Pyotr Velikiy WIP

[Thomas P]

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGHHH!!!

I know why Star Fleet choose the Constitution over this design! The upper hull is a bear (well, for me). This is as far as I have got and is the best looking of the lot so far. I think I am close enough on the upper hull - pick away guys!

[scaramanga]

Seems good so far

[Thomas P]

Okay - I moved on to the bridge, impulse, lower half and engines. Okay, I just listed about everything that was left ! The engines are from an old connie I downloaded ages ago and have no credits for. I don't know that I'll try to correct them but I did remove the textures as they had been 'revised' to have the inner vents to glow like seen on TNG and other shows.

I have a number of edges to bevel still and then, of course, to start figuring the textures and other 'slight' TOS details.

[Thomas P]

Here is a sacrilege shot. I say that because I was having a devil of a time with the small hatch in the aft end of the extended hull. I just couldn’t get the doors to work, mesh wise, and decide to try a more 'conventional' door assembly. Not really knowing what the heck it was for to begin with I just guessed that it could be a third shuttle bay (did I not read the small history correctly?).

I humbly beg the great creator’s forgiveness – I am not worthy.

Pick..pick..pick

I had intended the "collar" to have a vertical front surface because it was much easier for me to draw. I had tried to draw a sloping front surface but couldn't get it to look right. So, I have no problems with the way you've modeled it.

The back hatch is indeed a third shuttle bay. It's mostly for the engineering crew so wasn't intended to be as large as that on a Connie. If it's giving you problems, just putty it over and rescribe the lines as you see fit without worrying about matching the schematics exactly (which can't really be trusted anyway).

Anyway, this is coming along very nicely. But I agree Starfleet made the right choice in choosing the Connie.

Just another quick note. I'm probably going to use 1670 as the registry rather than 1672. It's a nice round number better suited for a class ship.

[Thomas P]

Hmmm... I did not even imagine the 'collar' was like the one on the Excelsior aft deck. I'll go back and see what I can do and comapre it. The 2D images can be misleading. The engineering doors are a problem with the way MAX is handling additional segments that go counter to the curvature of the conacial end of the ship. Another thing to look at. Oh, of course I already made the registry - easy to fix.

[Thomas P]

Damn - knowing that the collar had a flat facing to it made it so easy to make! I first looked at it as having a sloped face and just got locked into that. I was able to justify the facing with every look at the drawings - how easy it is to deceive the eye .

I made a different door assembly for the engineering hull that is a simple one. This door would just follow the internal contours and be simple to maintain (like I would really know this!).

Any who -




Now - maybe I can go after that registry again .

Actually, it looked sort of nice with the sloping front surface! I can always change the schematics, you know. The vertical face looks rather severe. It might also look good if the front face were incline slightly by moving it's baseline towards the disc center. If I could draw better, the surface probably would've been sloping, as you modeled it.

That back view makes it look a lot like the Swordfish carrier. Maybe I made the secondary hull too long?

[skyhawk223]

I kind of liked the sloping surface, but not as steep as you had it initially.
I also liked the original doors better (sorry Masao).
That side elevation looks very sleek. My favorite view.

[Thomas P]

You guys are killing me !

I'm going to let the dust clear on those issues about the collar and secondary hull. Now that Masao has seen it as a 3D mod maybe he may want to make some changes. Let me know .

Sorry, sorry!

I like the rear hanger bay smooth as in your last attempt. I also like the collar with a slope. It looks quite graceful that way. The sharp vertical wall is a bit severe. What do you think, Thomas? Maybe have the slope but move back the leading edge of the slope a bit?

[Thomas P]

Well, I actually did go back and work on the collar a bit more before any feedback .

Here is a new collar with a moderate slope which can be seen. Also a few other minor updates as you can see.

I like that! A good compromise. I shall modify my schematics accordingly.

[skyhawk223]

Yes, much more graceful. What's left to model?

[Thomas P]

Decals, view ports, some minor panel details (hull and nacelle) and some details on the deflector housing.

For all that stuff, just refer to photos of the 11-foot filming model at the usual sources. I didn't add all the little labels and numbers.

[Thomas P]

Well it's been awhile but I've been working away at it. I always hate texturing as it is too much like painting on a model. I always enjoyed the model building process but the paint would always annoy me as I would want it to be perfect.

But... enough of my short comings

Here is a close up of the saucer section to show the shine effect. The diffuse textures are fairly simple and work well with this as a TOS style ship but with some 'modern' touches.

[Thomas P]

Oh - sorry, here is a front view of the same textures. The 'center' section has a 'wash' effect that the sides of the saucer do not. The wash tends to bring out the panel lines more.

Great stuff! The panelling is very attractive. Those wider lines look good. Thomas, have you ever done a Connie?

The article is coming along well. It's up to 4000 words. I'm also finishing up the various graphics. I hope to be able to send it along to Bernd for posting in a few weeks.

[Thomas P]

Masao, Thanks!

Here is one more texture update. I've 'finished' the last detail layer that I plan on applying to the spec maps - it dulls it a tad but also hints at other panels and finish variation. I have also taken a swag at the 'crown' texture. Trying to figure the face portion out to determine if it should have some slight detail (?).



Masao, no I have never done a Connie. Probably never will as it would always get compared to someone elses! Also, when I used to model (plastic tanks and planes) I would never do, say, a P-51 or German Tiger.

[skyhawk223]

Great work on the textures. They look sharp. By the crown, do you mean the bridge module? It needs textures.

Thomas, if you get a chance could you render a simple orthographic plan view? I need to see how far forward that slope goes. No textures necessary.

Thanks.

[Thomas P]

Ortho views

Great! Thanks very much.

[Thomas P]

Back in the Saddle agian!!! (I know, poor singing voice) I came back to the PV to get her all done but completely re-did the textures. I was having too many problems getting the style I wanted and realized it would seldom show anyway.

Here she (he?!?) is with all the orginal textures replaced and two new ones applied. I also added the view ports, the big whatcha-ma-callits in front and recessed the hull where the deflector is mounted (glad Skyhawk figured that out).



I will now be finishing the impulse deck and other items very soon.

[skyhawk223]

Nice, very nice. So what are those things in the front? Large observation windows?
Have you applied the pennants yet? Doesn't look like it from these angles.

[Thomas P]

It's that 'too damn dark' driver problem I seem to have. On my system it is bright but when I post it displays, in IE, dark. I think you see it that way too . The primary section side pennant is on and I just finished the nacell pennant and registry. I'm working on do-dads right now, nav lights, doors and stuff. As to those large front 'windows', I don't know what those large ports on the front are - I modeled it in cuz they are on the drawing. Uh, Masao?

[Thomas P]

Just another quick update:

I have no idea what they are. I drew them because they were on the model.