[WIP] Linerunner Class

[Majestic]

Well texturing isn't going all that well, so instead of bashing my head against a wall and getting frustrated and upset over it, I thought I'd do some more modelling.

Inspired heavy from a design by Madkiofish of Sci-Fi Meshes, the Linerunner class is part of the Legacy/Dawnstar Lineage using similar nacelles as her bigger sisters.

She is only a tiny vessel, smaller than a Defiant class with a crew of 15-20 persons on board and only 3 or so stations on board the bridge. Designated a courier, a vessel designed for quite travels across space to deliver important messages or personnel. I bet Ambassador K'Ehleyr wished the Linerunner was in service when she climbed into that torpedo tube in season 2 of TNG.

She is also armed but only with phasers as there is no space to house torpedo casings on board.

Ultimately I decided to doing a small ship for a change over the large ships I have been doing and no doubt I'll be doing another couple of small ships in the foreseeable future.

I still have a great deal of work to do on her, having spent about 5-6 hours on her already. I am considering adding a shuttle/cargo bay which can only house one small shuttle.

Images below in the attachments.

 

[Jetfreak]

Slick design, that could also make a great replacement for the stock repair ship in my case.

 

[Amateur]

Agreed. Only thing I'd suggest is that maybe adding something on the back of the saucer to break it up a wee bit. A shuttlebay, as you suggested. could go well there and possibly lend itself to flowing into the bridge structure

I like the nacelle's - more ships with them! We want more I say!

All in all, I think it's a tidy little ship that could find a place in my install somewhere.

 

[Majestic]

Thank you both of you. I have essentially finished the ship now. I am considering closing the front gap a little, as it feels too wide now that I have the modelling complete. She stands a little high at 1650 poly's but I quite like the design.

In the new section at the bottom of the hull is shuttlebay, (shown in the second image below) above it near the rear of the ship is a conference lounge, the windows will naturally would be on the texture.



I feel she could be utilised in Armada 2 in several capacities, like a repair ship as suggested, cargo ship or even as a scout or lite destroyer.

I have also worked out the specs on her. Nothing fancy here just a little history and such being the class.

Spoiler: Linerunner

Linerunner Class

Classification: Courier/Corvette
Design and Production Facility: Utopia Planita, Mars
Commissioned: 2381
Crew: 15
Decks: 4
Mass: 102,000 metric tonnes
Dimensions: 120m(L) x 62m(W) x 32m(H)
Armament: 6 Type XI Phaser Arrays
Defence Systems: Auto-Modulating Metaphasic Shielding system with a Duranium/Tritanium Double hull and a high level structural integrity field
Propulsion: 2 Impulse Engines and one matter-antimatter warp core feeding 2 warp nacelles.
Support Capacity: 1 Shuttlecraft

Unit Run:
NX/NCC – USS Linerunner
NCC – USS Express
NCC – USS Courier
NCC – USS Traveller
NCC – USS Postal
NCC – USS Bulletin

Class Overview:
Produced in small numbers the Linerunner class was put into service in 2381 as a larger alternative to the Runabout type long range shuttles. Heavier armed and much larger, Linerunner vessels were the answer to a dire need for small but quick vessels needed to deliver important personnel, diplomats or parcels/packages to destinations. Often during the Dominion war personnel were killed or disappeared en route using Runabouts becoming victims to Dominion patrols and sneak attacks. The Linerunner is equipped with weaponry on par with Nova class vessels and are fast enough to outrun most capital ships in service by neighbouring states.

The Linerunner is one of the smallest vessels in Starfleet, operating with a crew of 15, most internal space is taken up by barracks with only the Captain, first officer and next highest ranking officer having their own barracks plus there is an additional single vacant barrack for any special visitors being transported. Other areas on board include a small mess hall, a single transporter room, a 3 person bridge, a comparable sized engineering room, small sickbay, observation/conference room and a single shuttlebay that can house only a single shuttlecraft. There are times where the shuttle isn't stationed on board due to cargo needing to be transported as part of the mission profile.

For a vessel of it's size, space is at a premium and utilised with no wasted space. Linerunner class vessels are usually stationed on board starbases located throughout the Federation in strategic locations and are deployed when necessary and are usually crewed by officers and crew from the Starbase due to the temporary and specific missions Linerunner class vessels find themselves being utilised for.

 

[Amateur]

Love it! The gap's been closed up nicely. To me, seems a little like a cross between your Dawnstar, a Norway and a Sabre. Not a bad thing to have such pedigree. Liking the backstory as well - if only the tooltips all linked to some form of guide with such detailed info. Now that would be awesome!

 

[thunderfoot]

Very Nice! Liking the back story as well. Perhaps some variants could be created by giving her an external attachment point for some sort of pod which could perfom a variety of functions. Such as a mail pod, a crew pod, a repair pod and so on. The pod might logically be placed aft, below, and between the pylons which support the engines. Be useful for a StarBase to have a multi function platform like this assigned/attached to it. I think you're really onto something unique here. Lots of people do battleships and cruisers. Not so many do support vessels such as this one. I've often wondered about things like Fleet Logistic Trains in Star Trek. One never sees destroyer tenders, Anti-Matter tankers, torpedo colliers, salvage vessels and the like. Sure, with replication technology some of these may be redundant. But it would still be more energy efficient and cost effective to have stores ships follow the fleet to replenish it after engagements. A2 doesn't do a very good job of showing the resupply/rearm side of things but still.

I wouldn't pay too much attention here, lol. Just me thinking out loud. But I already know where and how I'll use this one when you release her.

 

[Knight]

Great stuff Maj

 

[Terra_Inc]

Wow, this certainly looks interesting. There aren't enough small ships for the Federation. And this is a cool concept. I remember that in Achilles' AOW, starbases could launch fighters, which was good for short-time defense and keeping an eye on the space around the base. But sometimes you want something bigger than a fighter or your average runabout.
The model itself looks great and really starfleet-ish.

 

[Majestic]

For a quick spur of the moment model idea, it sure is looking like a successful one.

Well I've added a bridge area, which has increased the poly count unfortunately to just over 1700. I thought, it would be a waste of space to not add one, considering how small the ship is.

I have also looked at where certain area's on the ship would go. The ship has a single turbolift with doors both front and aft. It also only goes up and down, no sideways action like the other larger ships have. It's aft of the bridge. The small sickbay and mess hall are forward next to the deflector dish, one on each side.

The shuttlebay doubles as a cargo bay as outlined earlier. Below it is one of the impulse engines, the second one is up down just aft of the bridge and turbolift. The conference room is at the furthest aft of the ship, which is rather uncharacteristic for a Starfleet vessel. I have considered putting the engineering room under the bridge on the lowest deck so there is the ejection hatch at the bottom of the saucer for the warp core. Something I haven't added to the images.

 

[Starfox1701]

Rvers the confrence rom and the impulse engine. Better control with it in the backcentered between the Necells which account for somuch of the ships tonage.

 

[Jetfreak]

The layout is pretty much reasonable Maj, all those parts crammed into such a small space must have been pretty challenging. Just don't make the deflector too wide lol. I have seen designs with uber wide deflectors that look like open mouths.

Am I also correct in assuming that she will sport textures based on the Dawnstar?

 

[Majestic]

Well I finished her by closing the front of the saucer a little, she'll also have a small deflector similar in style to the Intrepid main deflector and yes she'll match the Dawnstar and the rest of my Midway Universe fleet.

 

[Sqweloookle]

I love it so far Majestic. Keep up the great work.

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
That is a very interesting ship, a design similar to the most modern ships with a different mission profile. As there are always big ships, then the smaller ships become more necessary... and the Linerunner can sure free ships like the Nova class from some courier duties so they can dedicate more into exploratory missions.
A suggestion could be that instead of making an upper and lower impulse engines, I would rather make Akira-style impulse engines (at the end of the support for the warp nacelle pylons). That will also give it a feel of the intrepid class and free space in the saucer section from the engine equipments for other things.
I hope that can help a bit.

 

[USS_Excalibur]

Hmm... looks nice. I look forward to the first fully textured image of it.

 

[Majestic]

I started to texture this little beasty. It's about 30-35% along in the texturing process. I still have a great deal to do, most noticeable getting the windows the correct size. I have gotten the rear observation/conference room windows the right size, (they are quite large compared to the others) but the others I haven't yet. The Incursion is the same, still working on getting the windows the right size.

I have also calculated the ship to be roughly about 100-120 meters in size.

 

[Starfox1701]

Might want to think abaout forward phasers too. She's looking good in any case keep it up

 

[Majestic]

Oh I do plan to put phasers on the forward saucer, top and bottom. I just need to figure out how to make them curved and look right. I've done a bit more since I posted those images, like two cargo bays on the back of the saucer, left and right.

 

[Amateur]

Wow, you're getting really good at this. By the looks of it, you're matching Aad's style and colouring. Awesome!

As for phasers (in photoshop at least), I'd make a line and then stroke along it with a thick stroke.

Someone else probably knows a better way.

 

[Jetfreak]

Way cool, seems like you're really getting the hang of this as far as I can see.

Let's see, what's the most distinct details that TNG-era Fed ships have?

Escape Pods - Check
Weapon Banks (a la Phaser Banks and Torpedoes) - Check
Engine Placements - Check
Detailed Hull Paneling - Check

Looks like you're well underway buddy. Though I'd suggest looking over some technical illustrations of Starfleet ships when you can. It helps you to see how they're placed, what's the layout?, what colors they use?, etc... The ships of this era tend to be a lot more difficult to flesh out due to these. Either way, it helps to be consistent just to be sure.

 

[Hellkite]

Have you thought about given her landing gear ; like the Defiant ?

That way she could be birthed inside a starbase's hanger or a really big starship like the "Seraphim" for example


And given her hull shape she could also be atmospheric her hull would lend its self as a lifting body

 

[Dan1025]

Really cool stuff Majestic, your texturing skill is improving rapidly

Looking forward to seeing this little beauty fully textured

 

[Terra_Inc]

Love the progress!

 

[Starfox1701]

Oh I do plan to put phasers on the forward saucer, top and bottom. I just need to figure out how to make them curved and look right.

Tutorial #3 covers that

MSFC

 

[Majestic]

Thank you all, it's one of many designs I plan to use to improve my texturing skills.

As for her purpose she is stationed at starbases and only used when needed. She is utilised by Starbase staff for express post of cargo and important personnel across the Federation and as such only so many exist but they are small enough that even a starbase can repair and build them if needed.

I really haven't thought about landing gear, however with using basically every share space on the texture I won't be adding it in. It's the only reason as I wanted to keep it down to one texture like the Incursion is.

@Starfox,

Thanks, while I can't hear anything due to having no sound device I think it has put me in the right direction.

 

[Starfox1701]

He mainly talk about using vectors to draw on the phaser strips. So in an od way you are modeling the strips onto the texture.

 

[Majestic]

I just discovered I can't do them, the tutorial PS has options mine doesn't, and every other method I have tried has failed.

 

[Starfox1701]

Options like what?

 

[Jetfreak]

Hmmm, are you having difficulty getting the shapes or curves right? I suggest that you could just make a full circle and "cut" the parts that you need. It worked for me on the Dawnstar.

 

[Majestic]

Thanks Jet, I'll give that a shot when I get back to it. The Linerunner is only one of several small release projects I am working on at the moment and have decided to give it a break for now.