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TAS made real....

My initial idea was to go strictly with antigrav, but there is indeed a compact impulse drive tucked discreetly under the aft hull between the aft landing struts. I was able to do that without altering the overall design because that subtle fantail cutout shape under the rear half of the craft allows for something not clearly seen on the original TAS version.

 
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It has like a runabout feel to it. I love it.

I agree.

We also don’t know if the naming practice extends to starbase based auxiliary craft as well. While it was produced thirty years later DS9 adopted the practice of naming outpost based runabouts. This might not apply to TOS because it could be seen as retconning and a runabout looks to be a larger and somewhat more substantial ship than a shuttlecraft.

Based on the HxWxL figures (~3 times longer, >4 times wider and >2 times the height), the Danube-class is vastly larger in volume than the Class-F, but I'm not sure how that compares to the TAS model on this thread.
 
That would put it about the same size and shape as the Delta Flyer or the E-E's Type 11 shuttle. So pretty much a single role version of the runabout.
 
It’s always amused me how they could “fit” all these larger-sized heavy shuttles in the TAS landing bay. :lol:
Sure, given they way oversized the hangar in TAS. No way that would fit within the Enterprise’s secondary hull. But scale is something TAS artists were often loose with.

Back in the day I loved the idea of the Enterprise having different types of shuttlecraft. But as I thought about it more it didn’t take long to figure out it couldn’t work as shown. Still fun at the time.
 
My initial idea was to go strictly with antigrav, but there is indeed a compact impulse drive tucked discreetly under the aft hull between the aft landing struts. I was able to do that without altering the overall design because that subtle fantail cutout shape under the rear half of the craft allows for something not clearly seen on the original TAS version.

AHA! You sneak! :lol::lol::lol::lol:
 
I've got some numbers for the curious.

Lenght Overall = 39.210 ft.
Width Overall = 17.863 ft.
Height Overall = 10.37 ft.



I pegged my take on the Class F shuttlecraft at about 27 ft. LOA so this makes this TAS scoutship about twice the overall size of the Class F. So while you could fit iinto a starship's hangar you would have to clear the bay first. And there is no way the scoutship could be lowered down below the flight deck for storage with the standard Class F shuttlecraft.
 
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I disagree with your size comparison - 39 is about half again bigger than 27, and this has a protruding snout and dangling nacelles. I think if you put them side to side at scale, the body of this shuttlecraft minus its nose would be similar to the Class F.
You would still run into fit issues on the flight deck, but I don’t think it is quite as bad as you are making it out to be.

Have you considered coloring it in the same two-tone gray as the Class F?
 
I disagree with your size comparison - 39 is about half again bigger than 27, and this has a protruding snout and dangling nacelles. I think if you put them side to side at scale, the body of this shuttlecraft minus its nose would be similar to the Class F.
You would still run into fit issues on the flight deck, but I don’t think it is quite as bad as you are making it out to be.

Have you considered coloring it in the same two-tone gray as the Class F?
I know it’s not twice the length of the Class F, but it is wider and taller as well. Now I did use the Class F as something of a baseline in terms of size. More specifically I used the general dimensions of the Class F’s interior then sort of built the scoutship out from there. Now my take on the Class F doesn’t have a 7ft. ceiling, but the scoutship does. That allows for scaling the scout down a bit if you want a lower ceiling more like the Class F. But since the scout isn’t supposed to be a ship based craft anyway you might as well give it the more spacious interior, including a cabin distinctly longer than the Class F.

Now the cockpit of the scout would be elevated a bit to allow the pilot to look straight out the viewport. In the past I’ve modeled such an interior setup so I know it works.

No, I never seriously considered the two-tone colouring for the scout. It works on the Class F because of that physical detail of a rim separating the upper and lower halves of the craft. But the scout doesn’t have such a physical detail so I felt it looked better painting the hull all one colour of the same light grey used on the upper half of the Class F.

Part of me could see going really to town on detailing these TAS designs, but this exercise is more along the lines of working what miniatures could look like that could pass muster onscreen.
 
Going back to the "notch" across the lower length of the forward windshield: could it be the protective window screen/hatch that rises up out of the hull. It includes partial side window protection in the piece. Perhaps, roll up side window screens are also included. The Class F Shuttlecraft had three window screens which rose up, so, there is precedent. YMMV :).
 
Interestingly I believe interior shots of the scout don’t show a wraparound viewport so maybe parts up it can be covered with a screen.
 
Not for the first time I've been thinking about the nacelles, particularly the nacelle domes.

Traditionally many people tend to colour their nacelle domes red. They did it in TAS as well.

But here's the thing--in TOS the only red nacelle domes we saw were on the pilot Enterprise, and they were actually a kind of brownish wine colour that looked somewhat wine red on the screen. The revised series production Enterprise had domes that were rather multicoloured, but looked prodiminantly amber or light amber. The only other nacelle domes we saw were those of the shuttlecraft. Originally the idea was to light those domes in similar fashion as the 11ft. Enterprise miniature, but they then ditched the idea due to cost. As a result the shuttlecraft nacelle domes are a kind of milky white.

The TAS scoutship was shown with red domes, but going by TOS' precedent, unless I want to mimic the pilot Enterprise, then the scout's nacelle domes should be amber or even white particularly if I want to mimic the Class F shuttlecraft.

I'm going to experiment with this.

Thoughts?
 
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Three different looks for the nacelles domes. Top image has them similar to the domes of the 1st and 2nd pilot Enterprise. Middle image mimics the nacelles domes of the Galileo shuttlecraft fullsize exterior mockup. Bottom image evokes the amber like nacelle domes of the lighted series production Enterprise.



If the nacelle domes were lighted I think I would lean toward the amber. But as a solid colour I find myself liking the white primarily because it's more like the Galileo exterior mockup.

Thoughts?

Note: I found a shade of gold closer to what I initially wanted for the triangles under the bow. I also added a small gold coloured detail on the nose to replace the out-of-place-looking dish seen on the original drawings.
 
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I 'd say the orange.

I know there is debate whether the Class F is low warp capable, based on either "The Menagerie" or "Metamorphosis" (I say in my head canon that it is), but this shuttle is named as a scoutship, which implies a long-range vessel, so it should definitely be warp capable.

Hence invoke the appearance of the Enterprise warp nacelles.
 
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Cool!:cool::cool::cool::cool:

I want to say add a couple of panels, to suggest access to electrical circuits like the Class F has at the rear.

Not sure if needs the the registry/Starbase numbers at the rear. They look fine everywhere else, but fussy there. Also, I know the door is slightly darker than the main hull, but does it need a hint of a seal as well?

I like the gold you chose for the triangles at front, but still it might look better on the cones at the end of the triangles instead, with the triangles a slightly darker grey than the hull. I think that would suggest additional sensor capability, as well as the gold greeble on the nose.

But what ever you decide, amazing work again. I can hear TOS music used as the Enterprise approached camera over these images if this had been a Season 4 live action episode! :):):):)
 
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