Reprovisioning At Sea
Dan Uyeno
No kidding, this gentleman has an understanding of the starfleet design ethic that would give Leah Brahms hot flashes, Geordi La Forge an inferiority complex, and cause Scotty to wet his pants. That’s bowlin’ it right down the center, sonny. Join us as the Mad Koi himself takes us through the numbers -
This image came from a real round about way. I started out using the cargo ship in a Kobayashi Maru like scenario with the classic face off view. I moved on because it was to flat and quite static. Many very dissimilar ideas and much feedback later I return to that cargo ship, fate. This time it is a more dynamic composition that depicts an everyday task of re-supplying a deep space explorer. I like this more than any of the other ideas I presented because it is different.
I quite enjoy working with these unseen eras of Star Trek. I keep finding I always return to them after exploring existing eras. I can explore ideas and mix known elements within the adjoining eras. These two ships allowed me to meld two ends of known design, but keep them very different in over all appearance. The cargo ship would be more of the TMP end of the spectrum, where as the Balmung falls closer to the Ambassador class in detail and time frame. But each has details that interrelate as well, depicting a continuous renewal of the fleet through the passage of time. The cargo ship should lend a feeling of a ship that was slowly updated over a long period of time utilizing older repurposed elements. The thought being cargo ships wouldn’t be the first to get all the new technology, but get what works and is reliable.
(Above) The U.S.S. Balmung with her new materials and warp coil elements. This image is still WIP so some of the smaller detail elements are missing from this image.
(Above) This is one of the work bees for the cargo ship. Since these would be small elements I did not add a lot of detail to them. The crates are all made to fit in spaces on deck and in the slots for the cargo pods.
A detail view of the inside of one of the cargo pods. It shows how they slot into the pod and are arranged on the deck of each pod. The pods are modular and can just be detached as a whole or even reconfigured internally.
A rough render of the arboretum that is located in the upper rear right side of the saucer.
A close up of the rear mess hall/bar, large room with tables and chairs, and a bit of a peek into the upper shuttle bay. You can just see the observation interior at the top of the bay. The slots for more work bees can be seen in the upper right.
This shows the cargo ship without the crate pontoons. This is part of a modular system so that other items can be mounted to the struts.
A test render of the underside view of the U.S.S. Balmung.
I hope that the viewer can find new details with each viewing of my image and can read past the visual story to a story untold. It was a joy to work with Doug on this and his simple right to the point crits really helped me decide a direction to take, to solidify my wayward attention. I apologize for not be as entertaining as other guests on the blog! Hopefully this gives a small insight into the image.
-MKF
I am really impressed. Top notch design work!
The Cargoship is very Star Trek and logicaly made. And the Balmung is a nice transitional design from the Excelsior to the Ambassador.
Love it! It makes complete sense that Starfleet would/could replenish ships underway (whatever replicators couldn’t provide). If we can do it today, they could certainly do it 300 years from now.
I know time and money constraints back then prevented stuff like this from being onscreen, but I wish we could have had a scene like that on the shows.
Ya, ships like this would have made the setting feel more real.
Very well done Madfish, I have actualy been trying for a few months to get some good images of the Balmung for the last few months. Seen a few online that have been very interesting. Hope to see Ortho’s of these two at some time. Congradulations on the Calander entry.
OU!!!! That cargo ship!
Looks like the Kobiashi Maru class, from the Star Trek Nu-verse/JJ-verse movie!?!?
(think that’s the way it’s spelled…lol)
Its sad that we didn’t see ships like this in the series. It would have helped to give the setting a more believable atmosphere.
You have nothing to apologize for, Dan. Your images are extremely entertaining and your comments highlight them well. I could spend hours looking over the details you’ve added to these ships. You’ve reached a level of realism that I’m still trying to attain in my own projects. Thanks for sharing them with us!
The U.S.S. Mughi? Is that a nod to the anime “Dirty Pair”?
How delightful! Remember, even aboard the D, there were materials which couldn’t be replicated – and pre-TNG, I’m sure replicators would have been strictly for boots and bolts, not hot chow or, er, spinal columns.
That’s really fine work, and I agree that he’s got the design ethos down pat. Thanks for sharing – it really adds the high seas to the Final Frontier seeing that.
Wow. I don’t remember seeing work by Madkoifish before. But he’s a worthy contributor to the world’s greatest calendar!
Beautiful work, simply beautiful. I love the USS Mughi and it’s “dirty pairing” with the Balmung.
The Mughi I think would fit in perfectly within the continuity as an official ship. I’d love to see other aspects views of it. The Balumng has some very interesting design elements.
The excelsior-refit-styled bussard collectors looks really good on the ambassador class starship. Congratulations to the artist.
Very nice!!!!!!!!!!!!! As the former Operations Officer on a replenishment ship (USS MERRIMACK, AO-179, 1996-1998), it does my heart good to see an UNREP in the 23rd century!
Great models there, Dan! Love the attention to detail that really helps sell the ships and the composition!
Nice, dude, I believe this is my fav entry of your work thus far. Way-cool!
A feast for my eyes
Very fine work!
Ok, I will try to post with my lousy cel internet.
Thanks Doug for the praise I was so worried about this project.
Yes, the ships name is a nod to the original TV series of Dirty Pair. There are more reasons beyond the cameo specific history between Star Trek and Dirty Pair. Sadly this is a “lost” era in anime. For those who do not know Much of the TV Oav and film history for Dirty Pair was riddled with Star Trek references. Either verbal or visual.
It is also a link to how Mughi was sort of like Kei and Yuri’s supplier. He always came in with the needed hardware for the girls. In the books he was more of a companion and latter moves just phased him to a glorified rug. But I guess it is better than poor Namo who just vanished.
The ship is loosely based on Mr. Eaves design studies for the recent film of which are loosely based on the Kobayashi Maru that has been online for some time. The whole arrangement I found is one of those “it works!” situations. It allowed me to design within the warp “bubble” and allowed room around the pods to clear the ship yet maintain the girth required. Not to mention give it a pleasing to the eye look. I tried other layouts but each of those failed in logistics or just looked cluttered. I think it looks good at multiple angles with or without the pods or pontoons. Each of the cargo pods is interchangeable as well as the whole rack they connect to. Every pod can be accessed from within the ship as well. Via halls and interconnected airlocks between the pods themselves.
The U.S.S. Balmung is actually a precursor to the Ambassador class. As for other views of the ships I will be posting “overviews” of them in a week or so on my blog.
I will keep checking in and answer any questions as best as my crummy tether allows me to.
MKF-
Darn it I got so carried away with answering questions I forgot this!
THANKS everyone for the compliments! I am really glad people are excited about this image.
>_>
MKF-
Wait a minute arent you that guy who made that fantasic TOS/TMP enterprise mash up a few years ago seen here?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgf1U0z3H8g
FYI I came across these on spockboys favorites and that explains why I liked these designs so much
Yup that’s mine. The one that Daniel Broadway used though is a early version of the mesh. So there are some unique features and different materials on the hull.
Man its a beauty, I wish I could make a Physical model of that, any model!
Wow, nicely done videos.
Forgot to add that drydock is mine too. Daniel really knows how to spice up models and shoot them from the just right angles. Make sure to watch it in HD! There are a mess of videos of this ship on you-tube and vimeo by various animators. The ship was ported by someone else to other apps so each one is fairly unique. Anything mentioned as rendered in 3dsmax is likely using the v1 or v1.2 of the ship. I had updated the textures on the ship at one point. I plan to revisit this model some time in the future.
Someone had a paper model made of this ship over at SFM. I dunno if it is still on the net. A scratch built physical model would be cool to see. Id tackle that but it has been ages since I did that sort of thing. Not to mention it would get wrecked the next time I moved.
Great renders, and excellent Starfleet designs, especially for your take on a cargo vessel.
I agree with other posts about how designs like this on screen would have added more layers to the Star Trek verse, similar to the added detail of “space life” depicted in BSG.
However, at least the internet allows folks to keep expending the Trek verse.
By the way, the design aesthetic of the Trek Movie era is also my favourite, I think you have added to that perfectly in your designs here. Cheers
Mark
I like these two design as well. I’de love to see the Mughi from the front or maybe reconfigured with other attachments.
Kudos Dan!
I love the “Excel-sador” idea. It’s an excellent take at transition/evolution.
The cargo ship is really cool, too. It works perfectly, and is true to Trek design ethics, yet still is quite original in how it comes out!
Eric N.
I think I’m in the minority here in thinking I like the original Ambassador class better than the revisionist one that’s been shown today. But this Balmung, now that I like. Any chance of seeing some turnaround views?!?
I’ve made probably three comments over the last couple years. All perfectly nice and innocuous but they’ve never shown up or never gotten past the moderator or whatever. Can someone tell me what I’ve said or what I’m doing wrong?
Dan -this is amazing work! Both ship designs contain reflective elements of the eras you refer to, yet are original and fluid designs in their own right. Ironically after the end of Voyager, I thought we would not see any new TNG era (far less TOS movie era) ships, and here they are! Fantastic work. it is easy to see how the crate pontoons could be replaced with deuterium fuel canisters – turning the ship into deep space fuel tanker! I too only lament we never got to see ships like these in the series, the Mughi could easily have been the basis for the Lantree, or Biko, and the Balmung,as the Pegasus or Lakota! Its also nice that elements that I feel didn’t work on the Ent B (the nacelles) work very nicely for the Balmung. The title of the piece is a nice choice too!
Kavinsky you make an excellent point – can someone PLEASE convince Round 2 models to turn these, and the other non Enterprise popular designs into injection plastic kits?!
You’ve certainly achieved what you set out to, in my eyes. The best SotL images are the ones like this, that can be looked at every day for a month and always have something new to be seen.
I think I like the Balmung even better than the Ambassador redesign. Any chance of some turnaround views?
If you mean from the front I have some showcase images on my blog.
I found your blog (which I hadn’t known about) and wow! Great shots. The more I see of the Balmung the more I like it. And Drex is right, your sense of federation design is just fantastic.
By turnaround, I just meant front, side, top, bottom, etc. (I’m a sucker for those).
I love this design more and more. I’m a fan of both the Excelsior and the Ambassador but the leap betwen the two is a bit far. This is a perfect cruiser to fall between the 2. Are we to call it the Balmung class or another name? It definitely belongs in the lexicon.
Great to see you featured here, I often come here and on John Eaves blog for ideas and inspiration, the same way I visit your threads on SFM. I myself have actually made a low poly game mesh of the cargo ship. I am a huge fan of your designs and always enjoy watching you progress in them.
Great ships!
I know Im necroposting but the Balmung is always how i imagined the Rennisance class.
I’d be very happy to see any of these ships used in a story.
I am an oddball STOL owner. I only look at the Image of the Month when that month arrives. Probably the only one….This work I had to applaud the artist for bringing something up Navies do today..so why not Starfleet. Underway Supply Replenishment.? Maybe the Balmung has been reassigned for an urgent mission, and needs replenishment beyond what a replicator can do? Genius.
I must confess I was stumped on the Balmung (err what class is she?) until Doug guided me to this thread. Re-rigging an Ambassador Class ship, or building a Cargo ship from component parts of other classes is something in the non-TV trek era that makes sense. Kudos to bringing a new look to the Ambassador, and a new type of Cargo vessel; which I feel was missing in Trek.
Brian Cebula
Orange, CA
You know how much I love the Balmung, i love the cargo ship as well. I’m looking at February now, great job. Lonewriter