The End of Kitbashing? (JJverse Ship Concept Thread)

[Johnnymuffintop]

Seeing as how the new Universe is, most likely, going to only be movies, not a TV show. They're going to have a much larger budget and longer periods of time to design ships. There probably is going to be little to none kitbashing.

That being said, lets get started on a discussion of possible design concepts for future JJverse ships.

IMO, the large ships will have a very graceful, fluid look, while the small auxiliary craft will have an almost "Halo" look to them. What are your thoughts?

EDIT: ARGH! I mistyped "thread", now I look like a douche. [I fixed it for you - Ptrope]

 

[GilmourD]

Re: The End of Kitbashing? (JJverse Ship Concept Theard)

I think that won't stop kitbashing as... Well, I think the concepts of Starfleet ships are still fairly modular.

 

[judexavier]

Re: The End of Kitbashing? (JJverse Ship Concept Theard)

Yeah, I've thought about that as well. The "nuTOS" era ship(s)? have a very integrated design which might make casual kit bashing more difficult to pull off. Madman has of course done a bit of this with the Miranda, which looked great (although the TWOK Miranda seems almost as established as the E nowdays, as opposed to "kit bashed"). One approach might be to use/design a more conventional ST concept, then apply the JJ-style over it. Or, one might consider the saucer and humpy nacelles as standard modular parts, and design a custom secondary hull for each ship. (I also think you could get away with toning down the humped cowled gigantic nacelles, without losing the "look"...different "classes" of nacelles?).

I think the the smaller craft could have been a little more curvy/aerodynamic looking, for no other reason than to fit in better design-wise. That chunky angular winged/jet pod shuttle thing...I still don't care for it. To me, it looks kit bashed! IMO of course.

Another thing that intrigues me is the designs of ships between the Kelvin era and Enterprise...the distant ship visible in the starbase shot, the huge mass of ship remains in the battle scene...(they appear to my old eyes to be very Kelvin-like).
It might be that the "Kelvin" look has been a long-time norm for JJ Starfleet, and the Enterprise is a radical new departure.

 

[JoeZhang]

Re: The End of Kitbashing? (JJverse Ship Concept Theard)

Seeing as how the new Universe is, most likely, going to only be movies, not a TV show. They're going to have a much larger budget and longer periods of time to design ships. There probably is going to be little to none kitbashing.

Are there any physical models to kit-bash with to start with? It's all CGI isn't it?

 

[Praetor]

Re: The End of Kitbashing? (JJverse Ship Concept Theard)

Madman also did those Franz Joseph style ships...

 

[Johnnymuffintop]

Re: The End of Kitbashing? (JJverse Ship Concept Theard)

...Enterprise is a radical new departure.

Aren't they all? Each Enterprise has been at the forefront of ship design, but that's mostly because the designers (of the series, not the "actual") took longer to design each Enterprise (since it was the focus of each show/movie, they'd spare no expense.)

And even if a ship is essentially the same layout in JJStarfleet, each one will probably look unique. I'd compare it to being like the JJPrise and Judexavier's "Very Confused Enterprise Concept". It still the saucer, engineering, nacelle layout, but it has it's own look.

When designing/redesigning a JJship, you've got to do a bit of research, find the tech of the era, the reasoning behind why it looked the way it did (mission and designer's inspiration), and what could you use from the time (real time, not Trek-time) as inspiration (like how the JJPrise looks like a 50's car)

As for the shuttlecraft, I like the "delorean" look of these new ones, feels less like a model flying around. I never really liked the TNG shuttles, too round and bulbous, I love the TNG movies ones, feels much more aggressive. Also, the hard angles look makes sense for a small ship, even with replicators, you don't want to have to take a month to build a new shuttle if one is lost or destroyed.


Wow... I think that's the longest post I've made.
Anyway, back to your thoughts, are we entering a new era of ship design, or are we forever to just reuse the parts of other ships to save time/money?