[WIP] Federation Minelayer

[Zelph]

H'okay! This is a ship that I've been tinkering around with for a year or four. Started out as a paper design after seeing the Defiant laying the minefield around the wormhole in Deep Space Nine. So I started thinking, wouldn't it be convenient if the Federation had a dedicated starship class just for that?

So, behold! The in-progress Federation minelayer, class name to be determined.

She's a compact and fast ship, and able to move through an area in a hurry. In addition to her shuttlebay, she's has six dedicated mine bays in the ventral part of the saucer(ish) section.

I've attached some screenshots below. I'm really looking for some feedback on what you all think. I'm trying to figure out the deflector, that's always been a weak element of whenever I design something.

 

[Hellkite]

Really liking the dedicated mine-layer ideal Zelph

 

[Majestic]

Interesting concept mate, ship design is unique too. What game are you building this for? If it's for Fleet Ops or A2, I would unweld all the faces to get rid of the welding errors, there is a A2/FO texture material name tag that will weld the faces for you in-game and it does a fairly good job, it's what I use all the time for the past 4 or so years.

 

[Zelph]

I was planning to build it both for SFC3 and A2/FO. However, I've never really purpose built a ship for A2/Fo though, so I don't know the tricks of the trade haha. I'll definitely do what you suggested there.

Any ideas for how to build a good deflector? I've been sitting here starring at my screen for a while trying to figure out how to start. It's supposed to be a post-DS9 ship, if that helps suggestions.

And thanks for the compliments on the ship design. I drew this one without references materials while I was a missionary a few years back, so the saucer and nacelles are a tad off the beaten path.

 

[Majestic]

Well I normally do TMP fed ships, however I would suggest using the same technique where you have a cylinder with a few stacks and arrive them to look a little like a inside out half or quarter sphere, reverse vertex order it and then put all the detail into the texture.

Take a look at my TMP YY Fed ships, namely the Constitution, Ulysses or Proxima to see what I mean.
http://majestic-msfc.deviantart.com/gallery/41303834/Yesteryears

 

[Zelph]

Thanks Maj! Something similar to this then? I tried to duplicate it as best as I could.

 

[Majestic]

Not bad, might I recommend lowering the amount of stacks you have used. For a part that will rarely be seen having that many poly's in that area isn't the best.

Here is a better shot of the Constitution deflector I made for YY. You'll see I used a 24 sliced cylinder with only 3 stacks (that includes the housing and flat edge front section). I also moved the center vertex on the dish area back a small way to help trick the eye a little.

Also depending on how big the deflector is compared the rest of the hull around it you might want to have a smaller sliced cylinder, generally the smaller the part the fewer slices you can get away with without it looking any lower or being less smooth.

 

[Zelph]

Much obliged! I followed what ya said to the best I could. How does this look?

Also, I currently stuck to the TOS-era ball phasers despite the era disparity, because...well...they're easy to make. Any suggestions on making phaser arrays? Or should I stick to doing it in the textures? I'm at about 2700 poly right now.

 

[Zelph]

Seeing as I brought up textures, any suggestions for easy ways to UV map. Because I don't think what I'm trying to do currently is going to work.

I've looked into a couple programs (LithUnWrap, etc.), but the learning curve is rather high and the tutorials seem geared towards Warcraft 3 models more than anything.

 

[Rifraf]

Much obliged! I followed what ya said to the best I could. How does this look?

Also, I currently stuck to the TOS-era ball phasers despite the era disparity, because...well...they're easy to make. Any suggestions on making phaser arrays? Or should I stick to doing it in the textures? I'm at about 2700 poly right now.

I really don't have much to add except it looks great and I marvel and how you guys make these models. You make it seem so effortless to just sit down and whip one out in a day. Keep up the good work

 

[Zelph]

I really don't have much to add except it looks great and I marvel and how you guys make these models. You make it seem so effortless to just sit down and whip one out in a day. Keep up the good work

Haha, I appreciate it man. Although this one took me a bit longer than that.

Here's where she currently stands. As of now, the minelayer is now the Abdiel-Class, named after the same class of minelayers used by the British Royal Navy in the Second World War. In addition to her six minebays, the Abdiel is armed with six phasers; four fore(ha!) and two aft. No torpedoes I'm afraid - it would seem peculiar for her to be too heavily armed, given her combat role.

 

[Majestic]

Hey mate, sorry was in Sydney all day (2am wake up too) yuck, horrible place, much prefer the country away from all that.

Great work on the deflector, very well done. As for phasers I always do it via textures. Do you have photoshop? As for mapping, I use a program called Unwrap3D it isn't free but I have found it the best out there that isn't too pricey. Look it up on google. The MS3D mapping is terrible I only use it to line up everything on my 2D blank texture template before I start making the textures themselves.

I can send you some blank templates, including the templates I use to get the MS3D image from the texture map into Photoshop (using print screen or Snag it) for making the texture. I might have to see if I can get a mic working on my PC and make some video tutorials for MSFC.

 

[Zelph]

Hey mate, sorry was in Sydney all day (2am wake up too) yuck, horrible place, much prefer the country away from all that.

Great work on the deflector, very well done. As for phasers I always do it via textures. Do you have photoshop? As for mapping, I use a program called Unwrap3D it isn't free but I have found it the best out there that isn't too pricey. Look it up on google. The MS3D mapping is terrible I only use it to line up everything on my 2D blank texture template before I start making the textures themselves.

I can send you some blank templates, including the templates I use to get the MS3D image from the texture map into Photoshop (using print screen or Snag it) for making the texture. I might have to see if I can get a mic working on my PC and make some video tutorials for MSFC.

I do have Photoshop through work, but unfortunately Unwrap is a little out of my price range currently. Tutorials would be fantastic though, the ones I've been seeing online just aren't bridging the gap. Methinks you can haha.

And the country is much better, I agree. Nothing gets me stressed like a city.

 

[Majestic]

Well you can probably make do with MS3D texture editor, I know some people use it to great effect. Just when doing cylinders it can be hard as it doesn't do them right. I believe you need to split those up and when mapping something it doesn't keep proportions which is a real pain as you need to unstretch all the parts.

Yeah hate cities unfortunately they can sometimes be a necessary evil.

 

[USS_Excalibur]

I am sort of curious, is this a TLE design? Or Early TNG? I am trying to find where the torpedo launchers would be on it.

 

[Zelph]

I am sort of curious, is this a TLE design? Or Early TNG? I am trying to find where the torpedo launchers would be on it.

This is a TNG/post-TNG design actually. I'm modifying it right now to make that more apparent. However, the Abdiel (the class name) doesn't have torpedo launchers, it's armed solely with a high number of phasers and its six minebays.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

I think it would be neat to modify the deflector shape slightly to make it less circular. I'm personally quite fond of the Sabre's deflector, but I don't know how well something like that will work on a ship like this

 

[Zelph]

I think it would be neat to modify the deflector shape slightly to make it less circular. I'm personally quite fond of the Sabre's deflector, but I don't know how well something like that will work on a ship like this

I've experimented with it a bit, and I just couldn't get it to fit as well within the hull. Not without some extensive redesign at least, but that might be happening in the next little bit. The secondary hull does feel rough to me, especially as you compare it to the saucer section. We'll see what the future holds I suppose haha.

 

[Hellkite]

Zelph If you would like could take a redesign pass at it if you want me to that is

and it be only the bottom of the ship

 

[Zelph]

Thanks so much man, I just sent you a reply PM about that bottom view.

 

[Hellkite]

Happy to help My friend i just hope its use full

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
There are many ways to get a cylinder well-mapped on MS3d, it might be tricky but you get to get used to that veru quickly. Same that if you are good selecting the right vertexes and using the pivoy and scaling tools it can make mapping quite fast.

As for the ship, the design is very interesting. Same as it's role, I can see it specially useful to defend far away mining operations while the fleet is busy fighting Cubes or Warbirds .

Keep it up!

 

[Hellkite]

Here is that concept for everyone to see its only the bottom of the ship

Spoiler: Abdiel consept

 

[dvatreknerd314]

Interesting. I was wondering about something like that myself to redo the bottom

Looking at the original model, what if you were to increase the height of the secondary hull (to where it goes down further), drag the edges where the hull meets the saucer to create more of a trapezoid, increase the overall width of the secondary hull, and then place the mine launchers on the sloped sides of the secondary hull?

 

[Zelph]

Interesting. I was wondering about something like that myself to redo the bottom

Looking at the original model, what if you were to increase the height of the secondary hull (to where it goes down further), drag the edges where the hull meets the saucer to create more of a trapezoid, increase the overall width of the secondary hull, and then place the mine launchers on the sloped sides of the secondary hull?

That's actually along the lines of what I'm thinking right now! With a few edits from Hellkite's design as well. Unfortunately, my computer has some sort of virus right now, so I'm stuck to my tablet for the next day or two until I can eliminate it. :-(