like that. The phasers are a little too bright for the rest of the image, especially given how subdued the Bussards and maybe deflector are, but, okay, work-in-progress. But I think the main thing for me is that the mind starts to matrix the additions and you see a face — two heavy red eyes and bright buck teeth, or spider fangs, reaching out.
 
I like the drop-down phaser idea, covers a lot of sins!
The widely space torpedo launchers look a little unusual at first glance but thinking about it - did the photorps ever get a consistent place where they left the ship?
They seemed to emerge from the same general vicinity as the phasers, just above and in front of the lower dome ring. FJ tried to "fix" this inconsistency by placing the launchers in front of the B/C deck area beneath the bridge, but no ship on screen (to my recollection) ever had launchers there. It wasn't until the TMP refit that we started seeing ships with dedicated launch tubes that were distinctly different from the phaser banks. We also saw actual phaser hard points TMP onwards. IIRC, none of the TOS-E filming miniatures actually had weapon placements.
 
They seemed to emerge from the same general vicinity as the phasers, just above and in front of the lower dome ring. FJ tried to "fix" this inconsistency by placing the launchers in front of the B/C deck area beneath the bridge, but no ship on screen (to my recollection) ever had launchers there. It wasn't until the TMP refit that we started seeing ships with dedicated launch tubes that were distinctly different from the phaser banks. We also saw actual phaser hard points TMP onwards. IIRC, none of the TOS-E filming miniatures actually had weapon placements.
I wonder about that sometimes. Like in an alternate/original universe if the navigational dome was supposed to be the main/lone phaser array with its never-seen-until-recently little pointy thing at the end.

Also if “skipper” Kirk was supposed to be a lt. cmmdr. with those wrist stripes of a smaller ship than the “flagship.”

And if half-Vulcan Spock was supposed to look different from a full-blooded Vulcan.
 
Yes. The phasers turrets were just too small to be believable when they were confined to the ring surrounding the lower sensor dome. Because of that concave cross-section of the ring, the cannons were limited to a length of only about 36". (I kept thinking Sulu might as well have stuck his arm out a porthole to fire a hand phaser, the things were so puny.) By dropping them vertically out of a hidden panel at approximately the same spot where we saw the phasers being fired in TOS, I was able to not only more than double the size of the cannon to a more respectable 84", I was also able to simplify the deployment (which makes much more sense from a military standpoint; you'd want your primary weapons to be easily deployed in a straight down path from the hatch vs. having to do a bizarre S-shaped path when scooting past the lower sensor dome obstructions). The thing is, now that we can clearly see the cannon, we can also see how goofy the original design seen in "The Cage" was. So, I'll take another stab at how the guns look. Maybe something more reminiscent of the phaser rifle.

LOL - yeah at 36" a couple of guys with phaser rifles might be just as dangerous. 84" on the other hand seems too large as that's 7' long? I do wonder how large the cannon was from "The Cage". Was it alot larger than 36"?

The photon torpedo tubes are low-poly placeholders for now, but as you can see there's not really a lot that you can see. In order to place the photon torpedo tubes approximately where we saw them being fired in TOS, the torpedo doors have to be located so far down the curvature of the primary hull saucer that the open doors are more like holes in the floor, necessitating that the tubes themselves be severely recessed (otherwise the doors would scrape against them). Perhaps as part of the arming sequence the doors would slide open and the tubes would then extend forward? Hmm...

I too have pondered that problem. I've looked at submarine doors and other setups and each seem to have their pros and cons. Another option you might consider is making the tubes a part of the doors that tilt down (which will appear to be horizontal) when firing. For reference, check out the F8 Crusader's belly rocket pack. Pro: the tube extends out. Con: If the door can't swing down then you can't fire.

(Yes, we definitely did not see things like phaser guns and photon torpedo tubes sticking out of the Enterprise on the show, but I don't think what I'm proposing violates the overall design aesthetic Matt Jefferies envisioned. In fact, I think this keeps the spirit of his genius design intact; the doors are flush with the hull (and nearly invisible) when closed, and the machinery can be maintained and repaired entirely within the safety of the ship's hull.)

Actually I'm in agreement about weapons popping out as needed and disappearing. Totally onboard with that philosophy :techman:
 
Not sure about the photon torpedo launchers, in TMP and about every movie/series later on photon torpedoes are physical objects, in TOS I never saw them as that but more as balls of energy/plasma/something exotic so you might for a TOS era ship not really need a launcher for physical objects so placement and size can be more flexible and easier to apply.
my 2 cents.
 
^ in TOS it looked like both phasers and photon torpedoes came out of what we today call the navigation dome but maybe was not that back then. As a kid, I thought it was like a fantastical crystal ball from which terrifying bursts of energy spewed out. I mean, it’s an unusual ship component.
 
Not sure about the photon torpedo launchers, in TMP and about every movie/series later on photon torpedoes are physical objects, in TOS I never saw them as that but more as balls of energy/plasma/something exotic so you might for a TOS era ship not really need a launcher for physical objects so placement and size can be more flexible and easier to apply.
my 2 cents.

TOS was rather vague about whether photon torpedoes were physical or energy objects but in "Elaan of Troyius" Kirk does say, "bring all tubes to bear". So at the very least we should have tubes at the business end of the photon torpedo system :)
 
TOS was rather vague about whether photon torpedoes were physical or energy objects but in "Elaan of Troyius" Kirk does say, "bring all tubes to bear". So at the very least we should have tubes at the business end of the photon torpedo system :)
And in "Journey to Babel" we have:
KIRK: On my order, fire photon torpedoes two, four and six. Widest possible scatter.​
Combine the two and you could have something analogous to submarine torpedo tubes. Typically, such tubes are numbered 1, 3, 5, 7...etc on the starboard side and 2, 4, 6, 8...etc on the port side.
 
And in "Journey to Babel" we have:
KIRK: On my order, fire photon torpedoes two, four and six. Widest possible scatter.​
Combine the two and you could have something analogous to submarine torpedo tubes. Typically, such tubes are numbered 1, 3, 5, 7...etc on the starboard side and 2, 4, 6, 8...etc on the port side.
Yeah, do a ballistic missile submer—er starship variant. Captain James T. Ramius, commanding. It could be powered by lithium crystals, fire the meanest lasers in the quadrant, and answer to no one. Except UESPA. Or Space Central. Or Space Command. Or Spacefleet Command. Or...
 
I still have this idea that the lower saucer bulge has these tic tax phasers inside, pointing downward and inward towards the lit dome I see as one whole dilithium crystal. All energy packets come out of that.
 
That's an awesome idea. Do you mind if I steal it for mine?
After 55 years I doubt that I came up with an original idea here... be my guest. :D

What's going on with the windows on the saucer edge near the centerline of the image, with the light-colored rectangles around them? Is something weird happening with reflections on your panel texture, or is there some kind of artifact turning your light-bloom square, or maybe some kind of polygon error in your mesh?
None of the above, unfortunately. It's a bug in OctaneRender. :brickwall: The artifact is being caused by Octane's procedural "dirt" texture; in certain scenarios a bright object behind a solid object (i.e., the rooms behind the portholes) causes the solid object to become slightly translucent. The problem is apparently fixed in OctaneRender 2020, but I don't want to upgrade and risk other issues. So, I'm going to spend the next couple of weeks tearing out the "dirt" procedural from 100+ surfaces on the Enterprise and Constellation and will be replacing them with UV texture maps. Ugh.

TOS was rather vague about whether photon torpedoes were physical or energy objects but in "Elaan of Troyius" Kirk does say, "bring all tubes to bear". So at the very least we should have tubes at the business end of the photon torpedo system :)
The thing's gotta have a tailpipe. :ouch: Whether the torpedoes are balls of energy (which IMO they are--at least during the 2260s--because The Making of Star Trek says they are :cool:) or shiny black coffin-shaped :alienblush: devices, onscreen dialogue says that there are tubes, so my Enterprise has tailpipes tubes.

I like the drop-down phaser idea, covers a lot of sins!
The widely space torpedo launchers look a little unusual at first glance but thinking about it - did the photorps ever get a consistent place where they left the ship?
The only thing that was more inconsistent about the look and placement of the phasers was the look and placement of the photon torpedoes. Sometimes they were white. Sometimes they were red. Sometimes they came out of the same place where the phasers were emitted. In at least one episode ("Arena") they came out of the lower primary hull so high up that they wouldn't clear the lower edge of the saucer without scorching the paint. I've placed them as low as possible and as close together as possible while leaving room for the armature that lowers the phaser cannons into their firing position.

And speaking of phaser cannons...
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None of the above, unfortunately. It's a bug in OctaneRender. :brickwall: The artifact is being caused by Octane's procedural "dirt" texture; in certain scenarios a bright object behind a solid object (i.e., the rooms behind the portholes) causes the solid object to become slightly translucent. The problem is apparently fixed in OctaneRender 2020, but I don't want to upgrade and risk other issues. So, I'm going to spend the next couple of weeks tearing out the "dirt" procedural from 100+ surfaces on the Enterprise and Constellation and will be replacing them with UV texture maps. Ugh.

Weird - I thought they were just part of the aztec pattern on the hull. So the rectangular sections on those saucer edge windows are really being rendered as slightly translucent?

And speaking of phaser cannons...
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This is awesome :techman: Kudos to the all the extra bits of detail you added. The outer-inner doors opening and rotation mechanisms (turret arm, triple barrel wind up) are well done. I think the metal is a tad shiny though and seemed out of place. Phaser sound and beam color is great! (And I just like replaying the video for the camera zoom in :D )
 
The "signage" is a hoot! "Risk is our business" and "Beware Romulans bearing gifts"? Somebody's getting a bit cheeky!

The barrel mechanisms...I understand you're paying homage to the "rifle" featured in "Where No Man Has Gone Before", but to me, personally, I keep perceiving them as Dalek "gun sticks"! (And being a major Whovian, I don't see that as a bad thing.) As such, I imagine a "ring modulated" voice shrieking, "Exterminate!!!" just before each burst.
 
The "signage" is a hoot! "Risk is our business" and "Beware Romulans bearing gifts"? Somebody's getting a bit cheeky!

The barrel mechanisms...I understand you're paying homage to the "rifle" featured in "Where No Man Has Gone Before", but to me, personally, I keep perceiving them as Dalek "gun sticks"! (And being a major Whovian, I don't see that as a bad thing.) As such, I imagine a "ring modulated" voice shrieking, "Exterminate!!!" just before each burst.
I was thinking Mars Attacks! :rommie: :rommie:
 
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