I've made a little bit more progress on my Baton Rouge class cruiser. Part of the fun of this project is figuring out the hidden parts of this starship. The painting from the book only shows a view of the vessel from above and behind. In addition to the painting there is a dorsal drawing in the book that you'll see in the pictures below. As you can tell there is no images of the underside. I collected several 3-view drawings that fans have come up with but I wasn't happy with what they thought the underside looked like. I hope my take on this old design has retained the look of original painting and helps connect it to later Starfleet designs.

The first part of this series can be found here. http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=24894

These are the shapes I cut out to build the engineering section with. Although there are only seven layers shown in this picture, I went with eight layers of 1/8th inch thich styrene sheet. Eight layers will help me make the front more round so that I can install a deflector dish similiar to the one on the TOS Enterprise. this will be the main styling cue that ties this vessel to later vessels. Most fan based drawings mount the dish on a post but that looked like an after thought to me. I not only want my deflector to connect my ship to later designs, but also to look like it was an integral part of the design.

This is my model of a ship from Atari's "Space Invaders".

This is how the basic shapes will be stacked to achieve the profile I'm looking for. The gaps will be filled by flat sheets of styrene cut to fit and by my *homemade putty made from the same styrene sheet.

* Here is the link to a thread about homemade styrene putty. http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=21787

Checking the proportions to my drawing that I had enlarged to the proper 1/1000 scale.

And with the other parts to confirm the look I'm shooting for.

This side view shows the undercut below the shuttle bays. This is another visual styling cue to connect this ship to those that will follow.

You can see where I have penciled in the way this area will be rounded off.

This shows how the top of the engineering section has been scribed to match the details from the original painting.

The sides of the shuttle bay have been added.

The rear of the shuttle bay has been added and just needs the door detail scribed in.

I frequently check against the painting to make sure I'm capturing the correct look.

Let me know what you think. I'd really like to know what you think of my treatment of the underside of this ship.

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" I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail
fast; for I intend to go in harm's way." --John Paul Jones

Wow...Woody...that looks great.....! Our Star Trek build webpage is gonna be loaded with some awesome stuff...this included!

Regards, Dan

That is excellent work Woody. I remember, I think it was last year, someone complaining to FSM about not enough SCI-FI interest and lack of articles. This GB goes to show that there is a lot of interest and FSM needs to encourage more people. I have seen other scratchbuild articles in FSM but this GB has nearly everythig scratchbuilt. Awesome work. Kalmbach's next SCI-FI modeling book should be of entirely new scaratchbuilt subjects with a couple of step-by-step articles.

This is coming along great. Can't wait to see the front!

woody outstanding work. really outstanding.

joe

Wow great job! Thanks for sharing the pictures with us.

Keep 'em coming!

Hey Guys Thank you!
All the kind words and constructive feedback I've gotten on this project have really added to my enjoyment of it.

Hello Lee, Welcome to the forum.

QUOTE: Snoopy if they published such a book, they would have at least one sold for sure!

Woody, that would be two sold. I did not realize how small it is. That is fantastic. I must try something like that when the green backs are plentiful and time is of abundance

FireFox, Not to worry I have plenty of magnifying devices!
It won't be too small at just under 10 inches.
I should be posting new pics in a day or two. I spent this evening
building the deflector dish assembly. It didn't turn out too shabby
in my opinion. I was a little concerned about it because it is part of
my interpetation of the underside. I feel better seeing how it looked resting on the engineering section. Next the saucer pylon!

Lee, Thank you very much. I just now finished dry fitting the two part deflector assembly to the secondary hull. Next I'll be finishing the scribing for the secondary hull and then onto the saucer pylon. I know I haven't made very much progress this week but we are working a lot of overtime at the factory. Happy Happy Joy Joy.