tiny explorer

[LtCarter]

Apparently i am too old. The original reasoning for keeping the nacelles far away from ships hull (the big 3) were:
1: The bussards of this era produced radiation as mentioned earlier in the thread.
2: The bussards produced a lot of electrostatic energy which if too close to the hull would cause arcing. (aka lightning bolts).
3: Early warp nacelles did what the name implies, they heavily warp space (too close to the hull and you can even warp human tissue).
You also mention the Defiant, Defiant= different era different technology. Sorry if this is too old school.
Still i like the design as with most pre-TOS ships.

 

[MarianLH]

Looks fantastic.


Marian

 

[Cary L. Brown]

The God Thing said:

TGT

I PARTICULARLY like the fwd dish array approach you've taken here (which, perhaps coincidentally, is the same approach I've taken with my build-up of the NX-01... instead of one implausible funky-shaped oblong "dish" I put one large dish in the middle and flanked it with a pair of smaller ones.

This, then, becomes a throw-back to (1) the leading edge of the primary hull of the 1701 (I've always assumed that the trio of lights on the leading edge were active scanner beams), and is also somewhat reminiscent of the F.J. dreadnought.

I'm diggin' it. My advice... leave off the torpedos. This ship is too small for that. A trio of drop-bay cannon (one top-fwd, one top-aft, and one bottom-fwd) would be the most armament I'd give this little guy. Of course, it's your ship, so overgun it if you like...

 

[Wingsley]

If I read the bridge dome and the windows correctly, this ship has roughly seven decks. No?

If not, you may want to alter the window arrangement.

Have you picked out a name for this neat little ship?

If this is a Federation starship, you could put the Starfleet red stripe and pennant on the sides of the underbelly amidships behind the dish assembly.

Does this little ship have impulse engines?

 

[ancient]

Looks pretty neat. I like it.

Cary L. Brown said:
I PARTICULARLY like the fwd dish array approach you've taken here (which, perhaps coincidentally, is the same approach I've taken with my build-up of the NX-01... instead of one implausible funky-shaped oblong "dish" I put one large dish in the middle and flanked it with a pair of smaller ones.

So when are we going going to get to see it, Cary? Sounds interesting.

 

[Ghost Rider]

To me it reminds me of a fast scout or recon ship.

 

[Praetor]

That is freakin awesome... I only skimmed the thread so I'm not sure when this might be meant to fit in the timeline (if anywhere) but it suggests to me a post-Daedalus 2190-2210 period to me. LOVE IT!

 

[Michael_One]

Cool ship, I especially like how the retro details just look right on that hull shape.

Have you thought about dressing up the underside, maybe put in some resupply hatches?

Excellent work, I look forward to seeing more development.

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

SCaRa said:
actually the disc will stick out, it's due to be installed on tuesday.

Looks good man!

 

[Gepard]

Wow! I'm continuously amazed by the level of creativity and inventiveness to be found in the fandom. This ship beats half the professionally produced designs of the last decade of Trek all to hell and back. (Plus, if I'm not misreading the signals, you've got TGT's seal of approval---and that's not easily come by! :thumbsup: )

What graphic program are you using? The global lighting looks like LightWave...

 

[Santaman]

Hmm there is only one name possible... USS Microscope!

 

[Cary L. Brown]

ancient said:
Looks pretty neat. I like it.

Cary L. Brown said:
I PARTICULARLY like the fwd dish array approach you've taken here (which, perhaps coincidentally, is the same approach I've taken with my build-up of the NX-01... instead of one implausible funky-shaped oblong "dish" I put one large dish in the middle and flanked it with a pair of smaller ones.

So when are we going going to get to see it, Cary? Sounds interesting.

This is a LONG TERM project... I've got parts together and a plan, but not a completed model by any stretch of the imagination.

Basically, I have two Polar Lights NX-01 "big" models. One is for someday building "as stock." The other isn't, though.

My plans are to do the following:
1) Replace the aft ends of the nacelles with more "TOS-ish" elements.
2) Make the outside wall of the nacelle solid (but keep the inside as provided in the kit)
3) Replace/rework the little ... well, the "nodule" between the warp engines. Not sure WHAT i'm going to do with this, other than to make it look like something USEFUL instead of just "kewl."
4) Sand off much of the extraneous detailing, and give it a smooth skin. Probably also fill in panel lines, though I'm not committed to this yet.
5) Remove the visually-obvious RCS emplacements and make the hull edge smooth (we're talking a LOT of white Milliput here, I think!)
6) Replace the goofy "green bean shell" dish and put in, as mentioned above, three (one large, two small) dishes in it's place.
7) Give it a TOS-style paint job, with TOS-style windows (square with a few little round ones) and TOS/NASA-type markings.

This is a long-term project and I have no idea when I'll actually start building it. I do have the model and I do have the three dishes. The dishes are turned brass dishes for the 1701... the central one being a "pilot" version for the 22" kit, the side ones being "production" versions for the 18" kit.

I'm thinking I might make them a bit more visually distinct from the TOS ones by giving a set of three "stringer" reinforcements going from the edge of each dish to the tip of the spike, and possibly giving the back some sort of trusswork articulation frame (instead of it being a dish on a stick).

Whenever I start building it... even if it's years from now... I'm sure I'll post my pics, though.

 

[Praetor]

Cary L. Brown, I'm looking forward to this project! I thought of doing something similar with the smaller version of the model but been not so ambitious. I don't suppose I could convince you to do away with forward dishes and replace the mid-nacelle pod with an unmanned sensor pod with a big sensor dish at the front of it, could I?

Back to topic, I'm still excited to see more updates of the tiny explorer.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

It seems to me that the ancillary dishes would be of more use if they were placed instead on the sucer, in tiny alcoves, at about 20 after and 20 of.

 

[theARE]

Nice! Something like this would fit nicely between the NX-01 and the Daedalus class. The semi-spherical primary hull is just a step away from the Daedalus

 

[regemet]

This is one increadible ship. One of the best small ships I have seen.

 

[Wingsley]

A thought occurred to me: we never actually saw the SS Beagle on the TOS outing "Bread and Circuses".

SCaRA: what would you think of your ship being the SS Beagle?

http://www.memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/SS_Beagle