What a thing to wake up to.
This is seriously my favorite non-canon ship ever. Everything about it just oozes advanced Federation design. I can't believe the precision with which you matched many of the design/texture cues to the Enterprise F. Love the touches around the for and aft torpedo launchers, including the " double barrel shotgun" style forward launchers. It just works incredibly well on this ship.
One of the toughest things about creating a non-canon design is trying to find new ways to make an old formula interesting or aesthetic. The saucer/drivesection/warpengines formula can be changed around, have parts more numerous or less numerous, different shapes sizes, but no matter what the formula for the Fed ships is always the same. The real secret imho is flow. Federation ships need to have the appearance of rigidity and strength from a well defined set of lines that provide the ship with a certain degree of character and form.
This ship has got that in spades, thanks largely i part to the very well executed catamaran style saucer that sweeps back into the drive section. I can imagine that if a person were to see a ship like this from space, it would be quite dramatic.
The other thing I like about this ship is that there's a lot to look at. The textures are done to such a level of detail that it's easy for your eyes to jump from one point of the ship and inspect it before jumping to something else. Yet they are more or less subtle enough that you can comfortably observe the ship as a whole.
Tremendous job on this, Rengers!
edit*
I was looking a the ship again because it's so amazing. It's funny for me because the texture style is such an accurate representation of those on the Enterprise F. As I'm sure many modders who've been around BCC/BCU for a long time can attest, as a modder you go through "style" phases. This style of texture I applied to I think three ships (two released, one never finished). I've since moved on to other styles, and am not even sure if I remember how to go back to a style like this, but what makes it cool is that it's like looking at my own work through a different set of eyes and I really like it. It's very clean looking.
I'm really looking forward to your next project!
