Ambassador-era Lexington variant (includes pics)

[S33K100]

Hi everbody, hope the pictures work on imageshack, spent bloody ages trying to get the textures looking okay, anyway, I present my first bash in ages, the U.S.S. Basilios Bulgaroktonos, a lost-era version of WZ's Lexington with almost completely different textures (much taken from the Vanquish, though I've coloured it like a normal Ambassador)









I also modified the mesh by removing the bridge, b/c decks and impulse assembly, plus the replacing the pylons and impulse units with those from the Ambassador and finally removing the fins from the nacelles. I tried to get as close in the colour style as I could to the original Ambassador, though I had to fudge a lot of things, especially the details on the secondary hull, I just modified the existing Lexington grid.

comments/criticism welcome and to Wicked Zombie: may I have permission to release this bash, it would only be on one site - that of my friend RogueNineCH; providing he agrees of course.

P.S. a cookie (the English kind) for the first one to identify the origin of the name.

P.P.S. I completely screwed up the name on the pics and on the saucertop, put Bulgarios instead of Basilios, doh, fixed now along with some other bits'n'pieces on the textures.

[Atolm]

Interesting

[S33K100]

Hmm, thanks for the comment Atolm. No other interest in this then?

WZ still haven't heard from you, do you object to this being released?

[Chris Johnson]

It looks good, but not perfect. My only pet peeves are its name and the warp nacelle pylons. I guess it's more of a matter of taste in that area as I prefered Constitution-class (refit)-esque pylons and figured Starfleet would give her a simpler name... Seeing as how it is your kitbash however, I don't expect either to be changed. Aside from that, I must say that you've captured the lineage of the Ambassador-class into this kitbash of the Lexington-class (especially with the warp nacelle pylons you have done).

Good work overall, I like it. I don't think many would bold in-between the TMP and TNG eras, and for one who just did here, you didn't do a bad job.

[Wicked Zombie]

I should probably check my own forum more often. Of course you can release it.

I kinda wish I'd smoothed out the ends of the Lexington engines - they still have a blockiness to them.

[S33K100]

Thanks for the permission, I quite like the angular rear of the Lexington engines, the Excelsior ones always struck me as too rounded for the TMP era, kinda ugly like a really long phallus for an engine.

[Chris Johnson]

If Starfleet can round out a saucer and make cylindrical engines, it's not unreasonable for a warp engine to have a rounded rear during the TMP-era. That's just my opinion, and I do actually like the Excelsior-class.

[S33K100]

I wasn't suggesting the technology to make rounded hulls wouldn't be available as the Romans could make rounded hulls for their naval vessels (which they copied wholesale from the Carthaginian ships they captured). The point I was making is that stylistically the rounded engines were wrong, at least IMO, the TMP era ships other than the Excelsior all featured angular elements very heavily, the nacelles, the flat top of the Miranda, the main hull on the Oberth, but that's just me and I didn't really like the Excelsior, or the Galaxy for that matter, 'tis all personal taste.

[Chris Johnson]

Perhaps it's because it's the next generation-type of design, and Leonard Nimoy wanted something like that modern Japanese-esque streamlined look that Bill put into the Excelsior-class. It was suggesting that, for many "old schoolers" the Excelsior-class was unimpressive because it was "new school", sort-of like the streamlined (unretrofied) Galaxy-class, a next generation of starship design (and not a retroized design thought up by John Eaves). If you ask me, I actually like the streamlined look...

[S33K100]

*attempts thick Scottish accent*Aye, and if my granny had wheels she'd be a waggon*

I assume by retro you refer to the Sovereign, I don't see it as a retro design, frankly to me the Galaxy looks rather dated, very "80s" a thing from an era when people thought primary coloured spandex unitard uniforms were a really neat idea. The Galaxy is the Starfleet equivalent of legwarmers to me, an incomprehensible design from before my time (I was about 2 when TNG started). In production terms the Sovereign design looks like a thing of it's era, that is the late 90s early 2000s, this is because design in general in the late 90s and early 200s has been very similar to certain areas of design in the late 70s and early 80s.

To illustrate my point: the Lamborghini Countach, the harsh angular styling is very reminiscent of many modern car designs, designers have become obsessed with geometric shapes again, this doesn't mean the Countach looks 'modern', it's still obviously identifiable as a late 70s supercar because the new angular designs are different, more complex and incorporating curved surfaces aswell.

Design tends to go round in circles, certain things go out of fashion and then return to fashion always slightly altered in the interim.

[Chris Johnson]

(I'm fairly certain I may obtain a misconception somewhere at least, perhaps in describing something, but I hope my point would be understood anyhow...)

The Galaxy-class Starship seemedw more like a 90s design, ahead of its time by only a few years. I tend to think of the Excelsior-class in the same way.

By retro, yes, I did mean the Sovereign-class. An intentional (and I stress that word since I'm aware designs can unintentionally look similar to a previous design from a different era) return to big, long-looking warp nacelles, rocket-like subtleties such as a triangular-like bridge module that looks like it came from Flash Gordon (much like how the Protector from GQ looked like that), big, unnecessarily big impulse engines, even a hangar/shuttle bay that looked much like what ships a century earlier used... It seemed like the direct opposite of the style of ship design in that era (what with examples such as the Galaxy-class or the Intrepid-class even, a class of ship that had small Warp Engines and even smaller impulse engines, yet goes as fast as a Sovereign-class's).

An Excelsior-class was a streamline design that wasn't retroized, that didn't intend to look back to previous ship design styles, that was an improved design. As ship designs progressed to the Galaxy-class and Intrepid-class, improvements in technology shows, even on the outside, and a good example are ships like the Defiant or Intrepid-class. Small, compact, yet as efficient or more-so, and with little intentions to look back in design for nostalgic purposes and looking good all because John Eaves wanted a "porsche" in Starship design.

But ultimately, it's just an opinion in taste that differs between us. I believe ships don't necessarily need to look good, but can if form follows function. Yet designs don't need to be outrageous and retroized to the point where it looks like a few steps back in starship design. You may disagree with that of course, and also our opinions won't budge much. So, call it even?

[S33K100]

Indeed, even, though I must say I agree that a design will always look good when form follows function. It's just that given we have no idea what 'function' means in Star Trek outside of the Berman/Braga era technobabble, it's completely subjective what any of us views as form following function.

Since that's over with what do actually think of the Basilios? (I really should change those pics)

[Atolm]

Bottom line is that the Sovie cannot hold the Gal's Crotch sac LOL
I am totally biased in favor of tha Gal...as it shows a real trend of going with a very fluid one-piece, almost living organism look...a truely futuristic outlook as opposed the parts put together of the industrial ideology....a better comparason of the two ships are the 117 nighthawk , and the B2 spirit...the huge move to curvelinear shows a hudge advance towards aerodynamics and its overal function...even Hughes new that a super smooth surface would achieve a higher performance that parts that where just put together.
Not to say that "warp dynamics" and FTL travel would necessitate any of the aerodynamic principles...but then again it may...but thats a whole other can of worms.
In any case both an aggular approach and a curvelinear approach could achieve the desired "futuristic" look...but the curvelinear will aways give the notion of something seeming "alive/living" verses the angular, which 9 times out of 10 will not invoke that feeling...but rather the opposite

anyway...the Gal rocks, the sovie sucks, and All things End
LOL