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Jim197 — WIP small space station
Published: 2012-05-28 13:06:16 +0000 UTC; Views: 2041; Favourites: 28; Downloads: 96
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Description
I've been building this small space station to make a feature of my recent docking module improvements (see [link] ). It has evolved quite a lot since I started work on it (e.g. it wasn't originally going to have mechanical arms), but I quite like it.It still needs work. For example, the sphere at the bottom is meant to house the power plant, but I want to experiment with other shapes and see if anything else looks better. I'm also not completely satisfied with the design of the upper habitation/shuttlebay section, although I'm keen that it not become too large. Maybe it just needs more detail.
I would be very interested in any comments people might have about the design. I got some excellent and helpful comments on the docking module WIP that I posted, so I'm hopeful that people will find this one just as interesting.
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Comments: 14
we would have been seeing these kind of stations had TOS been given a larger budget
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I think so too. I'm glad you think my design is the kind of thing they might have come up with.
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and the mechan ical arms make it look like a vestige of the NX-era since the NX drydocks had mechanical arms
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Very cool and a nice fit to the TOS Era Universe, politely curious if any deck plans might be forthcoming ?
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I won't do deck plans per se, but if I build enough of the interior I might well do a cutaway view. That's probably some way in the future though.
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I love it! The beautiful industrialism, so 1960's! True to the original Trek!
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Thank you very much. With my Trek work I'm always trying to create things that look consistent with the original design ethos, while still adding in a few ideas of my own. It is very gratifying if people think I have succeeded to some degree 
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It's looking very good so far - if you wanted to enhance the base sphere, I might suggest some form of venting angled downward, away from the rest of the station & any vessels being worked on. Aside from that, possibly some longer work arms, just one above & one below the primary work area, mounted on rotary tracks so that they can work on the secondary hull & warp nacells of docked vessels as at the moment I don't see how these areas could be dealt with. The shaft running to the power core is a litle plain, but that fits the original series design. The top section looks to be mainly scaled right, but the shuttle bay doors are a tad large, maybe shrink them down, starting them one deck up from the bottom & add some windows in a ring around the main habitation area cylinder, suggesting a level below the shuttle bay where shuttle repairs could be performed? Finally the top of the habitation area is quite plain, maybe add some kind of comm/sensor array up there?
Hope these comments are useful, don't think that because I've made several suggestions I don't like the model as-is, as I said at the start, it's looking very good, I wish I was up to this standard.
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The shuttle bay doors might be sized-scaled for facilitating larger drydock vehicles not seen in TOS,small tugs or the predecessors to the work-bees seen in the first feature film.
One other thing, this might be a remote proto-Starbase or frontier 'seeded' support facility so appearing rough in the industrial sense might have been coincidental.
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Thanks for the great comments
Adding vents to the power core sphere is a good idea, I will definitely try and work them in.
You're right that the existing arms aren't long enough for working on the Enterprise, but if I make the arms any longer they hit the station or block access to the shuttlebay when I fold them up. My thinking is that most ships docking at this station would probably be much smaller than the Enterprise and so shorter arms will often be sufficient. A big ship like the Enterprise would have to undock and manoeuvre to bring the area to be worked on close enough for the arms to reach, or perhaps the work could be done using remotely operated vehicles.
I agree that the shaft to the power core looks a little plain. Perhaps I could add some vents or some markings. I will have to think about it.
As you suggest, I will try making the shuttlebay doors smaller and adding a ring of windows, and see how it looks.
Finally I agree that the top of the habitation section looks a little plain. I could add a comm/sensor array like you suggest, but I haven't yet been able to build one that I like the look of. It's something I need to work on.
Once again, thanks for the comments, they were really helpful.
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No problem, glad I could help.
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