The Return of MSPaint...

[sojourner]

So. your adding nacelles to the saucer? Because the warp core by itself does not generate a warp field. It just provides power to the nacelles.

Edit: The Aventine is QSS powered and even had it's own book trilogy.
http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Vesta_class

 

[Belisarius]

Not nacelles in the traditional sense, no. The secondary system will be inactive when not in use. A backup...nothing more, nothing less. Subsequently, I'm planning on having either retracting units only revealed during separation, or blow-out panels over pseudo-nacelle modules throughout the saucer's hull to evenly distribute the warp field (I'm leaning toward the latter, from a design and engineering standpoint...not to mention the fact that it'd look damn cool on-screen).

Nothing external, nothing overt. Certainly nothing dangerous to the crew (even when inactive). The system would take a certain amount of time to engage, obviously; that startup sequence would have to match the duration of separation protocol, if not beat it outright.

Besides...adding nacelles would just f*** up her lines something fierce, and I'm not about to do that.

I also toyed with the idea of running secondary conduits from the secondary core...and tapping those power runs into the primary system at killswitch junctures. You know...a way of shunting power from the secondary core to the primary power runs just in case the primary core were to suffer malfunction, or ejection during a breach. This would allow the ship to remain in one piece, but still have limited warp capability (nothing greater than warp five, I should think...perhaps not even that much).

To be honest, one of my favorite design mantras is redundancy, redundancy, redundancy...which is, in itself, quite redundant.



Edited to add: Thanks for the QSD info, sojourner...I'll keep that on the table. Actually, I was just thinking earlier today about which year/decade this ship should occupy, in terms of the completion of the first prototype (U.S.S. Legacy, NX-80248). If I were to plug her in some time after 2380 or 2381, I think it would be safe to use the QSD as her primary propulsion system. Still not sure, though. I think I may have to look into the Aventine's novel trilogy as well. Thoughts on this particular topic, anyone?

Oh...almost forgot. The secondary warp core will be mounted longitudinally. I know the last time I raised this particular detail, a long time ago in Trek Tech, people started frothing at the mouth. My only response at the time is the same one I use now: which axis offers more clearance for a long, narrow module of this type? With modern gravity manipulation, does up/down relative to the outer hull really concern you that much, or affect M/AM reaction? Logically?


~Belisarius
---------------------------
"All life is struggle, from first breath to last."
- Anonymous

 

[sojourner]

Why would anyone care about the orientation?

 

[JarodRussell]

The top view looks a little too squashed.

 

[Belisarius]

^
Which dimension?

Why would anyone care about the orientation?

That's a good question. I think the objections stemmed from a somewhat rigid traditionalist view of warp core design. We've always seen them mounted vertically in a shaft through multiple decks in starships of any significant size. The idea of a core mounted along the ship's horizontal axis just didn't sit well with some (even though that's the most logical way to do it in a saucer section, especially one this "vertically challenged"). I think I'll take a look at modern M/AM systems design at some point and draw up a schematic of the secondary core, maybe the power systems...definitely the saucer warp field conduits. Later.


~Belisarius
---------------------------
"All life is struggle, from first breath to last."
- Anonymous

 

[Albertese]

You're on solid ground with a horizontal warp core. The DS9 TM shows quite explicitly that the Runabouts had horizontal warp cores. And if we're talking about a linear intermix model like on the TMP ship, the core vertical from the fuel tanks below to the impulse engine above and also horizontal from the vertical shaft to the split off up the pylons. (In the TMP set-up the reaction has been described to take place along the full length of the shaft, using some sort of dilithium layer on the inner surface.) Also the NX-01 core was inarguably horizontal.

So go for it! One more horizontal core won't hurt anyone.

--Alex

 

[Belisarius]

Another minor update (dorsal view only).

I'm still trying to decide what to do graphically with the remaining "blank" areas...some of which I want to leave deliberately sparse. Open to suggestions.


~Belisarius
---------------------------
"All life is struggle, from first breath to last."
- Anonymous

 

[Kaiser]

small phaser strips or 23rd century looking turrets?

or Sencor emplacements are my only ideas

Still looks awesome though

 

[Belisarius]

^
Good suggestions. I think those reddish, star-shaped objects might function well as point-defense phaser arrays. Maybe. Not sure if I'm overpowering her. Then again, I've only got the one Type XII edge array...


Yet another relatively small update, but the dorsal view is really coming together. Almost finished, I think. It's funny...I was concentrating so hard on viewports that I forgot lifeboat placement! Which I fixed in this version. Also updated the lateral view to reflect changes made in the top view.

~Belisarius
---------------------------
"All life is struggle, from first breath to last."
- Anonymous

 

[erifah]

...Once upon a time I used to whip up starship and shuttlecraft concepts using only MSPaint...

I don't think there's anything wrong with MSPaint. It's just a medium, like watercolors. A talented artist can do things with it. Heck, a talented artist can do things with the burnt end of a stick rubbed up against a rock.

 

[sojourner]

^Like kill people.

 

[Tiberius Jim]

Ah yes, MSPaint. I have fond memories of drawing ships from scratch and of course the old ShipKits. Good times.

I'm liking the way this is going with one exception; I would recommend making the nacelle pylons smaller where they meet the secondary hull a la Constitution Refit. As they are it makes them look a little chunky and being smaller at the base would streamline them nicely.

 

[Kaiser]

I use MS Paint to make my ships from Vance/Jaynz's ship kits

 

[erifah]

Ah yes, MSPaint. I have fond memories of drawing ships from scratch and of course the old ShipKits. Good times.

Back in the day, MS Paint was all we had, so we made do. Then, I got my hands on a copy of Paintshop Pro, and used it in addition to MS Paint, to do stuff like this:

Yes, the lines are "steppy"; such is the nature of MSPaint. But it was fun while I was becoming familiar with this whole world of digital art. Someday it might be fun to find some time, and use it as a template over which I construct a vector drawing.

 

[Kaiser]

Ah yes, MSPaint. I have fond memories of drawing ships from scratch and of course the old ShipKits. Good times.

Back in the day, MS Paint was all we had, so we made do. Then, I got my hands on a copy of Paintshop Pro, and used it in addition to MS Paint, to do stuff like this:

Yes, the lines are "steppy"; such is the nature of MSPaint. But it was fun while I was becoming familiar with this whole world of digital art. Someday it might be fun to find some time, and use it as a template over which I construct a vector drawing.

Awesome Looking Design there

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

I really like this one! Thanks for sharing it!

 

[Belisarius]

A seemingly small, yet significant update...the addition of the forward view. Took no small amount of banging my head on the desk to knock it out, mainly because this ship class has a more exotic engineering hull cross section than usual. I think it's pretty close. Feedback very, very welcome here.

The coloration of the deflector array is not finalized...I think I'm going to go with something closer to Enterprise-A from Star Trek IV. You may also notice the forward ventral torpedo laucher below the deflector dish. Both the forward and aft ventral launchers are located along the same lateral axis in the belly of the ship, fed from the same torpedo magazine. Due to their placement, the dorsal launchers will have separate magazines. The hull plating/armoring over these areas is significantly heavier (as are the internal structural members), for obvious reasons. I am contemplating some kind of system similar to the M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank...where the ammunition compartment explodes outward, away from the crew, if it takes a hit. Then again, not sure if it would do the ship any good with all that antimatter in each magazine.

And I took your suggestion, Flux Capacitor, regarding the nacelle pylons. Especially after I realized that the point where they joined the nacelles themselves interfered with the inward segments of the warp engine field grill. Thanks for the input!


~Belisarius
---------------------------
"All life is struggle, from first breath to last."
- Anonymous

 

[Kaiser]

Awesome update on this buety

 

[Belisarius]

Thanks. My ultimate goal for this project is to make the transition from 2D schematic to 3D model. Not quite sure how I'm going to do that, as I know absolutely nothing about modeling (and probably won't have the time to learn to my own satisfaction), but that remains my great hope. I really want to see this thing in three dimensions.


~Belisarius
---------------------------
"All life is struggle, from first breath to last."
- Anonymous

 

[Tom Riley]

I really like this design! Great work with MSPaint too!