Just in case anyone is interested in the modeling work going on for the Starship Ajax production, thought I would post a link to the VFX blog that we have set up. http://ajaxvfx.blogspot.com/ If people are interested I can also start posting images here as well - let me know if that is the case.
Hey. The Ajax looks good. The shuttle looks great. The thing that jumps out immediately is that the D5 does not even remotely resemble the D5 that appeared in ENT. Now let me make it clear that I know perfectly well what you guys are trying to do. You can ask Robert; I've been chatting with him now for years in forums. Furthermore, I wish that ENT had been something else than what aired. Robert might or might not know that. I try to avoid talking about ENT, because it hurts so much to think about. My point is, why don't you guys just dodge the whole issue of a canon conflict and call your model the D6? That gives you the space you need to depict something more primitive than a D7, that's never been seen before on screen AFAIK.
I would like to agree, but I just did a Google Image search for the Klingon D6, and there are no less than two different designs that already use that name. I would prefer it if there wasn't a third vying for that title.
To my knowledge, the D6 has never been used canonically in an episode or film. The classification D6 is fair game. Besides, many of those images resemble Ajax's Klingon model reasonably closely anyway.
I really like the idea of a sister-station to the TOS K-7. I look forward to seeing more of this. Interesting progress on the Ajax. Where will you put the Artemus' hangar at?
Thanks for the feedback guys! To answer some of the questions... The D5 is actually based on the version featured in Star Fleet Battles. And as rendered by Adam Turner. The idea is to keep Ajax in the 60's mileau as much as possible, and our Executive Producer is also a mad keen Star Fleet Battles fanatic. As to the location of the shuttle bays - if you look at this image, you will note symmetrically placed doors on either side of the impulse deck - these open onto two compact shuttle 'balconies'. They are meant to be small and cramped in comparison to the Enterprise's cavernous hanger bay.
If you were gonna go with that reason, pretty much all of the obvious class names for Klingon ships are already taken. Heck, SFB and FASA alone probably used most of them.
The "Where No Man Has Gone Before" version of the Ajax is quite striking, IMO. Though I'm not a fan of single-nacelle STAR TREK starships, (used to be) this de-evolved Ajax really tickles my fancy. The only question in my mind is how the revised Ajax would look in the "orbit test shot" animation with the larger dish more effectively obscuring the nacelle. The previous version of the Ajax almost looked like separated saucer section of a Connie because of the dish. How does this newer version look? The "cheese grater" aft nacelle cap looks great. It gives this design a more industrial look.
@Wingsley Good observation. I'll have to plug this version of the Ajax in to the Orbit animation and see how it looks. Although the plan is to recreate a lot of the 'classic' TOS VFX shots, I suspect there will be a degree of experimentation to work out the 'beauty angles' of the single nacelle designs as compared to the trusty 1701 configuration.
It might be a good idea to experiment with different view angles, mimicking at least some of the TOS beauty shots, particularly action ones. You will likely discover some things work like in TOS, but other's might not work because the overall shape of the ship you're working with here is different. I have no doubt this will affect how the Ajax looks in video, particularly when it is being shown in motion. There is, of course, the most common one of all: the sail-off-into-the-sunset shot which made its debut in "Where No Man..." That one will likely be straightforward enough. More of a challenge will be the over-the-shoulder shot used in the first two years of the show. Another common beauty/action angle that might be more kind to the Ajax would be the deep-space-warp-flyby shot. The other major flyby angle would be in the title segment of "Balance of Terror", we'll call this the glory-deep-space-flyby because the Enterprise is apparently "elevated" in the shot. Another flight shot to consider would be a pulling-away shot, which also made its debut in "Balance of Terror" if I'm not mistaken. One shot that may be most kind to the Ajax would be the venerable orbit shot, which made its debut in "Where No Man..." My all-time favorite angle is not an action angle: the look-through-the-ship-from-behind shot, a year 2 and 3 staple. This angle is the best because it conveys the size of the ship and gives a you-are-there perspective. This angle also lent itself to an action shot I call banking-from-behind. A couple of TNG angles that would likely be useful to the Ajax project would be the face-off angle, which is great when the ship is stopped by an "unknown" discovery, and a close relative to the TOS over-the-shoulder shot might be TNG's closeup-in-flight-tagalong shot. It will be interesting to see what you come up with!
Monodox, This is great stuff! Thank you for letting us have a peak at the Ajax "in progress". As I am a big fan of the FJ style destroyer, is there any way we can get a large, higher res picture that could be used as a screen saver/desk top? Best regards, Chuck
John, The reason why I chose not to call this Klingon ship a D7 is due to the D6 in SFB is on the same hull as the D7, but is less dressed out internally in weapons and other systems. ( But still virtually the same in the overall fighting strength of a standard D7...) And due to this when I chose to have this ship modeled I wanted not the traditional D7 we saw in TOS, but wanted something as close as possible to maintain the consistancy of the look but stay faithful to the TOS klingon design so as to not deviate from it. IN short the FASA and FJ designs are incompatible with each other and are like oil and water...they do not mix. When I began plotting the second episode of Ajax I knew a traditional D7 would mop the floor with a Fed DD....which breaks down as Fed DD and the D7 are almost a even match in heavy armament, but the power balance is almost 2 to 1 in favor of the klingon. ( 30 warp for the D7 to the 15 for the DD ) So this means the DD can have enough power to fight and not run, or run but not fight a heavy opponent. So I looked to a solution where the Ajax would come head to head with a ship that is 2/3 of the capabilites of a D7...which is a D5 light cruiser. ( 24 warp for D5 verses the 15 warp for the Fed DD. Mind you the Fed DD has a 1/2 movement cost verses the 2/3rd movement cost of the D5. So the favor is still for the klingon. But if you notice the D5 on the SSD is not as a robust damage sponge that he D7 is, and is almost equal to the Fed DD in that regard. So in a first strike option the Fed DD can handily take down a D5 in a well executed surprise....if played very cut-through and very aggressively.... ) So now the Ajax would be a equal match in firepower but still come up short by around 1/3rd in power available allocation against the klingon ship. So to fix this means that the commander of the Ajax will have to aggressively punch above his weight with a deliberate offensive strike management of his ship instead of a defensive management ( as mostly seen in TOS ) in his tactics. But that approach is gutsy and tricky at best to pull off given the disparity at face value between the Fed DD and a Klingon D5. And thus the story in a tight situation would force the captain into such a bad position to mandate he fight like a mad badger and not a cat with kittens as we saw in TOS. Hope the clarifies what my reasoning has been as to why the klingon ship is this way. Other than that i want it to look just like it was done in 1968 in TOS. Simple as that. But I have been somewhat hands off to let Bill model it in a way that he is free to put his personal spin on the hull design. There are some things i like about it and some I don't. but overall I think Bill has what I am looking for in what he has modeled, and I don't really feel enclined to meddle with what he is doing with the CG model. . .
I'm an SFB player from way back. Back in the early 90's I commanded three ships in a Gorn battle group that actually won "Assault on a Starbase." Of course the Romulan base self-destructed as we started sending over boarding parties... Rommie bastards. Anyway... I agree with your reasoning behind the D5. A D7 is just way too much of a big dog in comparison to a DD. Should Ajax get forced into an encounter with a D7, Ajax is going to have to pull a serious rabbit outta their hat just to stay in space. Klingon ship-building mentality is very different, and the D5 should be able to take a lot more damage than a Fed DD. I hope that you'll be basing your Klingons off of Commander Kor's more samurai-like version and not TNG's drunken headbangers. I'm glad to see you going with a smaller ship. I've been saying for a few years now, that Trek has made a mistake increasing the size of the ship, with all those extra resources available they're not giving their people a chance to step up and overcome challenges. If you look at the TOS Ent, externally it was the size of a WWII aircraft carrier, but internally it was probably the size of a cruiser. It had a crew of close to 450, but divide that into standard duty shifts, and figure out how much of that was engineering, and you'll see that Kirk was pretty hamstrung. I suggest you take a look at the Australian series "Sea Patrol" for some ideas on how to deal with a smaller ship and smaller crew. And actually, even though I live in northern IL, I'd really like a chance to try out for the crew.