USS Sandy Springs Old-Style Blueprint

[Veridian]

When I was a kid back in the 1970s, I wanted to be a starship designer. So, I was. My mom was a draftswoman, so she taught me how to use the tools of the trade. I spent hundreds of hours at drafting tables drawing designs for fanciful spaceships, most of them in the Trek universe. In late 2012, I found the box of all these old drawings in my attic. Wow, I was a fair draftsman at 13!

Here's one of them, the USS Sandy Springs, a Federation starship that I drew in April, 1979. I remember being inspired by the four-podded light posts in a shopping center parking lot. I had intentions to draw a complete set of plans for this ship, as I really liked the look. Not sure what kind of ship it would have been, but it was small and very fast with huge engines!

http://starshipdesigns.tumblr.com/tagged/USS-Sandy-Springs

Thought all of you other starship designers who as kids drew pencil starships on the backs of school notebooks would enjoy this.

 

[Kaiser]

Looks cool im following you now on tumblr

 

[Albertese]

Sweet! Those are nothing short of awesome.

--Alex

 

[scotpens]

Your draftsmanship is amazing, especially considering your age at the time. That particular design looks like it would be more at home in the Star Wars or Gerry Anderson universe than the Trekverse.

 

[blssdwlf]

Nice and bookmarked!

 

[publiusr]

Those are what blueprints should be.

 

[Klaus]

Very cool! Brings back my high school drafting classes...

 

[JES]

At first glance, it reminded me a little of the Palomino (from Black Hole).

Very good work for someone who was 13 at the time, and crinkly paper aside, the quality of the work is almost on par with some official schematics, such as the Detroyat class (many members of which unfortunately claim the same registry numbers as those used by the Sandy Springs class).

About my only pet peeve is the fact that some members of the class have lower registries than the class ship, canon examples of which have caused enough debate as it is.

Now I'm curious to see what you could do now, which would likely be even more impressive.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

^ It's not crinkly paper. Parchment maybe.

The lettering/line on a given crease is not distorted like it would be if the paper was creased.

 

[Veridian]

Thanks everyone. The paper was onion skin, and is very creased and yellowed, and the pencil lines were all quite faded. I had to process them all in Photoshop for them to be legible. I have hundreds of these old blueprints, I'm posting one of the old drawings a day to http://starshipdesigns.tumblr.com/. Check them out for a taste of '70s fan nostalgia. Maybe sometime soon I'll pull out the old t-square and angles again and see if the old version of myself can do better than my kid self.

 

[Kaiser]

Your drawing of the Galactica is Awesome!!

 

[jerriecan]

Very nice work, especially for 13. Love the detailing. Thanks for sharing them with us!

 

[Patrickivan]

Thanks everyone. The paper was onion skin, and is very creased and yellowed, and the pencil lines were all quite faded. I had to process them all in Photoshop for them to be legible. I have hundreds of these old blueprints, I'm posting one of the old drawings a day to http://starshipdesigns.tumblr.com/. Check them out for a taste of '70s fan nostalgia. Maybe sometime soon I'll pull out the old t-square and angles again and see if the old version of myself can do better than my kid self.

Very fun to look at... It's funny how much they Remind me of my old drawings from the late 70s and onward. I had most of mine until just a few years ago when there was a flood at my grandparent's.

 

[SeerSGB]

Very nice, impressive work.

 

[Forbin]

Excellent work! Damn, I miss putting pencil to vellum!

 

[Veridian]

Me too. Something cathartic about it.