Brisbane-class Version 2.0

[evil_genius_180]

OK, first a little background. Back in the good ol' days (2008) I built a mesh for a TMP-era ship that was a bit of refit Connie meets Excelsior class. The original idea was that it was a ship that Starfleet had been designing as a replacement for the Constitution-class but it failed to impress, so they scrapped it and developed the Excelsior class. Then, some years later, some admiral decided to redevelop the ship as a science vessel and brought it into service as the Brisbane-class:









So, anyway, that was version 1. It was a blend of Connie and Excelsior and then I apparently decided to greeble the snot out of it (probably because of my love for the Constellation-class.) It was cute for a while but then I decided last year to do a rebuild.

The rebuild started off on the same premise, TMP-era, started off as a heavy cruiser, became a science ship. Anywho, at some point in the build, I decided to switch to the "Lost Era" in between the TOS films and TNG and started doing details in that area. (I think 2320-2330 was the launch year) I also decided to make it a utility ship with a Nebula-class-ish sensor pod on top. Anywho, as of September of last year, this is where I was at in the build:









For a complete summary of work to date, check out here: http://evilgenius180.wordpress.com/?s=Brisbane

The posts marked "Brisbane-class V2.0" 1-11 are last year's work.

Anywho, it was about then that I put this ship aside to work on another project that took the rest of the year to complete. I kept meaning to get back to the project but didn't manage to get back into it until today.

I opened up the scene in trueSpace yesterday and did some renders of what I had so far. Then I closed the program. I wasn’t happy with it, so I considered leaving it and starting something new. Then I remembered all of the time that I spent on the pain in the butt engineering hull and I realized I can’t leave this unfinished. That part alone made me want to finish it. So, today, I opened it back up and realized what I don’t like about it; the windows. When I started the project, it was in the 2270-2294 era of the original model but then I switched tracks and decided to go for the “Lost Era” between 2294 and 2364, during which time we have only a rough idea of what happened. However, the horizontal windows were really from the wrong era, so I knew I had to redo those. Fortunately, I’m an anal retentive person when it comes to backing up stuff, so I have parts in various stages of construction. It was easy to go back to before I added the windows on the saucer, main pylon and engineering hull. However, I also realized that I wanted a more angled edge on the saucer, so I went back to my original spline and moved some points to achieve the look I wanted. Then I re-lathed that and re-cut the grid lines (which had to be modified slightly.) Then came the windows. Lots of windows. Those took a while to set up and cut but I got that done today and I think it looks a lot better.

Other parts that might get changed are the warp pylons (I’m only lukewarm about those for this era) and I’m 95% sure that the bridge has to go. I really don’t like it. However, before I do all of that, I have to put windows into the main pylon and engineering hull.











So, that's where it stands right now. Much work to still be done, but at least I'm working on it again. Also, here's the ship's dedication plaque:

[mikala]

I really liked the first one so I'll be watching this one develop...Subscribed!

[evil_genius_180]

Thanks dude. The old one will still be around, though it will be a different class. I might also do new registry markings for it and dial back the number a bit.

[gmd3d]

cool build .... the first one is great ... I like how you have the textures on it... looks like how I like to see these ships ...... very believable

[evil_genius_180]

Thanks Ger. Yeah, I've been getting a lot of positive feedbck on the old ship, meanwhile some people like the way the new ship is shaping up, others are adopting a wait-and-see approach.

[gmd3d]

Originally Posted by evil_genius_180

Thanks Ger. Yeah, I've been getting a lot of positive feedbck on the old ship, meanwhile some people like the way the new ship is shaping up, others are adopting a wait-and-see approach.

I also like the new ship .... but it is nice to see the ships all tarted up with textures and such

[evil_genius_180]

Yeah, the fact that the old ship has textures and the new one doesn't is a point that's been mentioned at least a couple times at SFM. I did tell them what I plan to do with the textures (which I might start sooner rather than later) and they seem to think it's a good idea. Basically, I want to do something Ambassador-ish, similar to what Madkoifish did on his Balmung model. I really like that model, in fact his recent post about it on his blog got me wanting to either build a new ship in this era or finish this one. Obviously, I opted for the latter.

[evil_genius_180]

Today’s additions mostly consist of Windows. A whole lot of windows. I also added some docking ports and the pendants to the engineering section.









Brisbane-class fun facts:

Length: 349.04m
Width: 154.40m
Height: 73.08m

22 decks

Crew=650
90 officers
560 enlisted

[gmd3d]

nice update

[mikala]

I don't know but I'm a thinkin' this will look mighty fine all dressed up in textures. Once you have her all polyed up of course.

[evil_genius_180]

Thanks guys.

@mikala: I might start texturing soon (possibly today.) Sometimes I texture as I go, I might do that with this one. It will give people a better idea as to what I'm trying to achieve with this project.

[gmd3d]

look forward to the texturing

[evil_genius_180]

I did color and spec maps for the top of the saucer earlier but I'm rendering an animation right now, so I can't render them. (no, I didn't think that one through very well.)

[evil_genius_180]

I didn’t have time to do a lot today but I did manage to get a start on the textures. I made color and specular maps for the upper saucer (I’ll add weathering later.) The spec map doesn’t do much in this lighting but you get the idea.





I used the color picker in Gimp to attempt to get the correct colors for the Ambassador-class from a photo. However, that’s easier said than done due to lighting, but this should be close.

[gmd3d]

Cool...... it begins

[evil_genius_180]

But is it the beginning of the end?

[evil_genius_180]

I decided to start detailing this beast with the nacelles. I didn’t get as much done earlier as I’d have liked but I may do some more later (or I may play games, I never know until it happens. ) I started by attempting to model the glowing blue crap. I don’t know why I tried that, but I did. After that didn’t work, I did what I normally do for that part and achieved the look I wanted with textures. I also started on some details on the top. Also, the Sherlock Holmeses in the audience will notice that the saucer name and registry are missing and that the registry on the nacelles is different than what was there before. That’s because I’ve decided to not have this ship be the class ship, I rarely model the class ship. Instead, this will be a later ship in the class.

[gmd3d]

very nice...... how about some Wireframe some time in the future I would like to see how its put together

[evil_genius_180]

I was afraid someone was going to ask that. I'll see if I can whip some up later.

[evil_genius_180]

@Ger: here are your wireframes. At first, I tried rendering one using “hidden line” rendering mode. Then I remembered that those never come out the way that I want them to, so I switched to screencaps. I’m sure it’s obvious to anyone who does 3D modeling, but polygon count isn’t a major concern for me. I’m already over 200k and I haven’t even started much detailing on this thing.

[gmd3d]

wow . thanks... always very interesting to see how the ships is constructed .....

thank mate

[evil_genius_180]

I aim to please. (I'm just usually not on target )

[evil_genius_180]

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t bother rendering images and posting an update for this little bit of progress, but these stupid RCS thrusters have been kicking my butt in a big way. The stripes were easy, I booleans intersected them with a nacelle body that was very slightly larger than the actual nacelle body. After that, I just had to do a tiny bit of smoothing error cleanup and I was set. The RCS thrusters, meanwhile, were a different story. Same deal, booleans intersect them with a slightly larger nacelle body (bigger size difference than the one I used for the stripes.) That worked fine but, when I cut the little vents, they were a mess of smoothing errors. I spent way too long (around a couple of hours) trying to fix those errors but nothing was working. I tried both vertical and horizontal vents but that didn’t matter, there were still errors. I even crashed trueSpace a few times along the way. Finally, a light bulb clicked on and I realized I should subdivide the nacelle body before the booleans intersect. So, I subdivided them a couple times, did the intersect and the vent cuts and it’s smooth. And to think, if I’d thought of that two hours earlier, I could have saved myself a headache and moved on to another part. Though, now that I finally have that taken care of, it’s time to call it a night.

[gmd3d]

Originally Posted by evil_genius_180

I aim to please. (I'm just usually not on target )

thank you kindly


The Nacelles look great .... for all the trouble they caused you

[evil_genius_180]

Thanks bro. They were literally a headache. (and a neck ache)

[gmd3d]

Originally Posted by evil_genius_180

Thanks bro. They were literally a headache. (and a neck ache)

I bet they where

[mattymanx]

The Brisbane looks like its a mix between the Excelsior class and the Ambassador class with a bit of the Nebula class thrown in (or on top)


The Xavier is a really good looking model as well.