posted
OK, about the photon launchers being too big on the front. That entire red thing isn't the actual launcher, it's the door the launcher is behind. The launcher itself could be the same size, it's just that the protective door on the launchers on the front are abnormally large. Heck, we could probably have 2 launchers per hole, which would mean 4 forward facing ones, but then again, that might be overgunning the ship.
-------------------- "Lotta people go through life doing things badly. Racing's important to men who do it well. When you're racing, it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting."
-Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney, LeMans
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
When I built my Centaur style USS Midway, I had to use a Excelsior "B" saucer, but everything else is a cleaned up undamaged ship. I also gave the Midway a normal sized torpedo launcher and scratchbuilt new nacelle pylons instead os crappy miranda parts.
I'll try to get some pics of the ventral side this week. ...and ys, that is a shuttlebay at the front of the ship! the sabre and Akira have simmilar setups. STTM is only good for pics of ships: all the descriptions have always been crap.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
I think that there should be something different instead of the two launchers which are exactly like on the Miranda. Preferably smaller openings and a deflector dish in between.
-------------------- Bernd Schneider
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Well, the new model certainly looks nicer... but which is the 'real' Centaur? I think the original would look ok with a better paint job. I like the replacement of the bridge module but the torp launchers are way out of scale. Also the articles author obviously didn't have any bright ideas about the 'shuttlebay' in front of the bridge...
-------------------- "I am an almost extinct breed, an old-fashioned gentleman, which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-bitch when it suits me." --Jubal Harshaw
Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged
-------------------- Christopher [email protected] SR20Egg
Registered: Jun 2002
| IP: Logged
capped
I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
Member # 709
posted
Disregarding this magazine nonsense, I'm working on a deck schematic based on the studio model, based on an Excelsior sized saucer. maybe by Tuesday.
Registered: Sep 2001
| IP: Logged
posted
Urrgh... If I didn't have a reason to insist that the ship is Miranda-sized or smaller before, I'd have one now:
The front view sucks.
With the Excelsior-scaled bridge hidden so completely behind the shuttlebay/protective thingamabob, this ship looks *decapitated*. And even if the "protecting the bridge" stuff actually made some engineering sense, it's psychologically a horrible mistake to have a bridge that doesn't have a view forward.
The whole point for having an external bridge on a Trek ship is to create the illusion that it has a view forward. If not for that, the bridge could be placed in some place that actually made engineering sense! Restoring the Miranda bridge would also restore an acceptable bow view.
As for the torpedo tube size... Well, for a 200m ship there's no problem. And as for the torps hitting the sensor dome... remember how Capt. Reynolds liked to fly "above" Sisko's Jemmie ship in the battle? Just say that his forward tubes were angled down, much like the Voyager's were.
For the missing greeblies, I can accept the idea that the Centaur was a somewhat patched-up veteran with features a freshly built ship of the class would lack. It's just too bad that no other major ship in DS9 was shown with similar "battle repairs".
posted
Hello, my name is Mark Nguyen, and I will now inform you about the history of the USS Centaur model. Point form notes follow:
[Note: There is NO NEW ARTWORK that I can show you. Seriously, no. Don't ask.]
-The model was one of several ships on Mojo's "list of ships to make in order to please the fans, specifically those guys on the Flare Forums" list. This list included, but was not necessarily limited to, the USS Centaur, the Enterprise-B, and the New Orleans class. The Centaur was to be used as a background ship in the Unseen Frontier book, though not necessarily as the Centaur herself.
-Credit for the model goes to Ed Giddings. Mojo was in charge of the project. I was a consultant, and my job was to find source material for the ship model, correct said material to what was actually on screen, and comment on the model as it took shape. This was as part of my (suspended) job on Unseen Frontier, in addition to various other consultant and creative duties. Anyway, UF went into limbo while we were building the model, and while it was mostly finished by that time, I didn't get to see the finished model until now. However, we knew that the model would be featured in the Magazine eventually. I had nothing to do with the writeup, thank God.
-I suggested scaling the ship up to Excelsior size, rather than down to Miranda size. My take on this was that it would more easily solve the problems of the impulse engines, shuttlebay, etc. After all, the Klingons were apparently able to scale their ships up, no? The saucer would have eventually been incorporated into the new Enterprise-B model.
-I've already posted about the pristine nature of the ship. Mojo wanted to have something sleeker and cleaner than the POS we saw when we got the reference pictures in. There are two possible explanations for this (you get to choose): One, the pristine thing, and the USS Centaur is just hideously battle-damaged and/or field refitted. Two, what we see here is a semi-refit version of the ship, incorporating later bits of technology. The dark triangular shapes on the saucer are deliberately emotive of the ones found on the Sovereign class. Perhaps they are some sort of improvement?
-I also recommended that the front superstructure was indeed a shuttlebay. At this scale, it would be much less of a problem than it it were scaled to the Miranda. Ed apparently forgot to put the ribs into the door... But in that case, I say just imagine it slides as a whole into the ground, or something.
-Class name: as I hinted at some time ago, we called it "Baracus-class". When we first saw the model reference pics, Mojo and I had quite a time saying just how ugly it was. I was the first to coin the name "Baracus" because of all the gold stuff and the resulting A-Team reference, and it sorta stuck while we were making the model. Of course it's not official, but I like it.
Not much else I can think of off-hand, as my job after finding the reference pics was more or less only to comment on this and that. Ed did all the heavy work, and Mojo was in charge and relayed stuff back and forth - Ed and I had no really direct contact. I hope this is enough for you guys for now... If you have any specific design-related questions, ask, and I'll see if I can remember anything else specifically.
capped
I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
Member # 709
posted
I'm very happy now to say that we can consider this to be a post-war refit of the ship we saw in the ep. The bridge was replaced and the greeblies streamilined.. this allows both the studio model version to have existed in the episode and the CGI model version (which is a damn fine effort, IMO) to be what the ship looks like refit after it appeared.
Registered: Sep 2001
| IP: Logged
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic
