WIP - TMP Enterprise, deck by deck

[CTM]

Ok, finished most of the fitting today. I need to build out the neck in order to see if Main Engineering will actually fit where it is, at present that is a "NO"

In the following shots, take note that the rib structures are only rings and supports within the rings, there is no connectivity between rings except at the intermix chamber and in the "cutout" below the shuttle bay. I also have not done anything to define the shuttle-bay doors - something I will need to do shortly.

Mainly, I have a series of "beauty shots" of the hull, inside and out.

And finally one I didn't post yesterday - a closeup of the inside of the cargo bay on the fitted decks.

 

[Santaman]

Awesome!

 

[Cary L. Brown]

You're definitely going to have to build up the "torpedo superstructure" part of the neck before you can really figure out Engineering. I'm sure that the ceiling lines will be different than what was seen in the set, but not dramatically so, I suspect, and I'm pretty sure that the majority of it will fit reasonably well (the major exception being the forward corridor, of course, but you already know about that!)

On thing I find myself wondering about... and which I suspect might require Engineering to be at least a deck lower than is generally assumed... is the intersection of the nacelles. It's very clear that the intention was for the "vertical runs" from the horizontal engine core to go straight up into the pylons. I wonder... what level (in your model) do these lines intersect at? With a CAD model, it's pretty easy to determine that sort of thing... and that would be central to my placement, were it me doing this project. I suspect that the various people who worked on this may have gotten it wrong... Kimble, Strategic Designs, even Andrew may have made a little "snafu" there... hard to say for sure without doing the 3-dimensional stuff.

If you end up having angled "vertical runs" that pass out into space, or require a "jog"... ANYTHING other than "running up the centerlines of the pylons... there's a problem, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[CTM]

You're definitely going to have to build up the "torpedo superstructure" part of the neck before you can really figure out Engineering. I'm sure that the ceiling lines will be different than what was seen in the set, but not dramatically so, I suspect, and I'm pretty sure that the majority of it will fit reasonably well (the major exception being the forward corridor, of course, but you already know about that!)

On thing I find myself wondering about... and which I suspect might require Engineering to be at least a deck lower than is generally assumed... is the intersection of the nacelles. It's very clear that the intention was for the "vertical runs" from the horizontal engine core to go straight up into the pylons. I wonder... what level (in your model) do these lines intersect at? With a CAD model, it's pretty easy to determine that sort of thing... and that would be central to my placement, were it me doing this project. I suspect that the various people who worked on this may have gotten it wrong... Kimble, Strategic Designs, even Andrew may have made a little "snafu" there... hard to say for sure without doing the 3-dimensional stuff.

If you end up having angled "vertical runs" that pass out into space, or require a "jog"... ANYTHING other than "running up the centerlines of the pylons... there's a problem, as far as I'm concerned.

I agree, and after I do the shuttle-bay doors, I plan to address that. I am not going to add substantially more detail to the hull until I have the neck built, and the spacing figured out for the Primary Hull (as the underside of the nacelles are directly in line with the top of the Primary Hull). As I have said previously, I'm sort of taking the backwards approach to this - going from the inside out. It invites all sorts of odd challenges, but gives a perspective that might not often be covered by other methods.

 

[CTM]

Just to reassure folks, I have not abandoned this project, a few little things like "work" and "life" got in the way for the past week or so. I started working on the Photorp deck, and it is going to be a TIGHT fit. Here are the wireframes as I have them so far.

It is not entirely clear, but I do have the front end fairly well worked out, just not many nurnies or greebles yet. The worst part was the complex curve for the overhead hull. While it is not shown, the ribs to support it are cut from the same mathematical curve, so they line up flush with the inside of the hull. The large "drums" are for placing/cutting/building the docking ports. Maybe I'll have something ready to render by the end of the weekend.

 

[Bernard Guignard]

very inpressed keep up the great work

 

[Praetor]

Wow, so do you happen to know how much smaller the torpedo rooms are than the actual set was? It looks like quite a difference.

 

[Ziz]

Don't forget about the geometry of the deflector dish. Looks like you're going to have to remove some of those forward decks to make that fit, as well as make room for the related hardware that makes the dish work.

 

[Birdog]

Are you using surfaces or solids?

 

[BK613]

Could always use one torp room two launchers like Shane Johnson did...

 

[Cary L. Brown]

Could always use one torp room two launchers like Shane Johnson did...

The problem with that is that this isn't consistent with what was seen on-screen. I mean, we see the port-side torpedo bay room take phaser fire, basically be blown to the proverbial "smithereens," and then in a very short period of time later, we see the Enterprise firing torpedoes out of the starboard-side tube... and what is presumably not more than a day or two later, we see Spock's burial tube fired out of a clean and undamaged torpedo room, with the tube being fired through the starboard launcher.

It seems pretty clear from that on-screen evidence that there was a port-side and a starboard-side torpedo room, and that the port-side one got shredded while the starboard-side one was left effectively intact and operational.

As for "how much larger" the on-screen one was than what we see here... I suspect that the answer is "not much." Maybe 10% or so? The ship is much larger than we sometimes thing (and, at other times, actually quite a bit smaller). It's this whole "scale misperception" thing that makes 3D modeling of a ship so fascinating. When dealing with 2D drawings, it's easy to miss things (like ceiling lines... something I think Strategic Designs forgot about on occasion in their blueprint set). Or with issues like which deck Engineering really is located on in the TMP ship (I suspect that it needs to be maybe two decks lower than usually assumed based upon Probert's concept sketch and Kimbel's cutaway)

In a case like this, I'd be inclined to look more at "what was the room intended to do" than anything else. We see the following going on in there:

• A small group of cadets being inspected. How large of a room would be required for that?
• Torpedos being loaded for battle. How large would the room need to be for that?
• A funeral. Based upon the number of attendees, how large would the room need to be for all of them to have been present, as shown?

It might be interesting to pull up a 3D presentation of a person and place it in that scene... or several. I'm not sure how effectively you can do that in AutoCAD, so you could always just create a very simple "box" representing the approximate volume occupied by a standing human male, if having a "real person" figure isn't really an option.

 

[BK613]

^^
what we see on screen isn't that consistent, so I think CTM could do either...

 

[CDR6]

Hey CTM, what's happening on the "Big E"? Haven't seen anything new as of late, hope all is well... looking forward to more of your fine work!

Best regards,
Chuck

 

[CTM]

Hey CTM, what's happening on the "Big E"? Haven't seen anything new as of late, hope all is well... looking forward to more of your fine work!

Best regards,
Chuck

She still sits as you see her here... we had a pipe burst in my office, and the cleanup/repair to restart operations is leaving me so thoroughly exhausted when I get home, I can do little more than crawl into bed. We are winding down that though, so I should get back to her in a few days. Sorry to keep everyone waiting.

 

[CTM]

Ok... I finally was able to get back to Enterprise tonight. Not that I have a whole lot to show for it, but I am back to making progress. I got some more of the Torpedo Deck fleshed out... and started integrating it with the remainder of the secondary hull. The full integration will wait for the remainder of the neck. I expect to actually merge O and N decks, with N-deck becoming essentially a crawl-space deck above Main Engineering and below the Photorp Deck. I also can see that the aft end of the Photorp Deck will wind up getting further modified to fit in with the slope of the neck.

 

[Praetor]

Looking good!

 

[Patrickivan]

I love this build- it's like watching her come to life! It is really a great way to put how big she is into perspective.

 

[CTM]

Only two pics tonight. I realize that I need to build the Saucer as a separate file for now - things are getting too big to manage with it. I won't say I finished the neck, but I did get it roughed out. There will be significant changes on it before it is finalized.

 

[CTM]

I love this build- it's like watching her come to life! It is really a great way to put how big she is into perspective.

Thank you all for your kind words on my effort.

 

[Praetor]

Yes, this is really very remarkable.