ESF
I had a funky idea a couple days ago. I think it would be cool to do a Star Trek series that’s kind of a mix of The MOD Squad, The Expendables and Star Trek. The idea is to have a bunch of Starfleet officers who were maybe kicked out of Starfleet or are close to being kicked out. They get a ship of their own and go around doing dangerous missions that nobody else wants to do. They would (of course) be called the Expendable Starfleet Force. (yes, it’s only a minor coincidence that it has the same initials as my blog 
)
Next, I had to decide what kind of ship such a force would use. Obviously, Starfleet isn’t going to give a group of misfits a really new or good ship, they’d want the ship to be as expendable as the people flying it. So, I went through my folders of meshes and I came across a really fugly Constitution-class kitbash I did at one point. It’s kind of a mix of parts from different models that I flung together to make a background ship. It’s nothing that Starfleet would use for one of its ships of the line, but more of a ship they’d have around for really shitty missions. Naturally, my force would need such a ship. So, I’m working on retexturing it.
I still have more lights to do and a few more textures, but this is where it stands. I gave it a really grungy look, to make it look like it’s an old ship that’s seen a lot better days. The mismatched parts can be blamed on half-assed refits to keep it operational. (somebody swapped out a part and then threw a coat of paint on it to match the rest)
Anywho, I’ve been trying to think of a hook for a Star Trek fan fiction series. I’ve thought of doing pre-TOS, after Nemesis, non-Starfleet, but none of it really excited me. Then I had the thought to do something with Starfleet, but something that’s different from what’s been done before. Then it took me a while to think of this. I might start working on a rough draft for a story with my ship of misfits in the next few days. 
Rosie Approaches the Enterprise
This is pretty much just me fracking around. (I was bored)
About half a dozen people know where the name for the shuttle came from. The rest of you will have to wait and see. It’s my shuttle I build last year, but I took off the “extra” details and gave it more of TOS look (worry not, the other version is still saved to a separate file.) The signage is just some textures I whipped up using Inkscape.
The Other One
I decided to give my newer Enterprise mesh a makeover similar to what I did for the USS Drexler. Overall, it’s basically the same, the light gray hull is the same color. However, I used more shades of gray on some of the smaller bits than I did for the Drexler. Also, I added some light grid lines. Those were penciled onto the series ship sometime around the 2nd season. The deflector is also a slightly different color. For the Drexler, I tried to color match the deflector Steve’s model, which was painted using Testors metallic copper paint (great paint, I’ve used it myself.) However, according to Wikipedia, the color I used for this one is copper, though it doesn’t quite look like a new penny to me. *shrugs* Anywho, here she is. The bussard collector and impulse engine glow are the same as what I used on the Drexler. I really like how those came out, especially the bussards. I know the impulse engines didn’t glow on the show, but I like mine to glow. Obviously, this is the same scene setup I used to render the Drexler. I also did the same post work on this one. That way, if anybody wants to compare the two models, it’s very easy now.
BTW, this thing was so much fun to re-texture (extreme sarcasm.) I installed Windows 7 64-bit the other day, I was using 32-bit previously because trueSpace 4 won’t install on 64-bit Windows. So, that means I was re-texturing this beast in trueSpace 7. It was driving me up the wall, it kept crashing. Finally, I decided to turn off the multthreading (that’s what makes it possible to render using multiple processor cores) and it stopped crashing long enough for me to finish. I have Lightwave now, which is why I installed Win7 64. I really need to learn to use it so that I can stop subjecting myself to this shit. I’ll have to look at some Lightwave tutorials after Christmas.
Drexler and Enterprise
Here’s a desktop I made with the models and textures for Steve’s film. Enjoy.
Oh, and just for shits and giggles, let’s see if anybody notices the error on the ship in the last post that’s been corrected in this image.
USS Drexler
For anybody who hasn’t already, check out Steve Neill’s blog (the link is in my blogroll.) He’s working on an independent Star Trek short film and he approached me a while ago to ask if I’d help with it. Of course, I’m not much of an animator, but he does like my Enterprise mesh (the one from 2007 that I released publicly) and I’ve also contributed another mesh. To see which one, you’ll just have to watch the film.
Anywho, Doug Drexler is an old friend of Steve’s and he agreed to play the part of the captain of an ill-fated starship. And the beautiful thing about Doug is, he has his own green screen and uniform, so he just recorded his bit and sent it to Steve, check it out here. After getting Doug on board, Steve decided to name his ship the USS Drexler. The Drexler is a Constitution-class starship, and the model being used is my Enterprise model. There are skilled Lightwave users that are friends of Steve (professional artists) who are working with the mesh, converting it to Lightwave and animating it. However, I still wanted to do my part. So, I retextured the ship. This makes sense as I textured it originally, and the animators have enough on their plates already anyway.
Now, the film will also utilize Steve’s awesome 66-inch physical Enterprise model (seriously, check out his blog) as well as my CG model, so I wanted to make the ships match as much as possible, aside from issues that can only be fixed by remodeling stuff, which isn’t happening. So, I grabbed some shots from Steve’s WIP pictures and used the color picker in Gimp. To make sure I got the best match possible, I moved around on differently lighted parts and got samples of what the color was. For the main hull, it was pretty easy, it’s just basic light gray (200, 200, 200 on the RGB scale) but the rest was a bit more of a challenge. However, I got it done. It’s not a 100% match, but it’s a lot closer than my old textures were. Steve’s ship has that great TOS season 1 look to it, so I tried to duplicate it as best I could. Since he used a paint sprayer to do his model, there are “high and low” areas, which were easy to replicate using the solid noise filter in Gimp (I use it on all my textures anyway.)
I’m still not totally happy with the deflector (it’s not metallic looking), but everything else is pretty much where I want it. Though, that’s mostly for me, because the guys working on it for the film are doing their own materials in Lightwave.
I’m currently working on a short flyby animation (probably about 8 seconds or so) but that’s nothing compared to what they guys working on the film have planned. To see that, you’ll just have to watch it. 
Xerxes-Class Escort Pt. 05
Sorry for the update delay. Star Trek Online released their latest update on the 1st, (the version of the game that’s going F2P in a little less than a month in a half) so I’ve been playing. Even though I tested this game model on the test server, I had to get my character on the main server switched over to the new currency and skills systems. (pain in the ass) I also started some new characters.
Anywho, onto the update. I messed around with the impulse engines while I was watching a very disappointing NFL game today. The blue bits on the nacelle end caps have also been changed to chrome, the blue glowy crap wasn’t working for me.
Xerxes-Class Escort Pt. 04
Work continues on the Xerxes. The nacelles are now finished. Next, I might tackle the impulse area, or I’ll move back to the main hull, I haven’t decided yet.
