USS Star Empire

[Saquist]

I decided to start finishing some of the older projects that were close to completion just give me some relief from the more frustrating projects.
I always liked the Star Empire on the cover of the Novel Dreadnought!. The design was semi Excelsior in look.  So I started it a while ago on Google Sketch up.
The soap bubble pluggin makes things a lot easier.










I gave it Excelsior impulse deck and designed the warp nacelles how I think they would like from the book.  

[baz1701]

Good start, liking the dorsal / impluse engines.

[King Class Scout]

finally, a proper looking version of the SE.  we already have one out at SFRD, but it's a stresspuppy model, and kinda crude.  I'll put my retex on the back-burner permanently, now.

where'd you get the SE plans your working from?  it'd give me a couple better texture ideas (the Boris Valejo painting for Dreadnaught! isn't available any bigger than the book cover size., and only the ARCO sled and another are actually illustrated in the book.

[Saquist]

Thanks, that means a lot.  I think it was a good choice as an upgrad for S.E
However I think I'll update this to the tapered impulse deck like you did in your version of Excelsior.  The super flat always bothered me and now that I know why I'd like to see what the real Excelsior engines do for the S.E.

KCS, the plans I found were through an expanisve Google search and they are very crude in some ways.  I'm only using them as a guided for style and proportions.  I don't plan on even doing the bridge the same as these plans show but I've already done the deflector and part of the Secondary Hull and the overall design of the ship is something that should have been seen on screen in TMP.

I'm going to have to "intuit it" for the ends of the nacelles though.

[zgok]

Looking like a good start, keep up the good work.

[Bones]

Never seen this design before, sure looks unique ;)

Are those saucer hull lines supposed o be circular ? they kinda don't fit in to the shape of the saucer, are you going to change it ?

Nice work so far 

[King Class Scout]

I think I found the plans you're using.

bones:the painting itself only shows the profile shot, so saquist is basing all the characteristics off the plans, here.  note that, according to the book,the ship was assembled in great secrecy under the direction of your typical starfleet admiral that needs to be in a straightjacket.  there might be some design influence of whatever political theory Rittenhouse believed in

[Saquist]

Note that those plans I'm using essentially just took some detail elements of the Constitution and over-laid them on the estimation of Star Empire's plan view.  That's why the grid on the saucer is circular.  They needed that in order to get the detail and the bridge.  I won't be holding my model to those sort of details.  Really this design offers some creative license room so I decided to make a few liberties. 

I'm not going to do the Pylons from the original Dreadnought of the TOS. (It just doesn't look right.)
I'm wondering if a hex deflector might be in order....(hmmm)


KCS, you know the story pretty well.  Rittenhouse reminded me of  Admiral Leyton...even what he did with the Lakota struck me as a take on Dreadnought!.

[Saquist]

Okay.

I've done a rudimentary star drive which can give me some good ideas about the positioning of the Nacelles/Saucer/Secondary Hull.




I like it.  
Engines seem a bit on the large side in comparison.
Don't like the engines blocking the neck.



There is a real mixture of TOS in this view that I really like.  The placement of the engines is striking here and I like the shape of this star drive profile.  
It's not girthy but that maybe a down side considering the saucer.
Thoughts Anyone?



My immediate impression is that I don't like that the black line of the two other nacelles isn't visible.
Do those engines look like eggs to anyone else?



I really like this angle.



The shot that made the Constitution II Famous.
It looks really nice here...



This shot concerns me the most.  It's the angle the ship will be viewed the most at.  As a tall ship (as most TMP era ships are) This shot has to dominate.  The Galaxy the Excelsior and the Constitution blow this angle away....and I'm not liking this one.

The Nacelles...
I get the feeling they are too close to the saucer....too big....and high....

I'll save this version and undo back to a point and continue crafting the stardrive.

[King Class Scout]

here's the old Star Empire's unhardpointed file
http://bridgecommander.filefront.com/file/TOSTMP_Star_Empire;26242

the way stresspuppy did it, it was a config based on the old federation class with excelsior style nacelles.  yours looks a lot better, even with the drive hull you have on it now.

[Bones]

Properly built and textured should be pretty cool, like a badass version of constitution ;)

[Killallewoks]

I know you want this perfect to spec Saquist but you may have to take a little bit of artistic licensing, pariculay with the nacells. Though she is comming along nicley and i'm looking foreward to the textures. 

[King Class Scout]

*chuckle* this is Saquist we're talking about, you know

[Saquist]

added some smoothing to the Dish and angled the Impulse deck like the Excelsior's.
Removed the bridge module to refine.  These were the elements I liked the most of the ship and decided to refine them as it gives it a more realistic look.  I'll brain storm later on the secondary hull and the Pylons to see if I can't create something that look good and looks as close to the book image as possible.

Would be interesting to Excelsior done like the Star Empire with angular lines instead of smooth lines with the angular accents.....(hmmm)

[captain_obvious]

About the two lower nacelles, I remember you mentioning that you didn't like them being blocked by the saucer.  Have you considered dropping them down a touch and using excelsior style pylons?  I'd also push them slightly more to the back and lengthen the full depth part of the star drive slightly to go with it.

[Saquist]

I'm glad you had the same idea for this ship.  That tells me I might be going in the right direction with it's design.
I didn't want to simply put Excelsiors Pylon on the ship though because those are really curvy and sculpted.  Star Empire has a very hard edge with all the angles so I figured instead of a single joint pylon like Excelsior I would do a double joint pylon with a straight leg from the Secondary hull and after the first joint a 45 degree leg and then a 90 degree leg or a slight angled leg in the 70 to 80 degree area to keep the hex or octagonal pattern going.

[Saquist]

This is sort of what I'm talking about and it looks good from the front.
I plan on the Tertiary Pylon to be wider but this was a quicky.
I've downloaded a new tool for lofting to help do the secondary hull the way I want to.  For those that may want to know it's called curviloft and it's offered with registration to Jim's Sketchup Blog