I just couldn’t wait to add some windows, so I didn’t wait. Trying to remember how to do things that are out of the norm for the projects I do can be rough. For example, I mainly deal in circular saucers. That’s great, but this is an extreme half oval. So, rotating window cutters into place isn’t a simple matter of using the rotate tool. I have to use other tools. There’s a handy tool in Lightwave called Rail Clone, which is great for creating duplicates of an object along a path. Similarly, Rail Extrude extrudes objects along a path (comes in handy for phaser strips and other bits.) However, the problem was trying to remember how to convert a line of verts into a path. Well, I finally got it and I got my first row of windows in place. The Rail Clone tool got me partly there, with some fiddling with the cutters by hand to get them exactly how I want them. Of course, the complex curves made it a bit of work, but I think the results speak for themselves. The windows are shaped like the ones on Voyager, Equinox, etc. Basically, just slightly rounded rectangles. The later shows and movies essentially did away with the round and pill shaped windows, until Enterprise brought them back.
So yeah, these are basically skylights. The extreme angle of the saucer makes it so they couldn’t be anything else. I’ll probably only do a couple more rows of these on the saucer top and then some windows you can look normally out of on the saucer edge. I may do something similar to a Ten forward. I’d do some of those window insets that various ships in the TNG era had, but the extreme curve again makes it so they’d be really odd to do. This ship has more of a “blade” type of saucer than ships like Voyager and Equinox, which had less extreme of a curve that allowed for more details like that. But, that’s because this is supposed to be a fast and maneuverable fighting ship. I don’t know how making a ship short and sleek helps in space, but I think it would alter the center of gravity, making tight maneuvers possible. I’m pretty sure that’s why the Defiant was designed how it was.
