Starting on the saucer was the next logical step. I need it in order to get the other parts laid out. It may look simple, but the saucer is actually not just a standard saucer. The edge is round, like the saucer on Enterprise and Intrepid, but the center parts are ovals. It's not difficult to do, but it's a bit time consuming. But, it's worth it because it's coming out exactly how I want it to look.
Fun facts about the ship:
Length: 240 meters
Width: 154.55 meters
Height: 36.38 meters (there's a possibility that will change)
Decks: 5
How I got there:
The specs on Enterprise are as follows:
Length: 225 meters
Width: 135.8 meters
Height: 34.4 meters
When I built Intrepid, I noticed that it has the same saucer as Enterprise, it's just been modified. However, the base saucer is the same. The windows are the same size and are in the same places. That's because Pierre Drolet kitbashed the NX to save time. So, that means it's a more compact version of Enterprise, much like how the Nebula-class is a more compact version of the Galaxy-class. So, using that, I scaled Intrepid to these specs:
Length: 177.44 meters
Width: 136.16 meters
Height: 34.96 meters
(Intrepid has impulse engines that stick out slightly on the sides of its saucer, that's why it's slightly wider.)
These specs are fairly accurate, they might be off a hair, but not much. I've seen similar sizes on other sites, so I think I did a fairly good job.
So, bearing all of that in mind, you'll notice in John Eaves' original drawings that the ship I'm building is around the same size as Intrepid, it's just more "stretched," making it longer:
Comparing the nacelle sizes, I realized they were pretty darn close to the same size. So, I used the orthos that I have from Doug Drexler's old blog of Intrepid as a size scale for the nacelles. Using those as a scale and laying out the ship in what appears to be the correct configuration, that's what I came up with. And, indeed, it's been confirmed by building the saucer. That's the size the ship will be.
Sorry for the long winded explanation on that, but I don't want anyone asking how it's the size it is, so I explained it.
Originally, I'd planned this ship to be older than Enterprise, but I don't see how that's possible if it's longer. Yes, they could have made longer ships in the past and the ship certainly won't have the internal volume of Enterprise, but I still don't like it being longer if it's older. It's safe to assume that Enterprise was the largest ship built by Starfleet to date, it was certainly the most advanced (as was Gene Roddenberry's intent for ships named Enterprise, they were supposed to represent the latest Starfleet tech.) So, having a ship that's longer that predates the NX is problematic and I can just see Trekkie colons clinching at the thought of it, so the ship post-dates Enterprise. I'm thinking this is something that was built during the war with the Romulans, when Starfleet needed new ships. So, its service time would be from the late 2150s to around 2190 to 2200. That way, it's possible for the ship to be larger, faster, etc. than Enterprise, which was decommissioned after the war. That means I'll also be adding phase cannon ports, as opposed to the originally planned plasma cannons.
