Yeah, multi-level rooms are awesome. Next to that, I always find it a sign a designer knows what they're doing if he or she can pull it off; designing for more than a single flat plane gives a lot of designers a giant headache. I'd say you pulled it off just fine!
Aww why thank you! Well I built a brig and security area. Renders of that incoming, but first, a more up close look at the Arboretum. With four main points of entry throughout, the first level of the Aries Arboretum is accessible through a radial spur off the central corridors on Deck 4 and a turbolift access opposite that, partly for quick access from the rest of the ship, but also to accommodate those visitors and crew members with disabilities which allows for quick access between the two main levels of the Arboretum. When there's an event going on there, a turbolift is parked at the entrance to one of the two levels at all times to help facilitate this. Here the Captain of the Aries, Avril Galven, has pulled the Diplomatic Corps Political Officer aside to lay into her for her actions on board the Aries and to remind her just who is in charge of the ship. Accessible only by the stairs from either the first or second level of the Arboretum, the Observation Area in the Arboretum is kept mostly unlit so that those who wish to stargaze and observe the space outside the ship without using a monitor can do so. As there is little light here, the botanists on board have taken several underground varieties of plants from Andoria that have also adapted to thrive in a less hostile environment and have them growing in the area just behind the Observation Area. Yes, I know this area is dark. See stargazing comment and plant requirements above. With four main points of entry throughout, the second level of the Aries Arboretum is accessible through a radial spur off the central corridors on Deck 3 and a turbolift access opposite that, partly for quick access from the rest of the ship, but also to accommodate those visitors and crew members with disabilities which allows for easy movement between the two main levels of the Arboretum. When there's an event going on there, a turbolift is parked at the entrance to one of the two levels at all times to help facilitate this. Here the Vulcan head of the Science department on board the Aries, Lt. Commander Seleia, is overseeing a new addition to the central planter on the second level, a little plant known as the SnapDragon who apparently likes the attention of the Andorian crew member, Ensign Hira zh'Elann petting it. One of the Tellarite crew, Ensign Win, experiences the empathic surge from a Rigellian Tentapod as the ship's lead in Astrometrics, Lt. Jared Hames, wonders why he was brought along to put another plant in the Arboretum when he could be charting more stars.... Credits where it's due: Figures and clothing from DAZ Uniform textures by JamesJAB Ivy generated using Ivy Generator (hey it's free and works wonderfully!) Other plants available from DAZ
Thanks very much! I've got the cutaway for my next set rendered. More images to come with actual crew in them. Having launched in that awkward time where Starfleet was prepping to go for an update of all of the Constitution Class ships in the fleet, tentatively nicknamed Phase II, the Aries and the other Zodiac class ships were used as a testbed for some of the Phase II technology that integrated pretty well with a smaller Engineering space as well as a unique layout. This bolstered this little ships power output and allowed it to max out it's overall warp capability even further than expected. While some technology carried over, like the large energy conversion area in the back of the section, a new warp core was introduced along with new intermix methods as well as warp plasma transfer and matter and anti-matter housing. To provide easier access to the experimental systems, the floor was raised, allowing crew persons to get in faster as needed. Since the technology was somewhat experimental and untested, Engineering was limited to one entrance and exit and was given a set of reinforced doors to act like an airlock and seal off Engineering from the rest of the ship. Perhaps the biggest change was the miniaturization and centralization of so many of the ships systems to be handled by a beefed up Duotronic system at the heart of the ship which allowed for much smaller control stations to be used throughout the section. One of the last of the 'three' sets I've been working on for the Aries and probably the most changed up from what we saw in TOS/TMP. I needed it to fit a specific space and I didn't want it to look just like the Connie's Engine Room as this is a ship built 20 years later. I was actually inspired from some behind the scenes artwork from Star Trek Beyond for this one and I tried to TOS-ify it a little bit. Either way, I really like how this turned out. Only two more to go. One full set with 3 different configurations and another with only partial walls.
Yup. I like that combination of the two styles. Maybe change the floor to have some grated parts, as opposed to the solid floor it is now? It will feel more open that way and will allow the available light to permeate better.
Maybe in a refit. I do have some mesh holes I need to fill and fix so i can play with that then The Zodiac class uses a split core design that feeds into a central line and heads back into the main power conversion area. This design would lead fleet engineers toward the intermix set-up of the 2270s. While Not the first vertical set-up, this one was unique in that the Zodiac could power down one core and still maintain warp-capability albeit at a much lower capacity. In a hostile area like The Triangle, with Klingons, Romulans, several split factions, and Orion Pirates, this would be a very nice addition to what was going to be a long running campaign to try and bring the area into the Federation or at least as allies. Despite the size of Engineering, only a smaller crew is needed to keep things up and running. Designed to be as low maintenance and stable as possible with several layers of systems, the Zodiac is pushing the boundaries of the technology she was based on. Here, the Chief Engineer of the Aries, Lieutenant Commander Kendrick Kehoe is verifying what his eyes and feet are telling him; that the energy conversion system is running just fine. Lieutenant Hant is newer to the systems here, but as he told the Chief, a warp engine is a warp engine. He's just used to more Tellarite devised equipment. Lieutenant Alel just finished up her Gamma Shift report and is going looking for a proper cup of Vulcan tea. The forward section of the Zodiac Class Engineering contains the secondary warp system that feeds into the primary but is also responsible for power generation for the rest of the ship. The ship can operate with just one warp system active, but because the ship is designed to run off of at least one of these systems, the warp capability drops significantly. Up on an elevated platform are the auxiliary control systems for Engineering and also more direct access to the GNDN system that feeds out from Engineering to the rest of the ship. Here the Engineering crew is prepping for some emergency tests to make sure the ship and the crew is operating at peak efficiency. Credit where it's due: Uniform textures from JamesJAB Dynamic Mode Convert by GeorgeHaze
The crew came to the consensus a few weeks out that while the ship's decor was pleasant, the Aries needed a more personal touch and so some of the more artistic crew members began putting a few things together, but the Captain had something in mind for the walls of the briefing room. Something she'd been planning since before they launched from the starbase. The crew had thought it had just been for posterity, maybe Starfleet records, but she had other plans. I wanted something more personal to the ship for decorations other than the paintings from TOS that are going to crop up here and there, so I took the frames, flipped them so that they fit a more widescreen view, built a partial observation deck for a Starbase, dropped the Aries outside and did up four renders with all 40 of the crew spaced out over the four shots. A lot of work for a background set of wall hangings, but worth it. It's not always practical to beam down supplies directly to an area or hotspot. Sometimes you need overland transportation, and that's where the anti-grav MULE comes in. Easily assembled in a cargo bay, the MULE can be broken down to make room for other cargo or can be assembled and left intact as needed. Equipped with a modest cargo space, a tractor emitter on the front end for towing capability and an optional roll cage, the MULE can get your personnel where they need to be when transporters just won't cut it. I do have plans for the MULE, and yes there's historic significance and a personal one for the name. It's not elegant, but it's not supposed to be. Assembled from anti-grav-units, two portable fusion power units, a portable tractor emitter, some venting from Engineering and low-power impulse for thrust, the MULE is a combination of tech just sitting around the ship begging to be used in a different way. She's not pretty, she's not elegant, but she'll move your cargo and give somebody a tow. The Zodiac class tries to maintain some sense of personal space, but as a smaller ship it has smaller living quarters for its crew. Lower ranked crew members don't have to share rooms, but their personal quarters are a simple bed, a wardrobe and the bathroom with an optional chair. The Zodiac crew, outside their busy and rack time, is expected to use the lounges and other public areas on board to spread out a little bit and unwind. This is undecorated. This would be an empty room a crew member might walk into first day on the ship. The door does close, I assure you There is a shelf next to the bed that runs the length of the back wall (you'll see it in the Senior quarters below) for decorations and knick-knacks and other personal effects, but this is definitely cramped. At least they don't have to share. Department Heads and the more senior officers on board the Zodiac class get a more standard size set of living quarters on board the Zodiac. With a bedroom, office/lounge and a bathroom, these are closer to the regular rooms on board ships the size of the Constitution. With a lot more breathing room than the Junior quarters, as well as a decent lounge chair outside of the desk and chair combo of the office, there is plenty of room for personal effects and a bit of privacy when one gets woken up in the middle of the night by a department member and they need to get dressed. Tried to do something a little different with the space but borrowed the idea of an expanding set of quarters from the Motion Picture and TNG. In this case, instead of opening into an office and just having a moving wall to split it up, I'm moving the bedroom along away from the bathroom and opening it up that way. These are not the quarters of the Captain, the XO or visiting VIPs. Their cabins are even bigger. Although the Captain's quarters are the largest. Won't be sharing those probably until next week. Again, this is undecorated as I plan to decorate for each of my characters and save out each version as it's own file so I wanted a clean base to work with, which this is. Credit where it's due: Uniform textures by JamesJAB
Ok, I have to admit, I've never really liked the design of the shuttlepod from TNG. That being said, all of the sizing for this TOS shuttlepod are being mostly pulled from the TNG shuttlepod. Why? Because as a usable prop, the shuttlepod worked. I realized that the Aries/Zodiac class doesn't have room for a full blown shuttlecraft of the TOS era. But I wanted her to have an auxillary craft available. Where to look? Well we had the shuttlepods from Enterprise but I didn't want to go back and dip in that era when I've dropped myself firmly in the TOS aesthetic. So I've been building this one a bit more from the TNG design with a definite TOS style and shape to her. The seats are NOT mine. Got them off of Turbosquid, and while they're a bit more 'advanced' for the sports cars of the era, I think they work as safety seats a bit more than just cutting up the chairs I already have made up or cutting up the TOS chairs. Another week later and work on my little shuttlepod continues. One development is that it rests on a warp sled that can be swapped out for other mission specific pods on the bottom of the pod. In the case of this one I'm going to work on a workbee attachment that would replace the warp sled. I haven't designed it yet, so it might not show up for awhile. Things left to do: Handles on hull for doors (you won't see the handles themselves, but they'll have a place to put your fingers in to release the doors from the outside) Internal 'Pipes' for the back wall of the shuttlepod (modeling this off of the bigger TOS shuttle interior back end) a pair of non-recessed ceiling lights control console buttons Shuttle decals on the exterior
- This is a great idea, and I love that the roll-cage gives it a basic shuttlecraft silhouette! It kind of reminds me of that hover-transport thing that Mal and the crew ride at the beginning of Serenity, and also of a Mini Moke or some sort of beach/dune buggy thing. I was watching DS9 "Change of Heart" a month or so ago, and thought then that Starfleet could really do with some sort of small, low-power, ride-on transport (maybe only for one or two personnel) for those occasions when transporters are a no-no, and the shuttle/runabout/transport can't land in close proximity to the target site. It would have to be "flat-pack"/modular to enable storage in a shuttle, and even though it wouldn't necessarily be pretty, it would certainly save trudging miles and miles through forests/swamps/deserts/whathaveyou - just like your MULE - Another great idea! Definitely TOS style - and rather cute to boot. I'd much rather ride in one of these than one of the TNG monstrosities!
The MULE was DEFINITELY inspired by the same one from Serenity. That was the first thing that popped into my head when I was thinking of an anti-grav heavy duty tow vehicle. LOL The roll cage idea I actually stole from the Argo. The Argo buggy roll cage has the same shape as the shuttle, so I figured why not take the shape of the TOS shuttle and turn it into a roll cage. It's removable too so if I want to depict one that's been used and abused or smashed by local critters, it's easily done. Most of it's components could tear down to pack into about... four of the cargo containers I've got on the back end there. The rest are pilfered extra parts from ship stores for Engineering. Things you're not likely to need but you've got spares of. As for the shuttlepod, I haven't come up with a name for it yet. It might not get one. The Aries only has room for one, really, so she might just get the ships registry and some pinstriping. Might not even get that actually. Just the pinstriping. Haven't decided yet. I've finished the back end impulse and enviro controls and I'm decking out the helm console. Should be finished with the shuttlepod this week I think Exactly. Grew up in Western NY so I heard all about the Erie Canal on road trips with the family.
What better way to showoff the (mostly) completed (I had a request for lights on the warp sled) shuttlepod than with a quick little comic featuring two crew members from the Aries. Shuttlepod built in Truespace Rendered in DAZ Studio Figures are Genesis 3 Uniforms are V4 Courageous and M4 Valiant Uniform textures by JamesJAB Seats from TurboSquid
This is coming along nicely! I've always thought wood in starships is criminally underused, and if I ever do interiors, that is what I'll do. So I commend the choice to use it, and so well! I also like how you add characters into the scene. It helps with scale, and gives it more life.
Thanks! Intent is to actually use the sets I'm building to tell some stories using the character as well. And I do love wood in my ships if I think I can get away with it. Slowly filling out some of my characters and thought I might have need of some ship models in one of their cabins. Or it might even be an active ship that shows up at some point. Anyway, here's my start on a Kelvinized Baton Rouge While I love the name, I'm very much on the fence on the original design for the Baton Rouge class. Decided to try my hand at a version of it with some Enterprise and early Kelvin-verse influences to it. This is obviously still very rough and while I used MadMan's Kelvin-verse ships as a springboard, the detailing is going to go a very different way. I'm meshing canon and FASA sources, and while the dates very quite a bit depending on sources and date conversions, she shows up as early at 2196 and is in service as late as the 2270s. The Constitution class was introduced in 2245. This particular one will eventually represent the Hokkaido, a Baton Rouge in service during the Four Years War. The Captain of the Aries has been a Captain once before, the USS Edmonton, a Portsmouth class Heavy Destroyer originally built in 2225. The ship was retired by Starfleet Command after a severe beating from some Orion raiders in 2264 left her in need of massive repairs and the crew was re-assigned. That doesn't keep the Aries' Captain form keeping a memento of her first Captaincy on her desk though. I decided to keep the desk model a bit less detailed than a full blown build. That doesn't mean I'm not going to finish building her out at some point, just that she's not high on my list at the moment. This is not my attempt at a Miranda-class in TOS style. People other than myself have done some amazing things in that arena and I wanted to tread over slightly different ground. This is me trying to make a beefed up Destroyer that doesn't just look like the Saladin Class with extra parts slapped on. It just shares some Miranda design influences and some from Discovery as well.
Things I've done in this version: Completely re-worked the warp nacelles and bussards Carved out the shuttlebay landing strip and doors Added the shuttlebay control center Redesigned the neck and keel that attached to the secondary hull with a set of sensor strips depressions and room for a forward and rear torpedo launcher Added a re-enforcement of the hull in the neck that carries over to the secondary hull (this shows up more in the 1701 Refit, but is also there a bit in the original 1701) Cage Style Phaser (Yes PHASER) cannons Added some flat plating around the saucer rim to bring it more in line look-wise with TOS while keeping some of that NX-01 and Kelvin look
One of the last two sets I have to model on, the Cargo Bay. I'm working on a few trinkets for the Captain's quarters, but I should have that done in a day or two I think. The Aries cargo bay is located in the lower portion of the ships saucer, opposite the automated weapons system. With a cargo transporter, lots of storage space for a variety of items, the Aries uses some of the tried and true warehousing techniques used over the centuries. Here, two Operations officers are verifying that things are secured before the ship departs for Starbase 10. Modeling note, this is a partial set. There is no back wall to this so the number of angles it can be used from are more limited. I may finish it off at a later date, but for now, she's usable. While the Aries Cargo bay has the space and height to accommodate a full size shuttlecraft, the shuttlecraft size and safety regulations mark those uses as emergency only. Recognizing the need for a full time auxillary craft for the ship, a shuttlepod and attachments have been provided to the ship. This is all accessed through the cargo bay, whose external access has been modified to work as a launch platform for the shuttlepod. A forcefield emitter at the rear of the launch separates the main cargo bay from depressurization when cargo is being transferred or the shuttlepod is launching. Again, spartan and partial set construction that'll see limited use, but I wanted to at least have that available. Set and components built in Truespace Rendered in DAZ Studio Figures are Genesis 3 Uniforms are V4 Courageous Uniform Textures by JamesJAB
Thank you @Atolm ! =) Finally decked out one of those quarters sets for an actual character. Started with the Captain. Designed for visiting or hosting dignitaries, department parties on board, or just general everyday lounging and planning for the ship, the Captain's Quarters are the largest on board. With a large lounge, an office, along with the bedroom and bathroom, this set of quarters functions as the Captain's main refuge when the ship isn't in an emergency situation. Along with her own coffee dispenser for when she can't get to the Lounge, the hullward side of her cabin has a few of the standard abstract paintings for the era, but also a photo of her and her parents from just before she left for the Academy, a model of the Edmonton which was her previous command, a snapshot of the city she grew up in on Archanis IV before the war leveled it, and as she's a fan of holos and films a poster from one of her favorite films. She's also had her favorite color applied across the room instead of the standard red and beige. While the corridor side of her quarters are a bit more spartan on decoration, there are several stand-outs here. The first is a poster for the film that got her interested in getting off her home planet and seeing what was out there in the first place, a film her mother loved. The UFP banner here was recovered from a facility near her home on Archanis IV when they retook the planet while she was an ensign. The bat'leth is a reminder of one of the Klingons that had stayed on planet and refused to surrender to her. Our captain was surprised to find her father's guitar and restored amplifier system in storage and intact, and although she doesn't have his gift with it, she's taught herself a few songs on it. Built in Truespace Bat'leth by Dodger Guitar and amp from DAZ Rendered in DAZ Studio
The captain's quarters are brilliant! I love all the personal touches you've added, the colour scheme, wood (and actual wooden furniture) - and Galaxy Quest!!!