U.S.S. Excelsior NCC-2000-A

[Vladko1]

DJ, when you are done with the model and you are about to texture, make the bussards transperant, like in the Ecplise. It was very cool About your progress now, I can say she is just beautiful!

[086gf]

Oh that turned out nicely.

[Aeries]

Great work as always, dude. 

[FarShot]

Regarding the split, I would change the angle of split a bit.  The saucer's engines look fine, but the secondary hull's don't sit right with me.

Right now it's very vertical.  I would split it at more of a 45 degree angle.

[DJ Curtis]

I've added a bunch of details to the ship and changed a few things.  I also optimized in a number of places, redistributing polys from less needy areas to more needy ones.

Key areas of work--

bridge reshaped
deflector enhanced
mesh of saucer underside reworked
added details to aft nacelles
added detail above saucer shuttlebay
added paneling under rear shuttlebay

Most of the work I've done to the mesh isn't really noticeable, but the mesh is better.

[Toa_Kaita]

I really like the direction youre going with this! Awesome!

[Adonis]

I would have no objections at all if you'd add the deuterium fill ports to the aft top dorsal, between the 3 torp tubes

[DJ Curtis]

Those two parts on the spine aren't launchers, they are the fill ports. 

[MarkyD]

Very nice work there mate. 

[DJ Curtis]

Thanks Marky.

I've reworked the separation.  The split impulse looked cool at the impulse, but as I stared at it more, with the shuttlebay, the saucer would have to shimmy both backwards and forwards at the same time to successfully separate.  Obviously that's not possible, so I'm going to work out an alternative solution for saucer impulse engines.

I also eliminated the edge that ran around the base of the cobra head, so now the drive section flows smoothly into the saucer section like on the enterprise d.

For now, this is how things look.  The next place I'm going to go is some sort of captain's yacht.

[deadthunder2_0]

split them horizontally

[DJ Curtis]

Thanks for the suggestion, deadthunder, but doing that wouldn't leave enough room for the fusion reactors.

Does anyone have any suggestions for what to do in the captain's yacht/lower sensor dome area?  I rendered that area so you can draw over it.  I move the saucer up a bit so you can see the separation plane.

[deadthunder2_0]

Wait!, put impulse engines on the nacelle pylons!

also, why not a testbed torpedo turret on the bottom saucer?

[Vladko1]

Can you try to make a hole in the engineering hull, and make in this part of the saucer connected the captain's yacht. the whole on the engineering will be like for the yacht can fly away without the need of separating and when separating, yacht will be still attached to the saucer. And the hole needs to be a bit bigger than the yacht for safely separating
My english is still a bit bad, so I hope you understand me DJ ;)
Edit:
Here is and my ungly painting. With the pencil is written "the hole" and with the pen is written "the yacht". Sorry for my ugly painting and writing I hope I've helped ;)

[EDD_7]

I think something like this, slim line looks like its good for entering an atmosphere, i need more time to draw it out but the shape of your impulse engines fits perfectly with the idea i have in my head

Of course you'd need to scale it to a size thats suitable to the ship.

I tried to keep the prometheus/sovereign/galaxy hybrid shape. although there might be a hint of defiant. I'll finish the design if you like what i've got here.

Anyway see what you think.

[Vladko1]

yes EDD, that's better. I only pointed the hole

[FarShot]

I recommend something simple, with a ventral appearance very similar to the Galaxy class, except elongated.  Maybe visible nacelles, either on pylons, in wings, or built in.

[Vladko1]

Farshot, detele the warp naccels, because when separating, will be hard to pass with the engineering, because it is attached on the saucer as it should be. I think EDD's one is better ;) But this is DJ's ship, still he didn't accept the idea

[FarShot]

Mine isn't going with a hole in the cobra head.  IMO, that would look weird.

[DJ Curtis]

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys, I'm leaning towards the elongated galaxy style, but am not sure yet.  Feel free to keep them coming.

After spending some time on Skype with Adonis, I redid the cobra head from scratch.  Previously it was too complicated.  As a result, the main shuttlebay is now a part of the drive section, and I've moved it back a ways.  I've added a small shuttlebay behind the bridge so that the saucer still has shuttles.  I've also added details to the nacelles, deflector, and refined a bunch of areas in the mesh.  I've also cleaned up the impulse engine housing.  The engines are now entirely attached to the drive section, and as you can see, when the saucer separates, two impulse engines are exposed.