Another take on the Ingram Class

[Jayru]

Originally Posted by Tallguy

Interesting. It looks like you've steered many of the details in a more Excelsior-like direction. The whole secondary hull, for instance. I'll be intrigued to see what else you come up with.

BTW, Todd Guenther had always intended the "refit" to eliminate the huge (failed) transwarp engines and replace them with standard LN-64 (Enterprise) nacelles. Mostl people think that this puts it way off ballance, aesthetics-wise, but he digs them.

I haven't really done too much work on the secondary hull - most of it is place holders until I get round to it. I intend to emulate the Ingrams stardrive section, but make it a bit more streamlined (like why is that important in space?) and curvy. At the moment it does emulate the curves of an Excelsior stardrive section, from the top/bottom views. But the side view is based off the Ingram. I need to put some better pics of that up as I cocked up the shuttle bay (must remember to check those tick boxes...). It makes a big difference in how it looks... I need to get the rest of the details built into the impulse deck as well - that's no where near finished, and I am unhappy with the details I've put on it so far.

The nacelles are pretty spot on as far as the plans go. I actually prefer the thinner design myself - I think it balances the ship quite nicely (IMOO). Keeping with the whole refit idea, I have some ideas of what I could add to them... but in terms of there width, I'd like to keep that element of the design. Other wise I may as well just slap Excelsior nacelles on this ship

LOL, never thought about the neck (or dorsal interconnector for hard-core fans). That's pretty spot on to the plans too...

Personally I think the Excelsior sucked, and should have been re-worked . Ok, it got a bit of a face lift in STVI, but not much of one. Guenther's design is more appealing, and carries over many of the design elements from the Constitution and Miranda(Avenger?) designs, especially on the saucer. The Ingram looks like it's intended to go fast.

I'm presenting a possible refit of the design, or if people prefer another Excelsior/Ingram variant. When I started I didn't intend to deviat from the plans (given what it cost me to get a copy, seems silly to have done so ), just happened one Sunday afternoon after my partner made some observations about the design, which I agreed with.

When I started with the refit idea, I made a copy of the plans and sketched out the changes I thought might work. However, as much as possible I want to stick to keeping this mesh close to the Ingram feel, and design. The fact your working on an accurate version makes me feel less guilty about what I'm doing, and I'm rather looking forward to seeing an actual 3D representation of the Ingram, and seeing how what I've done holds up.

[aridas sofia]

Originally Posted by Tallguy

BTW, Todd Guenther had always intended the "refit" to eliminate the huge (failed) transwarp engines and replace them with standard LN-64 (Enterprise) nacelles. Mostl people think that this puts it way off ballance, aesthetics-wise, but he digs them.

Not the exact nacelles from the refit E. Heftier, beefed-up versions. "LN-72" IIRC. They can be seen on his Ingram-refit plans.

Those are the nacelles I ended up using on the Ariel in its finished form (after I messed around with using the 1701 refit's and these from the original Ingram.)

[evil_genius_180]

Nice work on the deflection crystal and photorp launchers. Also, interesting placement on those launchers. Is that on the blueprints or something you thought of?

[Jayru]

Originally Posted by evil_genius_180

Nice work on the deflection crystal and photorp launchers. Also, interesting placement on those launchers. Is that on the blueprints or something you thought of?

The forward launchers are pretty much where they should be (based on the blueprints) - although I have reduced the number from three to two. The placement of the aft launchers was my own idea, as there are none on the blueprints. In total I've added one extra torpedo tube to ships weapons, but just balanced out the fore/aft fireing options. Seems logical in terms of a refit, does it not?

I was a bit worried about reducing the forward fire-power of the ship, but I figured that given it has two phaser cannons on the nacelle pylons this ship already has a lot of forward fire power - just not much aft, hence the addition of aft tubes, which very few Starfleet ships of the time seem to have (and seems to be a bit of a blind spot).

I've added a small omni light to the inside of the tubes so it looks like those red pannels are producing a nice glow. Ok, the only (2) Starfleet ship(s) ever to be seen (on screen that is) with red glowing torpedo tubes was(/were) the Constitution Class Enterprise (and Enterprise-A). The Excelsior Class had a completely different tube design, placed on either side of the stardrive section. It was kind of debatable as to whether to add any glows to the torp-tubes, and I didn't want to cheat and simply add a red glow at the back of the tube. The red glow has to come from something (well ok, it doesn't), and maybe it has something to do with some type of exposed acceleration coils for launching the torps? That's as good an explination as any. Of course the truth is, that it looks cool so that's why there's a glow... I've attached a pic showing it - and a close up of one of the phaser cannons as well. Those are more based on the design seen in use on the Miranda class, then the Ingrams blueprints... Let me know what you think...

The impulse cyrstal thingy was a lot of fun to build. Who knew you could do so much with extruding? LOL building it was absolute hell on earth actually, but I learned a lot from doing it. One of the reasons for going public with this ship/mesh/wip is that I may need to shout "help!" at some point... max is a tool I am not yet used too...

On the better news, we've sorted on the problems with our hosting space, so after this post I'll be hosting future pics via my own site (as I am in danger of running out of space here...)

[evil_genius_180]

Awesome detailing on the pylon and the torpedo tube looks mad now.

[Jayru]

Originally Posted by evil_genius_180

Awesome detailing on the pylon and the torpedo tube looks mad now.

They do look angry, don't they? LOL

Cheers , the pylons were one of the first things I finished on this mesh. Will get some renders done of them today, got some nice details on them, including thruster bays (as per the plans)...

LOL, going to put up some alternate takes on the warp nacelles later. It will be interesting to see how people react to them....

[Jayru]

Here's some links to rendered shots of the pylons, and phaser cannons... enjoy... (and as always, comments welcome);

[Starship]

Comming along very nice ! Great details !

[Jayru]

Cheers Starship

Reworked some of the detailing on the "Impulse Deck" - keeping it more in the style of what the Ingram has... at some point I will put some detaling in those bays (or "flush vents" as the blueprints call them). Off for food, and then will sort out some ideas for the Nacelles....


@ aridas sofia do you have any pictures of the nacelles you did/used? Would be interested to see.

@ Tallguy, sorry to ask, (and excuse me if I sound thick), but did Guenther release a second set of plans for the Ingram? Or am I missing something in reference to the "refit" version of it? What I've got is the collectors edition with 8 sheets... If there is something else, are there any references you can point me to?

[Jayru]

Had an idea for a quick change to the way the nacelles look. First pic is the nacelle - as it is now. Second pic is the nacelle with an additional brace - but the cowling and vains the same colour as before. Third pic is with the cowling and vains changed to match the colours of the refit connie. Any comments?

Edit: Spent some time playing around with the Nacelles, and I'm not happy with any of the ideas I am coming up with, the pics I've put up aren;t really inspiring... Either I come up with something very new and different, or I leave it as it is. May leave this for the time being, and concentrate on the rest of the mesh...