Topic: My first Kitbash - The Solaris Class Light Cruiser

[Rogue NineCH]

I made this thing awhile back since I wanted TOS predecessor to the Akula which I use as a Light Cruiser.  She is the Solaris Class Light Cruiser, and she is based on P81's Saladin Destroyer.  Pending his permission, I will put it on my site for whoever would like to play with it.  I know the  view angles aren't perfect, but you get the idea.  The top nacelle strut's texture is smeared, however I am trying to fix it, I am a novice at 3D Studio Max, so it's slow going.  Let me knowwhat you think.


 

[Rogue NineCH]

Bump, come on I am a novice kitbasher, you hold my fragile ego in your hands.  Just kidding, although I would appreciate a little feed back.

[damo1]

looks different i like it

[Rogue NineCH]

I think it looks good for my first effort anyway.  The second effort I have is the Wilkerson class Destroyer, a kitbash, but I think it is very well done.    I will post pics of it shortly.

[WhiteKnight]

I think it looks cool.Kinda like a TOS Akula.Everytime I try to kitbash the result looks like it was sent through a faulty transporter so for a first try I think it is very well done.

[Marauth]

I'm a man of few words...






Seriously it's very cool for a first attempt, and the Akula s a bi^tch to kitbash in TMP or TOS so kudos. Couple of things I want to point out:

1. the upper 'neck'; I can see that you've duplicated and rotated the original neck so yours is thicker at the nacelle than it is at the saucer, I would suggest that you should have instead flipped it upside-down so that the connection at the saucer is thicker, this would create a much more elegant flow for the ship, this pic from shipschematics shows what I mean:



2. The texture warping; I'm guessing this comes from you either stretching the neck part thus distorting the texture, or you reapplied the texture in some weird fashion, either way doing what I suggest in 1. should solve that

3. the registry. I'm one of those rare few who believe in chronological registries, and I even have the Constellation as NCC-1710 (and the Starfleet Museum just used that in their Connie article aswell ) but really NCC-200 is extremely low considering the Daedalus class had registries in the 150s and 160s. I would suggest a number around NCC-1760 upwards to show a design clearly derived from the Constitution class.

4. the nacelles both face one way, since you probably can't bothered to remake the nacelles to point 1-up and 1-down, I would suggest you have one face to the right and one to the left.

That's just me nitpicking but really good first attempt anyway.

[Rogue NineCH]

I appreciate your input Lestat, now onto your points.

#1 - I know that it looks thicker, I rotated it, because when I flip it, the texture gets screwed up.  Since I am a novice at this, I don't know how to get around this yet.

#2 - The texture warping I have not quite figured out how this happened yet.  I did not stretch the nacelle strut at all, so it could be a distortion by improper placement.  This will get fixed as time goes on.

#3 - The Registry, I picked 200, since this was based on the Saladin Class P81 made.  I simply cut and pasted the number on the registry, and cleaned it up a little bit, sames goes for the name of the ship.  I have no texturing skills, but I am trying to learn how to do registries and ship names.  I thought about using the 1700's, but those were reserved for the Constitutuion Class ships.  I'll update when I get better at registries, though I will leave the name.

#4 - On TOS ships I always preferred the nacelles both face the same way, the wierd thing is, on TMP ships I don't care which way they face, as you can see on the Wilkerson Class Destroyer I did.  I can't explain it, I guess it just a quirk I have.  I think when I release this ship I will include two versions that have the nacelle both ways.

I will address these problems in a later version of this ship, except for the strut thickness and texture warping, I am going to try to fix those before I release the ship.

Thanks again for you input.

[Marauth]

Yo dude, what prog are you using to alter the mesh? Coz I use M6 and it holds textures when you rotate parts perfectly, allright it inverts the polygons bu that can be fixed with a single command. It's great for small scale kitbashing like this where there's minimal editing of the mesh being done.

[Rogue NineCH]

I am using 3D Studio Max 5, by the way I got to thinking about it at work, and about the nacelles both facing each other, one up and one down, are you atlking about the registry number  and being able to see from both sides, or are you talking about the thruster tips facing each other?  If it's the latter, that is just a simple amatter of turning the tip which is independent of the nacelle.  If you talking about the former that will take more work, but I could figure it out.  That's the one drawback on P81's TOS ships he didn't make it easy to switch the nacelles around because of the way he built the mesh.  O)nce I learn how to do texture mapping I might be able to solve this.  I am going to try turninr the nacelle itself again.  Youn never know I might have accidentally done something to mess it up.

[damo1]

this is the first ship a made http://www.gamingforums.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=559179  

[Rogue NineCH]

Nice ship, is that for SFC3 only?  I personally don't play SFC3, there's something about sending six drones streaking towards that enemy ship and watching them tear through it like tissue paper. That is my favorite kill shot, of course I don't like it so much when it happens to me, although that is pretty rare.  ` SFC:OP is pretty meuch the only one I play now.

[damo1]

Quote:
Nice ship, is that for SFC3 only?  I personally don't play SFC3, there's something about sending six drones streaking towards that enemy ship and watching them tear through it like tissue paper. That is my favorite kill shot, of course I don't like it so much when it happens to me, although that is pretty rare.  ` SFC:OP is pretty meuch the only one I play now.  

if you are on about my sovneb then yes it is for sfc3 only

[Rogue NineCH]

I wanted to give you an update on what's happening, I just got my computer back together yesterday.

Sorry I haven't been posting updates on this ships and the Solaris as well, my hard drive crapped out on me and I had to get the money together to get a new one. Fortunately I am a person who backs up his work religiously, I still have the Wilkerson intact and the Solaris. I am still rebuilding everything on my computer at the moment, then I can start work on both ships again, I did lose some of the updating I did, now I have to redo that as well. The very latest I'll have this ship ready is next weekend, although I am hoping for before that. Thanks for the interest, and patience it will be rewarded soon.

[Azel]

Hella Cool!!!