So, I mentioned in one of BlackAeronaut's threads that I've been distracted the past few days with a how-small-can-I-make-it-and-still-have-all-the-hero-ship-features Trek ship. The answer seems to be "pretty damn small" so far, I have a 48m saucer with split-level two-plus-one decks and the rest scaled to suit, with the six biggest space-hogs (deflector dish & sensors, shuttlebay, main computer core, warp & impulse engineering, hangar/workshop, and 6x8x8m holodeck) in place with plenty left for little things like the bridge, sickbay, galley/lounge, quarters, storerooms, phaser banks, etc. and a Reliant-style rollbar pod for photorps and the sort of probes also shot out of a torpedo launcher.
The thing that is making me curse and rage, however, is the shuttles themselves. I've found Type-6, Type-15, and Type-12 (aka Type-9, Class 2, and Speedboat) models to download and the Type-10, 11, and whatever the Argo is supposed to be are too big for the shuttlebay anyway, though those all import as a cloud of untextured separate parts in the shape of a shuttle, but I cannot get a goddamn Type-7, which aside from a couple of little Type-15s that can be tucked into a baby's hoodie pocket is the one I want since it's a) got a decent amount of cargo space and b) still fits in the ship while leaving room for a visiting shuttle up to (barely) a Type-9 without having to occupy engineering's machine shop full time. I've found two available for download:
https://www.trekmeshes.ch/meshes/meshesd...Item=TYPE7
The preferred version, Lightwave .lwo format, but it sends Blender into a hang when I try to import it
https://metlesitsfleetyards.deviantart.c...nts_view=2
The not as pretty late-TNG version, and in goddamn .max format that doesn't actually store the model data, just how to recreate it in 3DSMax so it's completely impossible to create an importer plugin for and you're locked into paying Autodesk's exorbitant prices.
Now, after cursing for a while before giving up, accepting the time not working on the actual ship, and starting on my own entirely new mesh I have most of a new one made already, but it is visibly a bit inaccurate here and there, if serviceable. Still, I'm putting this out there in hopes some kind member has something that can import the first and re-export it in something that won't make Blender choke, or perhaps has spent more money than I am ever likely to have at one time for hobby purposes and has Max to open and export the second. Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope? Wrong franchise, but whatever.
Oh, and here's a quick shot of my ship, provisional name "Sea Angel" due to the blue saucer trim stripe that turns into two along the top of engineering that you can't really see since the hull and nominal deck spaces are set as wireframes to show the internal arrangement:
![[Image: ohI86Qql.png]](http://i.imgur.com/ohI86Qql.png)
Do note the measurements at the top corner; to put that in perspective the entire ship is about as big as the bridge island on the TOS Enterprise, and the saucer is about the same size as the deflector dish on an Ambassador-class like the Ent-C. Not gonna lie, I was inspired by the (very vague) descriptions of the protagonist's "singleship" in Mal3's The Westerosi, though this one probably still out-displaces that by at least the shuttle bay, non-crew spaces of the saucer, half to a third of the nacelles, and the torpedo pod/rollbar. Each deck is nominally 4m like most Federation ships, though that includes 1m of equipment space cutting down on actual headroom. Its one, straight turbolift shaft uses a standard 2x3m car and will probably include a docking port on the top like the ones on most of the post-ST:TMP ships' bridge modules, and at the bottom like the matching port on a starbase to make personnel transfer with other ships easier. In the foreground is a 1.8m Generic Pink Dudeslab along with my partial warpshuttle, while the ship itself has the various bits I mentioned more or less easily spotted, along with the twin-coil nacelles and various gribblies and bits. The frame is not shown, though I have a napkin sketch of how it will go - the damn shuttle diverted me before I could start on it after getting the big internal components located. You can also see the big pocket doors between the shuttlebay and machine shop, a double layer since they're on the saucer separation line. The aft bay door/landing ramp is also partly visible behind the near nacelle and warp plasma conduits. The many little blue squashy-hexagon things are 1x2x1m cargo containers while the golden spheres with nearby blue coolant tanks are impulse reactors, and the grey thing that looks like a giant gatling gun is actually a spare warp core disassembled for storage becasue if you're not prepared for a major equipment casualty in your long-range light scout you are not prepared. What, on top of the saucer? Another dudeslab, plus a torpedo and probe-torp waiting for me to build the autoloader and storage racks inside the pod. Further to the sides? What do you mean, there's nothing odd there. No, those are auxiliary wide-angle sensor arrays, not kitty ears.
They totally are kitty ears... I was feeling a little silly, okay? And kitties are cute. They won't be kept for the final version anyway.
... probably ...
... and I totally didn't make a set for the shuttle too ...
... yet ...
The thing that is making me curse and rage, however, is the shuttles themselves. I've found Type-6, Type-15, and Type-12 (aka Type-9, Class 2, and Speedboat) models to download and the Type-10, 11, and whatever the Argo is supposed to be are too big for the shuttlebay anyway, though those all import as a cloud of untextured separate parts in the shape of a shuttle, but I cannot get a goddamn Type-7, which aside from a couple of little Type-15s that can be tucked into a baby's hoodie pocket is the one I want since it's a) got a decent amount of cargo space and b) still fits in the ship while leaving room for a visiting shuttle up to (barely) a Type-9 without having to occupy engineering's machine shop full time. I've found two available for download:
https://www.trekmeshes.ch/meshes/meshesd...Item=TYPE7
The preferred version, Lightwave .lwo format, but it sends Blender into a hang when I try to import it
https://metlesitsfleetyards.deviantart.c...nts_view=2
The not as pretty late-TNG version, and in goddamn .max format that doesn't actually store the model data, just how to recreate it in 3DSMax so it's completely impossible to create an importer plugin for and you're locked into paying Autodesk's exorbitant prices.
Now, after cursing for a while before giving up, accepting the time not working on the actual ship, and starting on my own entirely new mesh I have most of a new one made already, but it is visibly a bit inaccurate here and there, if serviceable. Still, I'm putting this out there in hopes some kind member has something that can import the first and re-export it in something that won't make Blender choke, or perhaps has spent more money than I am ever likely to have at one time for hobby purposes and has Max to open and export the second. Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope? Wrong franchise, but whatever.
Oh, and here's a quick shot of my ship, provisional name "Sea Angel" due to the blue saucer trim stripe that turns into two along the top of engineering that you can't really see since the hull and nominal deck spaces are set as wireframes to show the internal arrangement:
Do note the measurements at the top corner; to put that in perspective the entire ship is about as big as the bridge island on the TOS Enterprise, and the saucer is about the same size as the deflector dish on an Ambassador-class like the Ent-C. Not gonna lie, I was inspired by the (very vague) descriptions of the protagonist's "singleship" in Mal3's The Westerosi, though this one probably still out-displaces that by at least the shuttle bay, non-crew spaces of the saucer, half to a third of the nacelles, and the torpedo pod/rollbar. Each deck is nominally 4m like most Federation ships, though that includes 1m of equipment space cutting down on actual headroom. Its one, straight turbolift shaft uses a standard 2x3m car and will probably include a docking port on the top like the ones on most of the post-ST:TMP ships' bridge modules, and at the bottom like the matching port on a starbase to make personnel transfer with other ships easier. In the foreground is a 1.8m Generic Pink Dudeslab along with my partial warpshuttle, while the ship itself has the various bits I mentioned more or less easily spotted, along with the twin-coil nacelles and various gribblies and bits. The frame is not shown, though I have a napkin sketch of how it will go - the damn shuttle diverted me before I could start on it after getting the big internal components located. You can also see the big pocket doors between the shuttlebay and machine shop, a double layer since they're on the saucer separation line. The aft bay door/landing ramp is also partly visible behind the near nacelle and warp plasma conduits. The many little blue squashy-hexagon things are 1x2x1m cargo containers while the golden spheres with nearby blue coolant tanks are impulse reactors, and the grey thing that looks like a giant gatling gun is actually a spare warp core disassembled for storage becasue if you're not prepared for a major equipment casualty in your long-range light scout you are not prepared. What, on top of the saucer? Another dudeslab, plus a torpedo and probe-torp waiting for me to build the autoloader and storage racks inside the pod. Further to the sides? What do you mean, there's nothing odd there. No, those are auxiliary wide-angle sensor arrays, not kitty ears.
They totally are kitty ears... I was feeling a little silly, okay? And kitties are cute. They won't be kept for the final version anyway.
... probably ...
... and I totally didn't make a set for the shuttle too ...
... yet ...
--
noli esse culus
noli esse culus