• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

USS Detroyat in Lightwave

Welcome to the board Nascence! Glad to hear you are feeling better! Maybe we can coax some new designs out of you?

p.s. somewhere I have an original one sheet with the Detroyat that I purchased in the early 80's. it along with the Decatur/Belknap has been one of my favorite "fanon" designs. Original, but still recognizable as Trek.
 
A great design by Mike Morrissette, who also designed the similar TMP-era Menahga. Mike suffered a rather serious heart attack two weeks ago, so my best wishes go out to him for a speedy recovery, and to the Axeman for his successful completion of this cool design.

BTW Axeman, did you save any images of your original build of the ship as blueprinted? It is an important design in the "Ships of the Star Fleet/Federation Reference Series" collection and I'd love to have an "in action" image for the website if one is available.

Aye, here's to hopin' he gets better quickly. The Menahga was always one of my favorite film-era fanon designs.

Never seen it, got a picture? :confused:
 
Hi Mike, good to hear from you and great news that you're on the mend. I'm genuinely glad to hear from you and get your opinions on the model. The story of the build is this...

I was approached by someone who I knew was already using one of my models to illustrate a role playing game he had started, and he was now branching out into a TOS era game. He picked the Detroyat as a good candidate as it was the right size and spec, and has been so well documented and used that "it's practically canon". He asked if I could make some pictures for him, as there were one or two models already out there, and I agreed. I found the Detroyat model made by the great Fabio Passaro, but it was just a quick kitbash of a couple of other models and looked little like your drawings. I decided that as it was a relatively small ship I would knock up something of my own following your blueprints, allowing the RPG guys to use the deckplans for their game as well.

I made the first model following the blueprints, but ran into some issues that I couldn't easily resolve. First off was the impulse engines. The blueprints seemed to show what looked like windows, and the resin models I could find had three half cylinder parts embedded in the rear hull which I could not figure out. Next was the lack of a shuttlebay or hangar, something which the RPG guys would need. I searched the drawings and deck plans, but nothing there, which surprised me. There was no photon capability that I could see either, and as this seemed to be a cross between TOS and TMP I though I should add some basic torp launchers, hence my additions above the nav dish.

The rear of the warp nacelles weren't detailed enough for me to work out what was going on either, so I asked the RPG guys and they went with the ball end. Final nail in the coffin was the small, undetailed bridge and sensor on the saucer top and bottom. When I showed them the pictures and asked their opinion, the RPG preferred I stick a more TOS bridge setup on it. There was no way to do that with the saucer as built, so I bit the bullet and started from scratch with a new build, the one detailed in this thread.

I have no problem with finishing the original as per your plans, as long as you're happy to clarify some of the problems already mentioned. Quick sketches of the areas would go a long way to helping me make them properly, even if they're quite rough. Be aware I also had to alter some of the window positions, as they were clashing with floors and walls when superimposed on the deck plans.
 
OK, that's the TOS version I was originally commissioned to do finished.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2711/4126646162_7b58749cf6_o.jpg

I added the missing image files and then tweaked all the surfaces to my liking. It's not perfect, but it's close enough for rock & roll. For anyone with lightwave or similar who wants to play with it, it should very shortly be available in the resources section of www.foundation3d.com as I submitted it a few minutes ago. It will also be available from my website as soon as UK2.net get the servers working again. I'll now make a start on Mikes accurised version.
 
Okay. You could also download the trial version of LightWave and use that for the 14 days it gives you. That's at least something.
 
Is it time limited? I remember when I used it they just had a restriction on model size and image size, but that was it. And the watermark on images.

I could not get my head around Blender if my life depended on it, but Sketchup is pretty powerful for something that is so easy to use. If my work didn't buy me lightwave I would be using Sketchup a lot more.
 
Is it time limited? I remember when I used it they just had a restriction on model size and image size, but that was it. And the watermark on images.

So far as I know, the trial version of LightWave has always been a time-limited full-featured copy. It's Maya that uses the watermark and non-cross-compatible file format.
 
Just checked, you're right. Looks like they changed it when they went to version 9. My Lightwave Discovery Edition is version 8 and had limits & watermarks.
 
I guess I'll amend that to "as far as I know, the trial version 9 updates to LightWave have always been a time-limited full-featured copy." :lol:
 
Thanks for the replies and thanks Axeman!
Yeah, the kitbahed model parts are not very accurate at all.
They are very inaccurate, if anything. This is what happens when you don't get permission or pay a royalty to the originator of the design. No credit is given for the design and someone doesn't t even try to contact you to ask about clarifying details of the design so an accurate model can be made.
The were 3 revisions/editions done to Detroyat blueprint set over a course of about 3 years or so. The packaging was different on the second edition and the 3rd edition used the 1st edition packaging again with some tweaks and new details and the edition of a "3rd Edition" notation. The only one I've seen posted online was the first edition version.
The second edition was basically a clean-up version of the first edition. The first 3 of the sheets were redrawn and some of the template lettering I used was replaced with transfer lettering. And some design tweaks/corrections were made on the first 3 sheets.
One change I made that I reversed in the 3rd edition was I had replaced the triangular-style thrusters w/ a rectangular design that was closer to those on the STTMP E. On the 3rd edition I reverted back to the triangular design as I like the look and layout better and I made a few tweaks to the look of these.
The 3rd edition I again did some revisions and redraws of the 4th and 5th sheets to clean up a lot of the lettering and again made a few more design tweaks that clear-up some confusion on some of the design details.
I can't post these, however since I have moved, somewhat, recently and don't have easy access to this stuff right now.
However, I have the scans of the 1st edition that I could add the changes and revisions to as well as as add color to the prints to show coloring/marking details.
One detail that I reverted back to from the first edition was the ship name/number markings. The large NCC-1100 on the primary hull is Amarillo USAF. The ship name, the "United Federation of Planets" on the primary hull, the NCC-1100 on the bottom of the primary hull and on the nacelles used the STTMP E lettering style (without the red border). Same goes for any other wording or number markings on the ship.

As for your question on the impulse engines,the "windows" on the back that you refer to are the impluse engine exhaust ports. The layout is similar to what Franz Joseph did on the TOS E published blueprints. And are consistent with some of TOS stock footage of the Enterprise having impulse engines with multiple exhaust ports. They are just a little more rectangular. The rest of the details are deflector gridding.

The Detroyat, herself, didn't originally have photon torpedoes but had added them in the 3rd edition after discussions with Aridas and Todd Guenther. I placed a recessed tube on the port and starboard sides on the part of the ship that connects to the primary and secondary hulls. On the part that transitions to the wedge-shaped secondary hull. This is the area that has the airlock port on the lower primary hull in the front view. The tubes are toward the back of this section hidden from the side profile view.This made sense and it placed the tubes in a built-in location rather that having something sticking off of the hull somewhere.
The other vessels had them, but added a note to denote that Detroyat had been retrofitted with photon torpedoes after the rest of the class had been bulit.
Until I can post or get you a set of revised design details, this is the best explanations I can give you so far
:)
 
Last edited:
Hi again,

I tried PM'ing you my contact email so you could pass on any info you wished, but it seems to be blocked for some reason? PM me your mail address and I'll pass on my contact details. Rather than bogging the board with blueprints and sketches you dont want circulating you can send them direct, and I'll create a new progress thread here for the new 'accurised' version.
 
WOW! Welcome to the TrekBBS Nascence aka Mike Morrissette :). Im glad your feeling better :)
 
Hi again,

I tried PM'ing you my contact email so you could pass on any info you wished, but it seems to be blocked for some reason? PM me your mail address and I'll pass on my contact details. Rather than bogging the board with blueprints and sketches you dont want circulating you can send them direct, and I'll create a new progress thread here for the new 'accurised' version.

New members can't PM. Think they need 50 posts first.
 
Hi again,

I tried PM'ing you my contact email so you could pass on any info you wished, but it seems to be blocked for some reason? PM me your mail address and I'll pass on my contact details. Rather than bogging the board with blueprints and sketches you dont want circulating you can send them direct, and I'll create a new progress thread here for the new 'accurised' version.

New members can't PM. Think they need 50 posts first.

or someone to say in a thread "hey i tried PM'ing you..."

mine got turned on at about 32 or 33 posts, i think a Mod noticed and activated em for me
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top