Federation Class Dreadnought
Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2016 5:10 pm
So, previously this was our Federation class Dreadnought size comparison picture. I knocked it up myself in Photoshop, some years ago.
Here's the new one. I knocked it up in Blender. Took approximately three days to do.
Just a slight improvement.
I went very much with the Franz Joseph design, but I did tweak a few things.
1) Joseph's diagram shows hull lines on the primary hull in places where they would be in the middle of decks, going through windows. I tweaked them slightly so that the horizontal hull lines lie level with the decks.
2) The biggest change; Joseph has a grille type affair on his nacelles. On the Enterprise they face inwards, so they're facing one another. On the Saladin, he rotated it so they face downwards. On the Federation, however, he put the girlls on the lower nacelles facing inwards as before, then put the one on the upper nacelle facing to port. This makes the nacelle look horribly unsymmetrical. You can't rotate it downwards like on the Saladin, because then it's in the way of the pylon. So I rotated it so it points upwards.
3) As before, the phaser banks on the Joseph drawings are essentially dimensionless points. So I used the same TMP-inspired ball turret design as I used for the Saladin/Hermes/Ptolemy designs. I did try designing a scaled up version, figuring that the Dreadnought had larger, more powerful phaser banks. But honestly they looked a little overwhelming.
4) More windows. Just because... more windows.
I've been very tempted to fiddle with the weapons fit of the Joseph ships. The way he did it, it's...
Hermes class Scout : 1 phaser bank (2 emitters)
Saladin class Destroyer : 3 phaser bank (6 emitters), 2 Photon torpedo tubes
Ptolemy class tug : 2 phaser banks (4 emitters)
Constitution class Cruiser : 3 phaser bank (10 emitters), 2 Photon torpedo tubes
Federation class Dreadnought : 5 phaser bank (10 emitters), 2 Photon torpedo tubes
So... the Saladin class Destroyer has the same firepower as a cruiser. The Ptolemy class Tug outguns the Hermes class Scout. And the Federation class Dreadnought has only 5 banks to the Constitution's 3, which doesn't seem much of a step up to me. Personally I'd have escalated the Constitution numbers a little and the Federation numbers more so. Still, for the sake of these designs I have gone with what the creator drew.
You could correct for this by saying that not all phaser banks or photon tubes are equal - the Saladin phasers are Type V, Constitution Type VI, Federation Type VII? Something like that. But like I said, the bigger phaser balls looked way oversized on the Federation. So I may fiddle with this and refine it over coming days.
Here's the new one. I knocked it up in Blender. Took approximately three days to do.
Just a slight improvement.
I went very much with the Franz Joseph design, but I did tweak a few things.
1) Joseph's diagram shows hull lines on the primary hull in places where they would be in the middle of decks, going through windows. I tweaked them slightly so that the horizontal hull lines lie level with the decks.
2) The biggest change; Joseph has a grille type affair on his nacelles. On the Enterprise they face inwards, so they're facing one another. On the Saladin, he rotated it so they face downwards. On the Federation, however, he put the girlls on the lower nacelles facing inwards as before, then put the one on the upper nacelle facing to port. This makes the nacelle look horribly unsymmetrical. You can't rotate it downwards like on the Saladin, because then it's in the way of the pylon. So I rotated it so it points upwards.
3) As before, the phaser banks on the Joseph drawings are essentially dimensionless points. So I used the same TMP-inspired ball turret design as I used for the Saladin/Hermes/Ptolemy designs. I did try designing a scaled up version, figuring that the Dreadnought had larger, more powerful phaser banks. But honestly they looked a little overwhelming.
4) More windows. Just because... more windows.
I've been very tempted to fiddle with the weapons fit of the Joseph ships. The way he did it, it's...
Hermes class Scout : 1 phaser bank (2 emitters)
Saladin class Destroyer : 3 phaser bank (6 emitters), 2 Photon torpedo tubes
Ptolemy class tug : 2 phaser banks (4 emitters)
Constitution class Cruiser : 3 phaser bank (10 emitters), 2 Photon torpedo tubes
Federation class Dreadnought : 5 phaser bank (10 emitters), 2 Photon torpedo tubes
So... the Saladin class Destroyer has the same firepower as a cruiser. The Ptolemy class Tug outguns the Hermes class Scout. And the Federation class Dreadnought has only 5 banks to the Constitution's 3, which doesn't seem much of a step up to me. Personally I'd have escalated the Constitution numbers a little and the Federation numbers more so. Still, for the sake of these designs I have gone with what the creator drew.
You could correct for this by saying that not all phaser banks or photon tubes are equal - the Saladin phasers are Type V, Constitution Type VI, Federation Type VII? Something like that. But like I said, the bigger phaser balls looked way oversized on the Federation. So I may fiddle with this and refine it over coming days.