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Excalibor
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Posts: 24Member
Well, let's do this! :-)
This is a destroyer inspired by the Excelsior-class, which I truly love... The tech and style is on par with other works that happen around the same time, in the ASR Universe, circa the year 2436. Its provisionally called Fulgor class.
This is a destroyer inspired by the Excelsior-class, which I truly love... The tech and style is on par with other works that happen around the same time, in the ASR Universe, circa the year 2436. Its provisionally called Fulgor class.
Post edited by Excalibor on
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The idea is that the nacelles are kind of lightning shaped (fulgor or fulmen means lightning in Latin). The colors, textures and such are there to help me visualize the thing and feel some progress... :-)
Two shuttlebays: the main one over the neck will harbor most crafts, the auxiliary hangar on the Engineering hull aft is reserved for 1 Runabout, and emergency landing.
BTW, for those wondering about the impulse engines, there aren't because the ship implements our gravitic planing drive for sublight flight.
Deck distribution
Decks are about 4m in height, the thinner lines are where the floor is, the space under and over the ceiling is for power lines, data tubes, DIF generators, artificial gravity, holoemitters, Jefferey's tubes for maintenance, distributed computer nodes, sensors of all kinds (temperature, humidity, smoke, biofilters, ... This is quite the advanced ship, after all... :-) Decks are not linear, though, in some parts of the ship, floors go up or down as convenient (for example, the Flight Operations center in deck 2, over the Main Hangar will be slightly elevated. Some parts of decks 5 and 6 will also accommodate for the storage areas for shuttles, parts and other avionics going into the neck).
And a detail on the Warp nacelles, showing the highlights of the newer ILN-70x series, with concentric Warp coils for improved field generation and heat transport. Not shown are the multiple computer sensors that micromanage the field in order to coordinate with on-flight demands, especially from long range sensors from the ORACLE and VATES sensor suites. The Fulgor-class will probably sport a VATES sensor suite, like her cousin ship.
Also, as I worked the poop, I redid all the torpedo launchers. Here's the aft launchers, with a torpedo and a crewman as reference. The part in between will be a small observation deck, I might put some greebles later: although I admire those super detailed models I see around here, I truly do, I like the simpler lines of clean(er) ships, so the details might be somewhat lacking..
You can also see, if you squint a bit, a Worker Bee moving some cargo crates from the Cargo Bay that'll be hosted in that area of the ship... All crafts are basic shapes to take into account the volume of each type when designing the Hangars: worker bees, then shuttlepods, small shuttles, large shuttles, D-Warp shuttles, cargo shuttles and Runabouts... Most of them pretty non-description, just rough shapes. I will make some detailed models in the future, I guess... :-)
... and on phasers! :-) Two big 300+ degree strips on the saucer and then 6 smaller strips covering the top and bottom of the Engineering hull and the sides from the nacelles.
Now some more detailing and then dreaded viewports will come... But before that I think I'll work on the bridge for a bit... :-)
First sketch of the main hangar...
And a sketch of the bridge... I'm fairly impatient and it shows, lol. Well, it's a rough layout of the bridge, still not decided on how it's really going to be. Cover and no cover. The big room aft is the briefing room, and in the fwd is the captain's day cabin and probably some kind of forward observation room. Or maybe the ready room and stuff.
Now decisions, decisions... :-) Oh, well! We'll see!
Here's a better shot at the bridge (now with its own head, accessed via the dorr right by the starboard turbolift... :-) :
And the start of the viewport distribution. I'm a bit of the submarine philosophy, so they are just where they have to, no more. The rim has quarters and a nice lounge in the foremost part of the saucer, with nice, bigger windows. Anything steeper than 10-15º becomes a ceiling or floor viewport (no velux here, lol :-)
I have also worked on the deflector rim, but it's not easily appreciated in the pictures, I'll show it later... Let's go for the remaining viewports and then with the panels (ugh). By the way, UV mapping is doing something weird, instead of just viewing the UV mapping of the selection, everything is show at the same time, it makes it harder to work... I might have to do some deep studying before I manage the UV I want... Oh, well, this is fun, after all... :-) \\//_
Also got some cooling radiators and emergency plasma vents on the nacelle pylons, redid a good number of viewport cutters because they were ill aligned, worked on escape pods installations and berthing, tried to do backstept's trick for paneling, and failed miserably because solidify wreaks havoc on my model, I don't know why.
I'll have to try the brute force way and then apply solidify to the viewports so they have some thickness. Oh well...
Also reworked the Bussards and statcollectors, ¿do you like them like this, bigger on the inside, and more glass-like, or prefer the older model? I can't decide yet... Well, tomorrow'll be a new day. LLAP! \\//_
Anyway, subtle paneling on the saucer, and a bit more work on the bridge dome.
BTW, if you are wondering what those blue things sticking out of the neck are, they are the point defense drone launchers. The drones act as jamming, electronic noise, chaff and all sort of defensive actions, and they are launched from there. There will also be point defense laser turrets, to deal with stuff too small for phasers. But for the time being, the drones launchers... :-)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqRhLEHgwgTKxsalM5YznYQ
Formerly furswift
Thanks! I forgot who we took our idea from, it was quite a long time ago and I wasn't as involved as I am, but the gist is that in 2409 Star Fleet met a coreward power that used, among other things, X-ray fission pumped bombs, which tore through shields and hulls with ease. That showed the need to have point defense systems able to deflect or intercept those kind of weapons. That was 26+ years ago, so... Point defense systems are standard now in basically all models but the most basic or those designed for domestic operation.
You can read about this at https://boi.alt-starfleet-rpg.com/TechMemo:Point_Defense. We are about to launch a big overhaul to our starship line-up, thus the need for me to get better at modeling... :-)
Thanks for your comment!
Also, more detailing in decoration, and panels! Engineering access panels. I also worked on the neck and the point where it joints with the saucer, but it might not be appreciable in this shot. Next will be the secondary hull paneling, which sounds like a challenge. And after that, cutting windows, some more detailing and the missing bits!
Oh, well... Lettering is light emitting because, well, we have had neons for decades and space is mostly dark: having lamps illuminating black paint is kind of weird... So we now have bright symbols identifying our ships... :-)
Hi, did you check face orientation? Might help with panels that aren't extruding in the same direction.
Sorry in advance if I'm telling you stuff you already know. It's just that I don't know how adept to blender you actually are.
Hi there! I am usually aware of these things, but reminders are always welcome! :-) I've been dabbling with Blender of a year and a half, still lots to learn. I have actually restarted the Engineering hull so I can try a different approach, I'll let you see the results! I'll check on that file, anyway, so I can understand what's going on.
And thanks for chiming in and for the advice, it's very much appreciated!
PS- btw, big fan! Love that Constitution-class! ^_^
Paneling, different from before, I quite like it, a bit more simple, and viewports ready on the Engineering hull, starting with the saucer: you can see the nice views from the Sciences HQ on the planetary sensor dome... :-) I have also changed the hull decorations, as I simplified the hull geometry a bit.
Cheers!
In any case, with the judicious use of boolean operators and the knife projection tool, the Main Hangar module and Bridge are cut and done. I'll decorate that Briefing room, and probably the Day Cabin and Forward Observation Lounge so they appear cute in the pictures, although, as you can see, interiors are definitely not my forte! :-D
I love how clean and big this FliOps room for the Main Hangar ended up. The viewports are not so huge that they can affect hull integrity, but they provide a nice view of both hangars. :-)
Now to the saucer!
I am sure a few more will creep out here or there, where necessary or useful, but the bulk of the work is done! :-)
I am trying a slightly straighter nacelle, to see if I like it more than the original, slightly crooked one. Both look nice, to be honest, but I'm not yet satisfied. I'm trying to escape both the classical Excelsior class and the Sagan class types of nacelles. The Sagan-class nacelle is the basic model for the ILN-70x series... I'm trying to evolve that design language for the next generation ILN-71x series so it's not too radical a departure. Oh, well. I'll keep a thread running on the background.
By the way, that golden thing floating around will be one of the transporter emitters, to be installed... :-)
And then, the main hangar is starting to take shape! :-)
Still lots of detail and I'm not sure when I'll want to stop. For the time being, this doens't look overkill, so I'll keep at it a bit longer... ^_^
These complement the drones, protecting the shields and hull from threats too small or swift for the phasers to deal with. Their range is not really big but the type II laser turrets can deal with targets at about 1 light-second, which is usually more than enough.
As they require a powerful computer, targeting sensors and energy sources, smaller ships usually just carry the drones for deception and confusing incoming payload. A destroyer is normally powerful enough, and even some frigates might carry, now that the technology is well developed, but many ships in service don't have them.
As for the hangar, it has two levels, and besides the storage section at the end, it also has a maintenance workshop down in the neck. Definite dotation of crafts still to be decided, but I am thinking 1 Runabout and maybe 5 shuttlepods, 2 D-Warp shuttles and 2 big personal shuttles. Plus a host of worker bees. Which is quite good for a smallish ship like this... :-)
Next will be tractor beam emitters, and to think in all the greebles I want, like shield emitters, VATES sensor emitters and receivers (beside the light emitting strips on the saucer section, of course), etc... Cheers! :-)
Also, a tractor beam emitter! We have already seen many on the cargo hangar bay, now ship size... :-)
A more detailed view from the stern. The insides are the same as the other nacelles, just slightly modified so the Bussard collectors were a bit further from the primary phase Warp coils. While not inspired in anything, I guess they were sort of drifting towards a familiar design. Well, I can dig that... :-)