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Type-7 Shuttle Mk-1

The Axeman

The Axeman

Commodore
Commodore
Hi all, just thought I'd post this up as it seems a bit quiet here right now. This is my first bash at what is probably my favourite Trek shuttle, the Probert designed 'soapbar' type 7 from various TNG episodes.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4047/4295302403_635a8b8658_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2773/4296048508_08413afc4e_o.jpg

I know it's not accurate and it's based on the earliest version of the shuttle, but the early one with the blended in windows and markings looked the sexiest. The later ones with the tons of greebling and smaller windows looks a but lumpen and not as swoopy. I will probably come back to this in a little while and redo the body more accurately, but for now I'm happy enough to have this looking as it does. I'll upload it to my website later and then finish a couple of other projects before getting back to this.

That's it, as you were.
 
...The challenge is in the interior. Do we retain the supposed forward door in the middle of the bow (even if there are extensive display panels on the inside of this door)? Do we believe in an aft door (even though there appears to be an impulse engine set into it)? How big is this craft again?

Personally, I like the idea that the forward door was always there, just as planned. And the aft door might exist, too, but would be less often used, perhaps because it's part of an airlock system of some sort rather than a direct accessway. Impulse engine nozzles set into rather thin doors are a weird engineering solution, but one we have to accept for the Type-15 shuttlepods anyway...

The eventual Type-7, with the shorter windows and the apparent gullwing cargo doors to the sides, wouldn't need to be all that different from this model internally. Perhaps these sleeker babies are used at starbases for personnel transit, while the clumsier style is more multipurpose and better suits frontline starship use?

I sort of think that even this sleek version could have those boxy grille things on the cheeks, just below the cockpit side windows, though. They add some character to the "soap bar"...

Timo Saloniemi
 
When I was building it initially I sort of assumed it sould be a rear door, but when I read up on it there was the door in the front. I was surprised as hell when I looked for references and found the impulse engines where I thought the hatch would be. After more study I wouldn't even attempt an interior for this thing, there's been so many revisions and versions it's not worth trying. The terrible square one that showed up on set also changed things, so I thought the hell with it, I'll make my own version of the one I liked best.

I might still make one of the short windowed versions with all the paneling, but the swoopy racing lines of this one are always going to be my favourite.
 
Impressive work! It's not exactly an easy shape with all those organic elements (which really posed a problem to the guys who had to build a full-size version).

Would be great to have Andrew Probert give his opinion. After all, this design isn't turned into a 3D model that often.
 
I think his opinion would be "Jesus, that rough!" He'd be right, this is a rushed and rather iffy model. The drawing that is shown in the interview FalTorPan linked to is one I haven't seen before, and I wish I'd had it when I made my model. It shows all the areas where i went wrong with the shape and it would have made a great blueprint to work from.
 
It would be fun to see this version of the Type 7 with a full interior, as difficult as it would be to make. Probert made sketches on how certain things could be laid out. Perhaps those could be used in conjunction with the styling and coloring of the set seen on the show. :)
 
Nice one, another pic I've never seen before. :)

Where's the top door in that one then? I assumed it would just hinge upwards out of the way. It's supposed to have a display screen on it, they cant be walking over it, can they? it also shows the indentation running along the top which I have missed out, so I'll have to add that too when I redo it.
 
I don't have time to scan these pages, but if someone else does, then you will have some additional references. :)

Page 45 of Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Continuing Mission, by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, shows some of Probert's sketches of the shuttlecraft, including possible interior layouts for the aft section, the location of the warp core, and what happens to the front hatch's top section (it slides up like a garage door). The page also has a nice photo of the shuttle study model under construction. It's a beautiful thing.

Pages 86 and 87 of The Art of Star Trek, again by the Reeves-Stevenses, is a two-page spread of an unused painting for the TNG episode "Home Soil." The image features the shuttle with its front hatch open. The upper portion is nowhere to be seen, presumably because it has slid upward. The lower portion of the hatch has swung downward and is acting as an entrance ramp.

Probert's web site has a nice, recently made image of the shuttle departing a shuttlebay of the Enterprise-D. Probert is also selling a resin kit of the shuttle. And here is a color rendering of the shuttle in San Francisco.
 
The Axeman said:
Nice one, another pic I've never seen before. :)

Where's the top door in that one then? I assumed it would just hinge upwards out of the way. It's supposed to have a display screen on it, they cant be walking over it, can they? it also shows the indentation running along the top which I have missed out, so I'll have to add that too when I redo it.
Click to expand...

Looking at the color verison that FalTorPan links to in his last post, it looks to me that the upper portion of the front hatch retracts back into the roof of the shuttle.
 
^ Mysterion, is the Yorktown that you reference in your signature a fan group? Several years ago I was a member of a Cincinnati-based Trek club called the Yorktown.
 
FalTorPan said:
^ Mysterion, is the Yorktown that you reference in your signature a fan group? Several years ago I was a member of a Cincinnati-based Trek club called the Yorktown.
Click to expand...

Nope. It references a project I'm working on.

Never been to Cincinatti, but was a big fan of WKRP. :)
 
AAArrgrhh! More detail that I have never seen before. I have got the areas attaching to the warp nacelles all wrong too, not to mention the roof and doors (plural). Ah well, v2.0 will have these details added. In the meantime, I thought I better render a picture with the thing to see how it looked in its natural setting...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2733/4299419580_ce0a4448c2_o.jpg

It only took a couple of minutes to set up, but since I turned on radiosity to fill out the dark areas near the roof it took 50 minutes to render.
 
^ isnt that how inspiration, or discovery always happens??? just when you think you are done it pops its ugly head in and says "YOUR NOT DONE YET FOOL!!!" :guffaw:

but seriously, the scene looks great. my only concern is the intensity on the shutttle's white surfaces are a little too high. probably what you needed to get that good reflection in the front glass though huh? maybe 2 passes and shop the glass in with the highlighting?
 
Nah, I just need to tone down the diff and spec on the hull a bit and it'll be fine. With all the bouncing light created by the radiosity it's surface is way too bright, it was set up under more normal shots just using simple direct lights.
 
Where's the top door in that one then? I assumed it would just hinge upwards out of the way. It's supposed to have a display screen on it, they cant be walking over it, can they?
Click to expand...

Like already mentioned, the upper side was supposed to slide/roll aft along the ceiling. That shouldn't be a big problem even when there are displays there...

As for the dismal mockup seen in, say, "The Host", I guess we could simply decide that it represents a completely different shuttle type that happened to be sitting in the same hangar at the same time... A win-win situation, as we can then design the looks of that type basically from scratch! :)

Timo Saloniemi
 
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