This is topic Wolf359 ship comparison... in forum Starships & Technology at Flare Sci-Fi Forums.


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Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
 
While looking at Bernd's W359 page yesterday, I discovered that he had added a comparison chart made by Ben Potter. With no offense toward Mr. Potter, I find this chart, while intricate, fairly inaccurate. The Challenger diagram, from what we know, isn't right (the side view looks exactly like the Niagara!), the Nebula-II isn't quite right, and the assignation of the Oberth-nacelled ESM and the shorter McQuarrie ship to the Rigel and Apollo seems to have little if any basis in logic, that I can see.

Okay, maybe that's a bit harsh. It's a nice chart, I just don't think it's correct. :-)

So, here's my take on it. The reason I've made the four-nacelled ESM the Rigel is because, a.) there was no real model for the Rigel, b.) this model wasn't labelled for the show, and c.) it was on the viewscreen when Shelby pointed out the Tolstoy.

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Pickhard: "What is our progress, Beta?"
Beta: "Excellent, captain. I require only one more Thunderstone to evolve my Pikachu to level 47."
-from the Sev Trek movie trailer
 


Posted by USS Vanguard (Member # 130) on :
 
That's a pretty sweet looking chart.

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"Homer, you're dumb as a mule and twice as ugly,
if a strange man offers you a ride, I say take it"-Abe S.


 


Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :
 
Ditto Vanguard's comment.

To Ben's credit, he was assembling a *preliminary* chart based on the current info at the time regarding the ships, using the only diagrams he could get his hands on. His Challenger diagram doesn't take the new information into account because I didn't mail him about it until a few days ago. This is actually the second version of his chart.

I'm still kinda leery about the 4-nacelled Excelsior being the Rigel class, with that high registry. It's still not certain whether that four nacelled ship on the viewscreen was the E-study or the Cheyenne.

I think the McQuarrie model being the Apollo class is a good choice, though. Since Apollos have low registries (in the 10000's), its older design makes sense. And before Frank says anything: No, I don't believe the T'pau was an Apollo

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Captain Tenille: "Oh, Simpson, you're like the son I never had."
Homer: "And you're like the father I never visit."

[This message has been edited by Dukhat (edited July 24, 2000).]
 


Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
 
I dunno about the 4-naceller and the McQuarrie. The former doesn't strike me as an operationally viable vessel - with the telescoping hull and all, there is very little room for regular mission gear in the saucer. OTOH, if this is a mere experimental platform, what was it doing in the battle?

Since the components recognizably come from the TOS movie era, I'd give the ship at most a 30000-range registry (to go with the highest Mirandas) or perhaps 45000 at the most (to go with USS Curry and the later Excelsior batches)), certainly not 68000-range. This could be the Hokule'a cruiser or the Wambundu light cruiser - or then a Merced or Surak whatnot, probably not a cruiser at all. What with the overengining and all, I'd wager a courier of some sort.

As for the McQuarrie ship, it looks way too old to be even an Apollo - the cylindrar engines are *very* problematic for any post-TOS era. The four-naceller could be our Apollo if we wanted, or then one of the other Excelsior study models could fill that role. Or even USS Centaur of DS9 fame - it's got a design to match the low 11000 range of regos, and it's apparently a viable fighting vessel that could plausibly be at Wolf 359 and in "Descent".

Timo Saloniemi
 


Posted by Michael Dracon (Member # 4) on :
 
Actually more a nit in the episode 'Emmisary' than in the charts:
The Nebula class was larger than the Ambassador class...

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"I think I speak for everyone here when I say, 'Huh?'."
- Buffy
 


Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
 
Just like to mention the Cheyenne forward and aft views in the link - the bottom set of nacelles don't angle down opposite to the top set - they angle up with the top set...

The McQuarrie vessel... well we have to think when we last saw cylinderical, tapering nacelles - with no discernable bussard collector - it would have to place it post TOSTV and pre TOSMovie

also in the posted picture above, I'd have to definately say that the Cheyenne is MUCH much smaller than what it is there - you have to see the windows and lifeboats and then the galaxy-type bridge to see that it is NOT the size of a Galaxy saucer section...

Andrew

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"Neil says hi by the way" - Tear In Your Hand, Tori Amos


 


Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
 
Why should the Cheyenne pylons curve vertically in any direction? It seems to me that the only vertical curve is when the pylon actually meets the nacelle and merges with the ventral surface of a dorsal nacelle, or vice versa. The curvature in that forward/aft picture seems quite excessive. What confuses the issue is that the leading and trailing edges of the pylons curve horizontally, instead of being straight lines...

The McQuarrie pylons need not be ramscoop-less - instead, the ramscoop domes may simply have been destroyed. This seems to be a common type of battle damage for the other Wolf 359 ships. With red hemispheres, the nacelles would be quite TOS-like, and the ships some sort of stablemates to the TOS Constitutions (possibly fightercarriers, as fanfic suggests - and there seem to be prominent openings for large shuttlebays astern).

And the 360-380m Cheyenne isn't Galaxy-sized. It's about as small as it can get already, the saucer shrunk to half the Galaxy size. Perhaps one could go down to 250-300m on basis of some of those saucer windows (I once liked to count only every second windowed "deck" on the saucer as a real deck, and the whole bridge assembly as only one deck in height), but then the bridge module would no longer be identical with the New Orleans and Springfield ones - and New Orleans size is pretty much fixed since we can count the window rows so well in the secondary hull.

Timo Saloniemi
 


Posted by Matrix (Member # 376) on :
 
The Cheyenne if it wentany smaller wouldn't hardly have any room inside to fit anything! I think right now its only a few decks thick maybe 7-10 decks in the saucer.

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Perdict the unperdictable, but how do you unperdict the unperdictable?


 


Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :
 
Which is why it is highly improbable for the production version to have a huge shuttlebay on the ventral surface like the Galaxy one.

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"Huh. An intelligent guard. I never would have guessed."
-Preed, Titan A.E.


 


Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
 
The top nacelles on the Cheyenne picture (the only good one we've ever seen - i.e. the trading card picture) looks like the bottom two have the pylon emerging from the body of the ship BELOW the actual height of the nacelles.

The undamaged version of the McQuarrie ships were seen in the Art of... and never had a red ramscoop... just hollow dark areas.

I think that if there is indeed a shuttle bay on the Cheyenne it would be aft - behind the ship - possibly in the middle with an impulse engine either above or below it or both...

Andrew

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"Neil says hi by the way" - Tear In Your Hand, Tori Amos


 


Posted by Joshua Bell (Member # 327) on :
 
Re: Cheyenne class nacelles/pylons

Please take a look at:
http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/schematics/cheyenne.htm

Bernd's article addresses quite thoroughly the issue of how the nacelles are arranged and how the pylons are curved.

I did an ASCII rendition of the ship - about 7 years ago now - that had the lower nacelles curving upwards and a small secondary hull. Bernd's careful analysis convinced me otherwise, and the ASCII on my site has been updated appropriately.

"Your eyes can deceive you - don't trust them."

 


Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :
 
Thanks, Joshua :-)

Erick Munoz is currently finishing the Cheyenne model, which will be as close to the original as possible. http://www.onlyinla.com/~fructose/models/previews/previews.html

I wasn't completely sure if the pylons are all horizontal or slightly curved up/down. However, I guess Erick's solution to just use a straight polystyrene sheet is what Miarecki probably did too.

I have made an embarrassing error calculating the Cheyenne length last year. It should be 362m instead of 380m, based on the GCS bridge section.

The ship chart isn't an exact reproduction of the appearances of the ships, but a summary of what we have. Be sure that it will be refined.

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"Species 5618, human. Warp-capable, origin grid 325, physiology inefficient, below average cranium capacity, minimum redundant systems, limited regenerative abilities."
Ex Astris Scientia
 


Posted by Fructose (Member # 309) on :
 
Yeah, I figured that when he made the model he didn't try to do anything too difficult with it. So I made them straight. When I try to look at it with the same angle as the picture on the card game, it looks pretty close. I am still painting it and it may be a week or two before I can finish it, but it's in it's final form and all that will change is the colors. I'll let you know when I'm finished.

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It doesn't matter if you don't know what you're doing as long as you look good doing it.


 


Posted by Cammodude on :
 
I thought that the Challenger used Galaxy class parts istead of Abassador class parts. And PLEASE tell me that the warp nacelles aren't that big compared to the rest of the body with the Niagara class.

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"If I knew you were coming I would have baked a cake...learned to sing....stop me Gage!"
--Aurther
The Journeyman Project 3

[This message has been edited by Cammodude (edited July 25, 2000).]
 


Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
 
The Challenger does use Galaxy parts. That's one of the things that isn't correct in the original chart.

As for the Cheyenne, it is that size. We know the scales of the model kits used to build it. Therefore, if we assume the bridge to be the same size as a Galaxy's (seeing as they're identical), we know the other GCS parts to be 5/9 normal GCS size (the scales of the two model kits are in a ratio of 5:9).

------------------
Pickhard: "What is our progress, Beta?"
Beta: "Excellent, captain. I require only one more Thunderstone to evolve my Pikachu to level 47."
-from the Sev Trek movie trailer
 


Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
 
Can I ask, how do we know what the BOTTOM of the Cheyenne looks like?? Has Mike Okuda, mentioned anything about the bottom half?? Is there a mating escape pod on the lower 'neck'... is there a deflector on the underside of the hull... like the 'little window deflector' on the Galaxy class saucer?? Does the underneath directly mirror the top? Is there a captain's yacht!?!

Also, just wondering about the Cheyenne's rear... in some schematics and the model work in progress, it shows the 'spines of the galaxy necks' tapering back - but in the picture from the trading card - I don't think there is as big a 'slope' so maybe they somehow sliced of the 'point' and covered it over!?!

Also the saucer seems to have an extra 'deck' - i.e. that gold 'ring' compared to say a galaxy saucer...

ALSO, in the model work in progress the Lifeboat hatches are a TAD too small - look at the 'flat section' of the saucer on the 'cheyenne' the square hatch nearly reaches to the rim and to the start of the rise of the saucer - in the work in progress model - there are much larger gaps in these places... the larger hatches of the Cheyenne also give the saucer a smaller look (and so do the larger windows of course).

What does everyone else think!?!

Also, have a look at the top part of the saucer... if the front is 12 o'clock and where the 'neck' starts is six o'clock then look at about 5 and 7 o'clock... there are "long windows" facing aft... could these in a Cheyenne be possible shuttle bays with the roller door type covering!?!

Andrew
Andrew

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"Neil says hi by the way" - Tear In Your Hand, Tori Amos

[This message has been edited by AndrewR (edited July 26, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by AndrewR (edited July 26, 2000).]
 


Posted by Joshua Bell (Member # 327) on :
 
Has anyone bothered to email Ed Miarecki and ask him for the unknown details of the study models he produced, if he remembers them? He lists them on the resume on his site, so he's presumably proud of them (to some degree).

We're getting answers from Okuda and Sternbach about all sorts of things. Maybe Ed will be forthcoming as well?

If someone has already asked, what was his response?
 


Posted by Fructose (Member # 309) on :
 
Actually, I wrote him and he claimed that he doesn't remember a thing. He seemed a little curt in his response, and my message was very polite. Draw your own conclusions, but I think he doesn't want to deal with us.

As for my model, I was going for a simple approach. I figured that they didn't modify their parts too much from the kits available. And I just made the life boats the same size as those on the enterprise-d. Also, I just made up the bottom to look like another one I saw. I think it looks neat, so I used a little artistic license. You can just ignore the bottom of my model once I finish it.

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It doesn't matter if you don't know what you're doing as long as you look good doing it.


 


Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :
 
Actually, the reason Miarecki probably sounded so curt, even with Erick's good intentions and polite message, was that when the Wolf 359 project began back in February, everyone and his brother (myself included, unfortunately) emailed him about the models he names on his resume. He got fed up with the constant barrage of emails regarding the subject, since no one knew that 500 other people were emailing him the same message.

However, the information he did supply was somewhat informative. Anyone can read the whole exchange by reading the "Wolf 359 The Next Round" thread.

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Captain Tenille: "Oh, Simpson, you're like the son I never had."
Homer: "And you're like the father I never visit."

 


Posted by Joshua Bell (Member # 327) on :
 
Thanks - I figured you guys wouldn't miss the obvious approach. It's too bad these guys work so hard on the stuff that they don't have time to really play with it. (Sorta like me & code; as a software developer for, well, a large software company in Redmond, WA, I don't have time to write all the fun code I'd like to.)

fructose1 (sorry, don't know anyone's off-forum name): I like the design you've done for the Cheyenne shuttlebays. The port one appears to be resin, while the starboard one appears to be mostly "kit plastic". Is the starboard shuttlebay adapted from the 1:1400 Enterprise and the port one a resin copy?

 


Posted by Fructose (Member # 309) on :
 
Close, I used one of the tops that I had left over and cut it up some. The 1/1400 one would have been too big. But the other is resin. (I love that stuff!) And in case you didn't see it in the other posts and all over my site, I'm the 'Erick' everyone is talking about.

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It doesn't matter if you don't know what you're doing as long as you look good doing it.


 




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