Wolf Class Starship - original/fan design

[Jayru]

Whilst a few people will be wondering why I'm not back at my desk working on the Ingram WIP, I thought it was time for something a little different. Have no fears about the Ingram though, I am working on it (and building in windows is a bitch, hence I am taking a break from that and moving on to another project )

Some time ago in the Ingram Wip Thread (lets see how many times I plug that shall we?) I mentioned, and showed some of my own design concepts, well just some of the Trek based ones. One really hit a cord with people... but this thread isn't about the "Exeter." One of them has been "calling to me" for years to be given the time and energy it deserves... and after finding a box full of old floppy discs with more information on it then I ever thought I still had, I'm going for it, and starting work on one of my own designs; a Wolf Class Starship.

Ok, now on to a "little" history and some very early crappy 3D work:

The Wolf Class was something I designed at least ten years ago (according to the dates on the hand drawn stuff), and it was designed to be used by a Trek based RP group, before they moved on to something else (the Sovereign Class). Bottom line, what I designed would only ever exist on paper, as I didn't have the skill/ability to turn it into anything more then something hand drawn.

In 2002, that bright wonderful year when I first started playing around with Milkshape and the joys of 3D modeling, I decied to do the Wolf as my second ever 3D model - as a conversion for the ST: Bridge Commander game.



As you can tell, it's pretty basic, low poly, and has very crappy texture maps. Yes, I know - we all have to start somewhere... and I would like to think I've improved since doing that one But, I messed up badly when I built that mesh and lost 4 decks and messed up the shape and feel of the ship - I knocked up an MSD of it at the time;



Unfortunatly all that showed me was that I had a lot, a BIG lot to learn about creating 3D meshes.


So fast forward to six years later, and after a week of looking through some very old hand drawn stuff, and files, and early attempts to put it all on computer I thought; what the hell. It's time to give this baby the time and energy it needs. Time to do it justice.

I have revised the design somewhat - which I figure I would have done anyways had I stuck at it. I know an obscene ammount about this ship - becasue I created the damn thing, and becasue the level of info required by the RP Group was high;

• The Wolf Class is a multipurpose vessel, similar in size and scale to the Intrepid Class.
• The original "Mark 1" design of the ship was 312 meters long, and had/has 15 decks.
• The "Mark 1" ships were built a few years after the first of the Intrepid Class were launched - USS Wolf NX-76100, USS Horizon NCC-76176, USS New Frontiers NCC-76179, were the first three built.
• They can land on planets.
• The warp nacelles move... and were/are angled
• The Bridge is not on deck 1 - in fact originally it was below the level of the main shuttle bay - but on the "Mark 1" both the bridge and shuttle bay are on deck 3.
• The "Mark 1" has four "mini" deflectors, rather then one main one, and a backup.

I could carry on, and fill up pages about this baby... Not sure if that makes me sad or anal, LOL. But I know a lot about this ship.

So (keeping things chronological - and yes, I know this post is getting long, but bear with me...) yesterday I drafted some rough plans for an updated version of my design - as I figure ten years on it needed a bit of a face lift - and lathed up a new hull for it in max;



I've droped/changed a few things for what will be the "Mark 2" version - or "refit" of this ship. The cutaway on the forward part of the hull is now gone. The lower part of the hull has been re-designed. The way the nacelles connect to the ship has been revised, and changed (and in fact the nacelles have changed shape - I think, but I'm still playing with those ideas). The impulse engines are going to be something more in keeping with the feel of the ship, and sit on the trailing edge of the hull. The "deflector" bays are now different sizes, and only one will have a navigational deflector - not sure about the other yet. I want to keep the landing ability - but not if it wont work with the redesign of the ship. Everything else - well, that's the point of this thread. Why spoil what's to come? (IF I can make what I've drawn...)

Anyhow, managed to get some more work done on the "Mark 2" version of the mesh today;



The shape of the hull is pretty final - as is the shuttle bay. The rest, well, that's still up in the air and is subject to change at the moment The two bays may well go, or change shape, or something...

As for scale:



I've managed it this time - 15 decks works fine with this mesh, and with the curve restored at the front of the ship it comes out as being 318 meters long. Which is what I pegged it as on my rough sketches (which hopefully I'll get scanned at some point and add to this thread).

More on this as and when - C&C always welcome


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[t-cast]

Unusual, yet very clever design. Innovative layout of the the usual Trek suspects.
Expertly rendered, beautiful MSD.

[JonX]

Nice, actually reminds me of my first ever trek ship I designed and tried to model, the first images of the Mark 2 looks kinda similar to the splinecage modell I had on my last attempt.

I gotta say thou, your design is much cooler than what I had hehe

[Hellsgate]

SWEET!!!!

I want this one for my "Star Trek: Hell's-Gate" fanon universe database.

Starbase 669 / Starbase Avenger

[Jacob Collstrup]

I like that it has a good 'strong' design. Not too many things protruding from the hull.

Jacob

[Mr Dob]

i like

reminds me of a steam runner mixed with an intrepid mixed with a dauntless (the one off from ST:VOY)

good job

[Aresius]

Looks interesting, though an unusual design.

[Jayru]

Cheers everybody. Glad to see that something that's a decade old can still hold it's own, LOL.

The inspiration for the design, in case anyone is interested, was a dust-buster I had. Seriously, the shape kind of lent itself to what I was doing, and things went from there.

Kind of nice to be able to do it justice at last. The crappy "mark 1" mesh haunts me... made such a pigs ear of it... fair enough it was six years ago, and it never got a public release in the BC community. But still it haunts me...

Hoping we can get the hand drawn plans scanned in at some point. They are all on A2 size sheets, so I'll either have to get them reduced, or do something painful when I scan them... If nothing else it would be nice to show what was originally designed.

If I get a good handle on this one, I will revise it and do a "retro" version based on the original plans... but that's pie in the sky at the moment... lots to do on this one first...

[DamienNZ]

I like the originality of this design. Keep going.

[Jayru]

Decided to play around with the nacelles, and how they are going to "sit" on the mesh. I haven't built the new ones yet, so I had to make use of the low-poly-crappy ones from the Mk1 mesh - but it should give an idea. Oh yes, there's no point in doing it if I don't show the nacelles in there deployed possition as well, ;



Given that I am updating the design from the original, and that I am trying (in part) to make it look as if the ship could work, I have changed how the nacelles connect to ther pylons - they are not going to connect to the nacelles in the middle, but rather sit high on them, so the nacelles "hange down." It's the only way to make the deployable part work, without drastic changes (which I am not adverse to, after all this is a WIP). In there "off" possition, the forward parts of the nacelle do tuck in under the hull, with clearence (made sure of that tonight - just have to make sure the actual nacelles I build do that to, LOL). That's always been a part of the design. As has the fact that the nacelles deploy out, and slightly forward as well, not back. I can't remember my reason for that at the time. It could be something as simple as it looked cool - but I would like to think I had a better reason...

Just so it's clear: these are NOT the final nacelles, they will be changing!

Also had a play around with the impulse engines as well. However, this is not so good :



It looked better in 2D, LOL. It doesn't sit right, or look right. Waaaaay too big. Guess it's back to the drawing board... I'll play around with it later today, after some sleep. I think the basic idea for the impulse engines is sound, but needs to be scaled down a wee bit...

I have no intentions of sticking the great big blocky things I did on the first version. They were on the original plans, no idea why I thought they would look good... Like I say, things look different in 2D

As always, C&C welcome.

More soon.


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