Star Ships

[Vance]

I just draw 'em, folks. Well, the Evarts is mine... but I don't really see that as greeblied, aside from the dish.

But, yeah, there's precedent with the pods, such as the Reliant, but I wouldn't ever invoke the Soyuz as a good example of Fleet design! The torpedo pod actually pushes it a little for me. (If you'll notice, I tend to build-in equipment to the hulls rather than add extensions. The crew can double-bunk, dammit!)

If the pieces looked more naturally placed somehow, it might improve the look.

 

[aridas sofia]

I just draw 'em, folks. Well, the Evarts is mine... but I don't really see that as greeblied, aside from the dish.

The ships you have drawn in many cases are not the original fan designs. They are your interpretations of those designs. In some cases they are vastly different from the originals.

 

[Vance]

The ships you have drawn in many cases are not the original fan designs. They are your interpretations of those designs. In some cases they are vastly different from the originals.

Well.. yes, but I try not to change them too much thematically, even if I tweak parts here and there. If I were to, say, redo the Soyuz so that none of the greeblies are present, it wouldn't look like the Soyuz much anymore, nae?

I don't think I've gone that vastly different from anything, though mileage, of course, varies.

 

[aridas sofia]

This month, something from the Earth-Romulan War. This depicts a cruiser -- the Meteor class -- that in the Federation Reference world, is the first commissioned vessel to incorporate advances in converging two weaker warp envelopes produced by two sets of small warp coils into one powerful warp envelope. Bracketing Meteor are Claudius Ptolemaeus, the last of the old monopole warp drive star ships, and San Francisco, a wartime cruiser built with two complete warp nacelles. In contrast, Meteor is mostly monopole -- single gravity sources fore and aft, and induction rings -- later called warp coils -- internal and amidships, to form the initial warp field. Once the initial warp field is formed, the ship has dual power stage induction cones to form twin envelopes that converge to produce the first human star ship capable of warp 3 speeds.

Obviously, in fleshing out the Federation Reference work of twenty-five years ago, I'm sticking to the sources used then -- TOS, TAS, TMP and early TNG. This design also owes some inspiration to the work of Rick Sternbach, namely his Patton from the Spaceflight Chronology. This narrowing of sources is not meant as a comment on any of the other series or movies, just a different way of seeing things.

http://home.comcast.net/~aridas/MeteorWeb.jpg

 

[Cary L. Brown]

Hey, Aridas...

Nice work, as always, and let me just echo the comments of so many folks here in praising how nicely-though-out, and creative, your stuff is (as always, again!)

The thing that I miss most of all about the "glory days" of fan-published works is that you used to be able to actually get all this in bound (even if spiral-bound!) form and carry it around with ya, read it in bed, whatever... while today the only way I can see all this stuff is when I'm in front of my computer.

Have you given any thought... any at all... to putting some of this stuff together into a "publishable" format, complete with the schematics and descriptive materials you're presenting in such an informal fashion here?

I know, I got flamed to death in the "trek books" forum a couple of years ago for even SUGGESTING such a thing, but I deny the claims made that there's no market for that sort of thing. They claimed that the reason that commercial sales of Trek books dropped through the floor was that nobody wanted to buy Trek books anymore. I countered by saying that it might just be because they stopped publishing anything people wanted to buy. Glossy paper and repeated "minor edits" to the Encyclopedia do not make for compelling claims on my $$$, as far as I'm concerned. I pay for CONTENT.

Seriously, I'd pay for a book... even a Kinkos-printed, spiral-bound one... putting all this work into a "real book" form like you and the other guys used to do. It's not about using the fanciest papers (though that would be nice, it's not IMPORTANT) and it's not even about using color printing (though in this case I think that'd be a really good idea!). No, it's about getting the ideas OUT THERE, in a form that I can read on my couch or in my recliner or in bed before going to sleep... where I can't take my desktop and where it's damned inconvenient to take my laptop!

Just my 2cents... but seriously... have ya thought 'bout it?

 

[Shaw]

Ya know something like this isn't that hard to do anymore, you can self publish these days. I've been looking at Lightning Source as an alternative for trying to do large scale printings of books. You layout everything yourself, send it to them as a PDF with instructions on size, paper and cover/binding, and then people can either order the book from a bookstore or Amazon and have it within a few days. It seems to me that this type of print on demand solves tons of issues (not the least of which is finding a publisher).

 

[judexavier]

This month, something from the Earth-Romulan War. This depicts a cruiser -- the Meteor class -- that in the Federation Reference world, is the first commissioned vessel to incorporate advances in converging two weaker warp envelopes produced by two sets of small warp coils into one powerful warp envelope. Bracketing Meteor are Claudius Ptolemaeus, the last of the old monopole warp drive star ships, and San Francisco, a wartime cruiser built with two complete warp nacelles. In contrast, Meteor is mostly monopole -- single gravity sources fore and aft, and induction rings -- later called warp coils -- internal and amidships, to form the initial warp field. Once the initial warp field is formed, the ship has dual power stage induction cones to form twin envelopes that converge to produce the first human star ship capable of warp 3 speeds.

Obviously, in fleshing out the Federation Reference work of twenty-five years ago, I'm sticking to the sources used then -- TOS, TAS, TMP and early TNG. This design also owes some inspiration to the work of Rick Sternbach, namely his Patton from the Spaceflight Chronology. This narrowing of sources is not meant as a comment on any of the other series or movies, just a different way of seeing things.

http://home.comcast.net/~aridas/MeteorWeb.jpg

Wow. I love your "earlier" ship renderings; they certainly aren't just "concepts"...really well thought out. (Love the technology/engineering descriptions). One thing in particualr that I enjoy in your work are your color schemes, markings, (the "camo" pattern on that one ship); this really brings them to life. I second the poster, I would enjoy a real "book" that I could read while my wife is shopping

Wonderful work.

 

[aridas sofia]

Thank you all.

More than publish in print, I'd like to find the time to put together a website for everyone to visit. I would not object to making some of this material available in "on demand" form, but that would only come after a website, and that will only happen when... well, when I get around to it. The website will provide an organizational structure from which to spin off anything anyone finds desirable. I have laid out parts of it, but my time is available to me in such dribs and drabs that it doesn't leave me the luxury of protracted consideration of anything much deeper than dinner and the occasional star ship. The rest is learning theory and curriculum planning, teaching and worry about falling behind.

But hey, eventually.

 

[USS Mariner]

The Meteor looks like something I made a few years ago called Odyssey V, which adds the ring engine from the XCV-330.

Quit stealing hull designs from my mind.

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

Aridas - Always a pleasure to see more of your work. I look forward to the--eventual--website

 

[Sean_McCormick]

Great ship design! i love it and the pseudo-technical reasoning behind the design line (and of course the fact, that it ignores "Enterprise" ; ) )).

 

[aridas sofia]

Slowly but surely, I'm figuring out what looks better. This week -- the evolution of Constellation. Planned as a one-off bearing strong resemblance to both the Horizon and Archon classes, construction is halted early in the process and Constellation is finished to a modified plan.

What I have here is Horizon as well as Constellation as planned, as built and as rebuilt after twenty years service. Constellation is yet another attempt -- along with Kearsarge and Everest, America and Valiant -- to find a suitable cruiser/ heavy cruiser design for the 23rd century. The rebuilding of the ship in 2233 provides a strong link between both these classes and Constellation herself on the one hand, and the eventual Constitution design on the other.

Constellation evolution

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

Aridas - very nice work! I think i've seen you mention your ideas about the Constellations evolution, but I think this is the first time I've seen your illustrations of it. Very cool, as always.

 

[aridas sofia]

Since Bonaventure has been discussed in reference to some of the designs I've posted recently, I thought I'd pull out my old plan for that ship, dust it off and do a finished version. This is a sister ship. My conception is that the research prototype Bonaventure is the first attempt at dlilithium-fired circumferential warp drive, and as a result of the ship's loss, some minor tweaks are made to the following ships of the class. By my reckoning, Bonaventure would have been NCC-1120, so the class gets named for her sister ship, NCC-1121 -- Tritium (all these ships have been named for famous ships from Trek history). This is NCC-1122 -- Pathfinder:


(click the image for a larger view)

It's pretty faithful to the original side view. One of the things I did was interpret the ovoid-looking elongated B/C structure as being round with a dorsal extending atop the saucer thus accounting for the appearance of an oval. Another way to attack the problem was to interpret the overall elongated saucer as an extended impulse deck.

This shows the ship during trials, still carrying an NX number and prior to having her commissioning pennants affixed.

I know I've posted the line drawings of this design before, but I thought the discussion warranted posting these more finished renderings. Enjoy.

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

Nice job, Aridas! You have tweaked the design some, but it is recognizable as a class of the same general class.

One question. I know I asked about your and Carey's view of the Bonnie's registry number in the other thread, but I'm not sure I'm clear on how you arrived at NCC-1120 for the Bonnie's number when the episode shows it as 10281NCC, which I usually assume to have been the equivalent of NCC-10281.

Thanks for sharing this with us. I've always had a soft spot for this ship and, of course, always enjoy seeing your work

 

[aridas sofia]

Just as a quick point of reference, here is the ship the TAS Bonaventure was named to honor. While I like the Greg Jein model, I tried to come up with something a little different, and more in keeping with the evolution of warp drive I'm portraying. Still needs a few finishing touches.

From 2065:

 

[aridas sofia]

Nice job, Aridas! You have tweaked the design some, but it is recognizable as a class of the same general class.

One question. I know I asked about your and Carey's view of the Bonnie's registry number in the other thread, but I'm not sure I'm clear on how you arrived at NCC-1120 for the Bonnie's number when the episode shows it as 10281NCC, which I usually assume to have been the equivalent of NCC-10281.

Thanks for sharing this with us. I've always had a soft spot for this ship and, of course, always enjoy seeing your work

I like his interpretation of that number, and adapted it. I take it to be a research prototype that might never have been bound for commissioning.

"1" would mean it was built at the San Francisco Navy Yards.

"02" would mean it was built in 2202.

"81" would mean it was the 81st research prototype built by Starfleet.

The "NCC" would not have any number following it to indicate it had not yet been given a permanent hull number. "S.S." indicates "Starfleet Ship," and not "UFP Starfleet Ship" (U.S.S.). In other words, not yet commissioned.

By this reckoning, Bonaventure might have eventually been given an "NX" number, if the decision had been made to prepare her for commissioning. By my reckoning, the class represents Earth's eleventh basic interstellar cruiser type -- i.e. starship -- since XCV-330 in the 21st century, so it would get an NCC number in the 1100 range (though I have that numbering system already breaking down by the early 23rd century).

Convoluted, yes. But so is life.

I should say that I agree with the opinion others here have expressed, that the designs seen in TAS are sometimes crude approximations of what they would have been if seen on TOS. Bonaventure is definitely one of the cases where the weird shape needs to be interpreted in light of other Trek designs -- here, both the Constitution class and Reliant -- yet remain as faithful to the profile seen onscreen as possible.

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

Aridas -Thanks for explaining, that does make sense to me now

 

[aridas sofia]

And, here's where we are in this thread so far:

Star Ships 2160-2230

 

[Cary L. Brown]

Since Bonaventure has been discussed in reference to some of the designs I've posted recently, I thought I'd pull out my old plan for that ship, dust it off and do a finished version. This is a sister ship. My conception is that the research prototype Bonaventure is the first attempt at dlilithium-fired circumferential warp drive, and as a result of the ship's loss, some minor tweaks are made to the following ships of the class. By my reckoning, Bonaventure would have been NCC-1120, so the class gets named for her sister ship, NCC-1121 -- Tritium (all these ships have been named for famous ships from Trek history). This is NCC-1122 -- Pathfinder:


(click the image for a larger view)

It's pretty faithful to the original side view. One of the things I did was interpret the ovoid-looking elongated B/C structure as being round with a dorsal extending atop the saucer thus accounting for the appearance of an oval. Another way to attack the problem was to interpret the overall elongated saucer as an extended impulse deck.

This shows the ship during trials, still carrying an NX number and prior to having her commissioning pennants affixed.

I know I've posted the line drawings of this design before, but I thought the discussion warranted posting these more finished renderings. Enjoy.

Okay, that's more than a little scary... ie, that we both came up with nearly identical solutions for the same problem, but totally independently. The "fin" bit... the extended impulse bit... yep... scary.