I kinda like the "X" on the lower hull with the strakes. but can do without if there's a consensus.

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Saturday, February 08, 2020 - 05:36 pm: Edit

I had grown to like the V2 design (still do).
I do like how the Federation CX would look, with just two Strakes on the top of the Saucer hull, and two on the top of the engineering hull. (edit: it may print easier in the 1/7000 without the bottom two Strakes?)

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Saturday, February 08, 2020 - 07:10 pm: Edit

Q: Where is the visual evidence of the emergency center warp engine?

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 12:01 am
Q: "Also, according to the SSD, the CX should have the same 2-box "warp pack" in its saucer as those on the Fed BCG and CB saucers. Is that what the block underneath the impulse deck represents?"
A: Please review the Shapeways model for the BCG that you note. That ship and the BCV have a similar warp pack at the join of the neck to the saucer. This is also as was done on the Starline 2500 BCG and CB.

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Q: if or when any first-generation X-ships were to be added to the Prestige scale, would the strakes be proportionally as large as they are on this model, or might the 1:2500 scale enable a greater degree of flexibility in terms of what would work with the Shapeways printers?

A: So-far, the prestige Fed and Klingon models have been straightforward scale-ups of the 1/3788 baseline model, with the only change being the revision of the stand.

Changes to proportion for a 1/2500 CX could be made, but would take an "easy 1 or two hour project" and make it into a much more significant one (which puts it further back on the list of things getting done).

By Mark Hutton (Trynda1701) on Saturday, February 08, 2020 - 09:49 pm: Edit

Trying to think ahead to other X-Cruisers etc, if the Fed CX gets only four strakes (two upper and two lower) it would mean not trying to get eight on other Empires X-Cruisers.

If four is decided on, I could see potentially where they might go on Orion or Hydran hulls, for example, not sure about other Empires though! By the way, I'm not trying to take away what the sculptors themselves might have in mind.

The current positions on the Fed CX suggest location near the engineering decks, which may be how to position them on other ships, if possible.

I'd love to hear the thoughts of Will, SteveZ and Chris on these matters.

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Saturday, February 08, 2020 - 10:10 pm: Edit

Size 4 hulls with Strakes could have two, some empires may have an odd number of Strakes with size class 3 and 4 X ships (what ever may look best with the empire design), just some thoughts.

By Chuck Strong (Raider) on Saturday, February 08, 2020 - 10:31 pm: Edit

Will:

I don't follow -- is the center warp pack visible on this CX model? If so where?

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Saturday, February 08, 2020 - 10:38 pm: Edit

Chuck, yes, I can see it. It is small, but visible. It's below the Impulse engines. Look at the side views of the CX and CA, and note the extra bit there.


Garth L. Getgen

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Saturday, February 08, 2020 - 11:55 pm: Edit

Under the impulse engines, in the same place it was put for the Shapeways BCG, and the Starline 2500 BCG and CB.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Sunday, February 09, 2020 - 08:40 am: Edit

Hi Steve,
Can we please get a line up of CA BC CX ?
For fun if you decided to mix in the CF or CVS that’d be cool too.

The comparison should see some obvious and logical technological improvements through time not to mention it would be an awesome display of the beauty and power of the Federation designs.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, February 09, 2020 - 03:50 pm: Edit

I cannot do such a thing as all of the images I have are not the same scale. I'm not sure Will has time. Maybe someday he will do a total Fed Recognition Chart which we will print and sell.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Sunday, February 09, 2020 - 07:25 pm: Edit

Oh right I read the thread about the images being different formats and scales...it’s cool, I hope to see that someday maybe also some new master workbench painting guides

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Sunday, February 09, 2020 - 09:22 pm: Edit

On a side note, I wonder if it might be worth mentioning a few CXs of historical note in this class' Shapeways writeup: such as NCC-1749 USS Vincennes (the testbed hull for Star Fleet X1-technology, converted from a pre-existing heavy command cruiser); NCC-1776 USS Bunker Hill (which led the Federation task force in Operation Unity); and NCC-1782 USS Masada (which was encountered by the CVL NCC-1802 USS Darwin in a highly classified incident of key import).


Also, I was looking over the X-rules in the SFB Silver Anniversary Master Rulebook, and noticed that while the Hydrans are the only Alpha Octant species to field X-fighters, the X-MRS (XJ8.0) is far enough removed from a standard MRS that a non-X ship cannot operate it, while an X-ship in turn cannot operate a non-X MRS.

So would a Federation X-MRS be as dramatic a visual upgrade over the non-X MRS as the CX is from a non-X Fed cruiser? Although given how many actual X-ships remain to be done, I wouldn't be in a hurry to ask about seeing any of them appear in Shapeways terms any time soon...

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Sunday, February 09, 2020 - 10:49 pm: Edit

Oh, and when I noted a few samples of Adam's CX and DX cover art earlier in the thread, I forgot to add that there was one additional SFB product which featured his take on a different advanced technology warship.

Alas, said X-ship remains buried in the simulators... so far as we know, at least. Still, I wonder if it might inspire a new entry on the Shapeways storefront some day.

By Chris Nasipak (Ecs05norway) on Monday, February 10, 2020 - 09:30 am: Edit

I think that it might work better if the strakes were not all of the same height. The saucer ones work well at the height they're at but the ones on the secondary hull don't quite. Maybe if they were closer to flush with the hull /there/, but raised on the primary hull, they would look better?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, February 10, 2020 - 02:44 pm: Edit

I think the strakes on this final version are fine.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, February 10, 2020 - 02:45 pm: Edit

Somebody asked Will to do this and he graciously took time to do it.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, February 10, 2020 - 02:45 pm: Edit

Somebody asked Will one too many times about the warp engine on the saucer...

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, February 10, 2020 - 02:46 pm: Edit

Steve Zamboni contributed a Kzinti X-ship just to keep the conversation moving...

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, February 10, 2020 - 02:47 pm: Edit

Steve Z also sent this Tholian PCX but I think we need only three strakes as the other ships will need those "root spots" for weapons.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, February 10, 2020 - 02:57 pm: Edit

For reference, here is some MSSB art.

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Monday, February 10, 2020 - 03:27 pm: Edit

I like the Tholian and Kzinti style Stakes better. The Federation ones look to tall to me. I'll eventually buy them all either way, but would prefer if they were half as tall on the Federation ship.

By Chris Nasipak (Ecs05norway) on Monday, February 10, 2020 - 03:51 pm: Edit

> I like the Tholian and Kzinti style Stakes better. The Federation ones look to tall to me. I'll eventually buy them all either way, but would prefer if they were half as tall on the Federation ship.

This is what I was talking about. if we had strakes about this size for the engineering hull on the Fed, it would look a lot better. Keep the big tall ones for the saucer.

By Steven Zamboni (Szamboni) on Monday, February 10, 2020 - 05:41 pm: Edit

The Kzinti/Tholian strakes are copies of the Fed strakes dimension-wise, but I've sunken them deeper into the hull deeper. (I'm also working with flat surfaces, unlike the Fed.)

(Empire-specific strake greebles could be swapped in once this all gets ironed out.)

By A David Merritt (Adm) on Monday, February 10, 2020 - 06:37 pm: Edit

I think that the Kzinti is the best looking of the three, the Tholian looks good without the root strakes.

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Monday, February 10, 2020 - 06:57 pm: Edit

Thank you for the line art reference. Three for the Tholian PCX would work best, are any of the Kzinti Strakes mirrored on the bottom of the design?