First Look





Another tour de force by Will

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Tuesday, February 18, 2020 - 07:21 pm: Edit

To clarify, the red engine is the GW engine and the Grey Engine is the X Engine?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, February 18, 2020 - 07:27 pm: Edit

So it would seem.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Tuesday, February 18, 2020 - 07:31 pm: Edit

Yes. The red one is the standard Klingon cruiser/dreadnought engine, for comparison.

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Tuesday, February 18, 2020 - 07:38 pm: Edit

Nice noticeable changes to the engine.

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Tuesday, February 18, 2020 - 11:32 pm: Edit

I like the new engines! Will there be strakes on the hull?

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Tuesday, February 18, 2020 - 11:53 pm: Edit

Yes. All X-ships will have strakes.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Wednesday, February 19, 2020 - 12:38 am: Edit

For comparison's sake, there is art showing Adam Turner's take on the Klingon DX on the covers of SFB Module X1R and Module C3A, and of Captain's Log #39.

It was noted elsewhere on the BBS that the limitations of Shapeways are such that trying to follow Adam's version of the DX engines is more difficult than his take on the engines of the Fed CX, which is fair enough. That said, I wonder if it might be possible to consider the triple-stripe disruptor mounts for the Shapeways DX engines - but if not, well and good.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Wednesday, February 19, 2020 - 12:40 am: Edit

Not very do-able at this scale (and I think it sets a bad precedent about why the previous double mount disruptors didn't have a stripe).

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Wednesday, February 19, 2020 - 01:16 am: Edit

Understood.

One thing I wanted to clarify, from a background perspective: is the DX intended to be derived from the D7W heavy command cruiser (akin to how the Federation CX is derived from the CB) or is it intended to be derived more directly from the D7L? Or to put it another way, did the Klingons work back from (or perhaps skip) the D7W design, in order to select a viable source hull from which to construct the DX?

Not that it matters much either way, though I was curious as to whether or not the Feds were somewhat of an outlier in using - or rather, in being able to use - their heavy command cruiser as a template for X-ship development.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Wednesday, February 19, 2020 - 01:44 am: Edit

Only SVC could answer your question, as that's a universe background question, not about the minis.

For both the Fed CX and the Klingon DX, I am operating on the principle that they are wholly new designs, that maintain the general arrangement of the GW-era heavy cruisers for both tradition and practical reasons.

In some specific cases, existing CB type ships were converted. The learning process of doing so led to hulls stripped down to their central structural core and rebuilt out from that. The conversions ended up being inefficient and largely symbolic, such complete rebuilds that no further were done.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, February 19, 2020 - 09:11 am: Edit

Will's explanation works.

By Steven Zamboni (Szamboni) on Wednesday, February 19, 2020 - 05:28 pm: Edit

I like the idea of the independent satellite engines for some extra disruptors...

...what?

By Charles Chapel (Ctchapel) on Wednesday, February 19, 2020 - 05:39 pm: Edit

Concerning the disruptor stripes, can you make the mount a little thicker for those of us that want to try to paint the stripe detail? Maybe push the disruptors forward a bit to add a bit of rake to the leading edge.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Wednesday, February 19, 2020 - 05:41 pm: Edit

Put the extra two on the center warp engine pack this ship has, and just let them blow off the bulb at the front of the boom. Who needs the crew's mess anyways?

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Wednesday, February 19, 2020 - 06:42 pm: Edit

Charles -
The disruptor band is already taller, to account for the third mount in there.

If I make the disruptor much taller than this, some people will ask "why did disruptors get bigger, on a ship with better technology".

The nose of the engine is already significantly raked back.

By Mark Hutton (Trynda1701) on Thursday, February 20, 2020 - 09:53 am: Edit

Is the main body of the DX engine slightly shorter? The engine overall is longer, of course, due to the longer intercooler(?) assembly. I just can't judge due to the rake at the front of the DX nacelle. Could the main body be slightly longer? The intercooler is fine.

Plus, is it slightly thinner and shorter in height? That looks very nice.

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Thursday, February 20, 2020 - 10:20 am: Edit

They appear to be the same length and height...
Larger disrupter band and curve at the front, other features do make the DX Engine look slimmer....
Flat empty spaces have a tendency to appear larger next to something the same size, but w/more features....

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Thursday, February 20, 2020 - 12:58 pm: Edit

The main portion of the nacelle is essentially the same length as the classic, but the styling makes this hard to see (and I didn't line them up perfectly to generate the images - it was 1 in the morning and the pics were primarily intended to get yay/nay from SVC on the direction I was heading).

The rear bulb features are indeed considerably longer. The engine was kept at the same rough overall size by making it a bit less tall and a good amount slimmer in width.

It's as long as I think it should go. Any longer and it crowds the "fast" engine done for the FD7.

By Mark Hutton (Trynda1701) on Thursday, February 20, 2020 - 01:11 pm: Edit

No problem, Will. I wasn't sure about whether the images were aligned perfectly or not, the more I squinted at them, the less I saw!

That length it is then! Nice work as always.

By Jay Gustafson (Jay13) on Thursday, February 20, 2020 - 04:09 pm: Edit

Want extra phaser bumps

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Thursday, February 20, 2020 - 04:45 pm: Edit

Is there a reason why, Jay?

There are no phasers on the engines, on the SSD.

By Jay Gustafson (Jay13) on Thursday, February 20, 2020 - 06:56 pm: Edit

My mistake the engines are very first generation really love them

By Joe Carlson (Jrc) on Friday, February 21, 2020 - 11:38 am: Edit

Will and SVC,

I really like the X-engines changes. Look forward to the complete X-ship.

Will you are a great sculptor and artist.

SVC thank you for bringing us such great products.

By Joe Carlson (Jrc) on Friday, February 21, 2020 - 06:40 pm: Edit

Any estimate on when the complete ship will viewable.