TOS Class F...

[Warped9]

Wow! Just, wow. I'm prepared to start modeling the forward console and while studying some screencaps I came to a surprising realization.

I had always thought, to this day, that the sloping forward bulkhead of the interior set was a simple flat panel all the way across from one side to the other. But on carefully scrutinizing a few screencaps I've realized that the forward bulkhead is not a simple and single flat panel, but rather three separate panels slightly angled to each other by about 2-3 degrees. This mimicks somewhat how the exterior forward hull was made. It also helps explain some of the shape of the forward console. It's such a subtle thing that it would be very easy to miss.

As such I have to remake the forward bulkhead of my interior that, fortunately, will not compromise anything else I've done and it will still fit easily into my exterior.

 

[Warped9]

A look at what the interior currently looks like. The next thing is to start putting in the chairs...of which I have to model one first. I can just see how much fun it will be to model such an irregular shape. Joy.

 

[spockboy]

Excellent work!

 

[Crazy Eddie]

I know you're modeling this at 27 feet and I understand the reasons why. But I am kind of curious to see what the model would look like -- with crew placed inside -- at the 22 foot scale of the mockup.

I mention this because something about the front window placement of the shuttle has always REALLY bothered me. With the 32 foot set, there's no real way for a seated crewman to see through them without standing up, which seems incredibly impractical to me. I realized a while ago that at 22 feet the windows are positioned at eye level for a seated pilot, even though the shuttlecraft would be tall small for a grown man to stand in (and probably too difficult to film anything with 1960s cameras, hence the enlarged interior).

Not suggesting you change the size of the model or anything. I'm really just curious to see what the interior would look like at 22 feet.

 

[Warped9]

A 22 ft. shuttlecraft would have quite a cramped interior. The ceiling would be less than 5 ft. (About 4'-10"). The interior would be something like a commercial van in size (something like a Ford Econokine). As for what it would look like refer to the interior image I posted earlier and imagine the ceiling a foot lower.

You would probably be able to see out front windows, but there would be absolutely no room for an aft compartment.

You have to remember the 22 ft. mockup was never intended to be the real size of the shuttlecraft. It was merely a filming substitute.

 

[MadMan1701A]

Those X-Ray renders are great... I need to figure out how to do that in Blender.

-Ricky

 

[Warped9]

Those X-Ray renders are great... I need to figure out how to do that in Blender.

-Ricky

It's a neat option that comes with SketchUp. It's one way of getting a feel for how things fit together. It reminds me a bit of some technical illustrations we've seen in books over the years.

 

[Warped9]

A quick X-ray look at the present interior. The chairs are a somewhat simplified version of the actual chair design simply because it was proving to be a huge headache to model the actual form. But the sizes are correct and it works for this purpose. I will note--like I said originally way back when I first started working on this adapted design several years ago--the chairs and the consoles sit a bit higher than what we see onscreen for the purpose of more realism. The chairs onscreen were set strangely close to the the deck so I raised them just a few inches.



I think I will make two different interiors. One will be the familiar 7 seat version and the other will be something else.

 

[MGagen]

I believe that I can explain why the chairs were so unnaturally low. When I interviewed Gene Winfield by phone several years ago, he told me that the interior was designed with a much lower ceiling, but that part way through, word came from Desilu to "raise the roof". This is why the front angle does not match the exterior: they "stretched" the top half of the set. It is also likely why the seats were built so low. With the planned lower ceiling, the chair backs would need to be low in order to shoot over them during filming.

I'm glad you're going with more reasonable level chairs.

M.

 

[Warped9]

I believe that I can explain why the chairs were so unnaturally low. When I interviewed Gene Winfield by phone several years ago, he told me that the interior was designed with a much lower ceiling, but that part way through, word came from Desilu to "raise the roof". This is why the front angle does not match the exterior: they "stretched" the top half of the set. It is also likely why the seats were built so low. With the planned lower ceiling, the chair backs would need to be low in order to shoot over them during filming.

I'm glad you're going with more reasonable level chairs.

M.

Thanks. That explains a lot. It also reaffirms my suspicion that the interior set was supposed to suggest something smaller. And now I know the set was supposed to be smaller, at least in height.

 

[Warped9]

First quick render of the interior to get a feel for it. I forgot to put the chairs back in, but I do like how the light panel worked out.

 

[Warped9]

For those who might not have seen it this is a great interview of Gene Winfield and his reccollections of designing and building the Galileo mockup and set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9otfhbqLoA

Some interesting things out of that video albeit some of which must be weighed with the fact that Winfield is recalling things from decades past and he might be misremembering certain details. In the interview he said the exterior mockup was 14 ft. wide and 28 ft. long. Well obviously it wasn't so perhaps he's recalling something else and just rounding off to the nearest figures. He does confirm that it was he and not Matt Jefferies who designed the shuttlecraft although, of course his ideas and design would have required MJ's approval. He does go on to explain (in general terms) how he and his group built the mockup.

Regarding the interior set all he says is that it was built in 4 ft. wild sections to facilitate filming. For me this raises the question that if it was built in wld sections then why was it really necessary to make the interior so large as to allow the actors the stand upright? Hmm...

 

[Warped9]

Presently I'm working on the forward console. When you study numerous screencaps from the various episodes you quickly realize the console evolved to a degree a certain elements were replaced or swapped out. To that end it's become a natter of choosing which elements I like best and using those. The controls panels don't impress as being really well thought out and if there's a logic to them then it escapes me. There are also a lot more lights than actual switches or knobs. Then again some of what appear to be lights could also be controls only it's not obvious. It strikes me the panels were not meant to be scrutinized and they had to make a only quick impression on a small or moderately sized CRT television screen of so-so resolution. On one console (the Navigator's console on the starboard side) is really nothing more than a large lighted panel with no obious controls or instrumentation. Yet it does create the impression of something futuristic. It can seem as alien and unfathomable to us as an iPad would seem to someone of the 19th to early 20th century.

When I tackle the interior of my Class H variant I'd like to incorporate some ideas that I think would have worked for TOS and could have looked rather cool. For the Copernicus I want to set it up as a vehicle fitted for a mission of some days duration with a three man crew. So there will be only three seats as well as a computer console in the style of the computer terminal seen in the Enterprise's breifing room. Since the mission is for several days then there will have to be sleeping arrangements for the three man crew. On the forward bulkhead I want to incorporate a wall sized display monitor to somewhat mimic the main viewscreen on the Enterprise bridge. This could also evoke the large viewport as seen on the TAS version of the Copernicus.

 

[Forbin]

Looking at the renders with the landing gear down makes me wonder - is there room for that hind foot to retreact into the hull anywhere?

 

[Warped9]

Considering the aft end is crammed with stuff and we're maximizing every inch available I would say there is zero room for that aft landing strut to retract into the hull. That said the aft landing pad could retract a bit when in flight and extend for landing.

 

[B.J.]

Regarding the interior set all he says is that it was built in 4 ft. wild sections to facilitate filming. For me this raises the question that if it was built in wld sections then why was it really necessary to make the interior so large as to allow the actors the stand upright? Hmm...

Maybe in practice it didn't work so well for them?

 

[Warped9]

I'm still tweaking it, but here is the forward control console lit up. Yes, I know there are some boo-boos that I made, but this is mostly for proof of concept.



A note about the ceiling. If you look at screencaps from the episodes the lighting panel will look wider in relation to the ceiling. But remember that I lowered the ceiling while still keeping the same shapes of the cabin and keeping the light panel the same width. So inevitably the result is that the ceiling will get proportionately wide as it's lowered because I kept the angle of the side walls the same. So that's why the light panel might look more narrow even though I kept it the same as it was originally.

 

[spockboy]

Excellent job!
Found this pic in my collection if it helps.

Spockboy

 

[Warped9]

Thanks, but I have that pic as well as scores of others including many screencaps I took from my DVDs when I was doing my shuttlecraft drawings several years ago.

 

[Warped9]

Here is a look at my evolving Class H interior concept. The forward bulkhead is a darkened panel that could look much like a flatscreen display turned off. When activated it can look like a large viewport looking forward. But, of course, it can display whatever desired and it can also offer other (and multiple) displays within the main display screen. Technically this could have been done on TOS except for one thing: time and money. In TOS' era this would have been quite an involved optical. True it's not really that much more involved than the main viewscreen on the Enterprise bridge except that in the shuttlecraft you would have live actors in the foreground in front of the image. Today it would be a snap. If TOS had managed this kind of idea back in the day it would have seemed magically hi-tech particularly for the shuttlecraft.



I updated the computer terminal on the starboard side behind the Navigator to look more mainstream TOS and less 1950's future tech.