1/350 Daedalus?

[novahobbies]

Nova, did you go Airfix or Revell for the stack?

Andy

I got the early Revell kit.

[zookman]

found the daedalus kit i got .. its missing the nacells and pylons ... not sure who made it or what scale it would be .. would like to find the missing parts if possible so i can finish her

100_3998_zpsa0869148.JPG (99.38 KiB) Viewed 3277 times

[novahobbies]

Zooks, that is most definitely the 1/650 scale Daedalus that I produced from 1997 to 2002 (dates are guestimates). Bad news tho brother -- I don't think I still have the molds for those engines. I MIGHT.....but I'm 90% sure they got chipped and reused when I stopped casting that model. Next time I get the ladder up to the attic I will try to sneak a peak.

[zookman]

ok cool thanks

[GimpyJohn]

Years ago, I started gathering parts for a 35 inch or so Daedalus-class ship. Eventually, I collected everything needed to build one. But I inexplicatively lost interest in the project.

Years later (as in now), I've become interested in that project again. Only I'm interested in a 1/350th design of a later ship meant to replace the Daedalus-class, one that is about 850 feet long, but with the same basic shape as the Daedalus.

A ship that is not an explorer, not a front-line starship like the Enterprise, but is a dedicated colony-support vessel. A big, powerful, well-armed ship, filled with Army Corp of Engineer-type officers to can defend a colony, or rebuild one. Lotsa doctors, and butt-loads of cloned animals and plants to easily rebuild a damaged new world.

It is a Daedalus-type of ship Just much bigger, much more powerful, and a lot better armed.

If ya wanna, Discuss.....

[Tesral]

Lots of internal space. You need a huge hanger for all the shuttles and big ones at that. You might consider a pair of huge landing tenders that attach like remora fish. Tucked in and protected, but not inside the hull.

Also consider the secondary function of a landing assault ship. Colony support and invasions are similar, but with varying levels of violence. Such a vessel is going to be expensive. You want as much utility from it as you can.

I would think such a ship would be pushing the limits of the early 23rd century.

[GimpyJohn]

Tesral: very good points.

If you expand the size of the Daedalus-class to 850+ feet in length, I believe that the primary (spherical) hull would be sufficiently large enough to contain the entire crew, leaving almost the entire secondary hull as cargo space --and that would be a lot of open area.

Excellent idea about the hull-mounted shuttles. I'm going to incorporate that concept into my model....

Actually, I don't think that this idea pushes the limits of 23rd Century tech. Especially since the patrol area of colony-support ships would be closer to Federation space than Constitution-class patrol routes (for the most part), so they would be closer to potential aid and assistance. I don't believe that this type of vessel would necessarily have to be as technologically advanced as, say, a Constitution-class. After all, they wouldn't have to be on a five-year mission into unexplored space. I don't imagine that they would even have a large, dedicated science section. They're not studying stuff; they're a crew of construction workers, doctors, and soldiers, probably in that order as far as numbers are concerned. I'm thinking that the soldiers would also serve as military advisers, much like our present-day troops in Iraq, et. al., teaching the colonists to defend their own worlds.

I just had a thought concerning the hull-mounted shuttles: perhaps they should carry several impulse-powered fighter craft that could be left on a colony world to enhance their defensive capabilities. Such ships could, in theory, keep invaders stalled at orbital distances while distress calls were made, presumably bringing warp-capable starships to fight off attackers.

I dunno. It's just my silly hienie blue-skying. I'm open to anybody's thoughts.

Thanks for commenting, Tesral.

[zookman]

heres a thought .. maybe the colony ship can actualy be designed as a big self contained unit containing massive cargo bays for cargo .. a couple top mounted shuttlebays for shuttles and such .. pretty much a flat bottom for the ship .. then once ship reaches destination . have the warp drive section and main control section detach and stay in orbit till the colony part lands .. then once its settled down to ground level crews can begine unloading materials and equipment to build the rest of the colony .. crews and colonists reside in the ship until planet side quarters and facilities are built.. the colony ship can either take off for reuse or stay where it is and be used as part of the colony or even craft should a major emergency arise .. the colony ship would only be impulse power but a call to home base should get a warp transport enrout quick

[GimpyJohn]

Wow, Zookman! Great ideas! I especially like the bulk of the ship as an impulse lander.

You gotta real nice brain, there, fellah!

[novahobbies]

You know, while I was waiting for paint to dry on the Ares, I pulled the parts out for this so I could start measuring and printing plans for the large scale 1/350-ish Daedalus. The trouble is, there is no clear plan for this. There have been multiple versions of blueprints for this model, each with their own idea of size and scale, and they're not even consistent between plan views from the same artist. The closest we've come to a studio model is the study model that was built for the Encyclopedia, later shown in Sisko's office at DS9. That's about as canon as we can get, but as no one has taken plans directly from that model, we don't have a consistent schematic.

The closest I've been able to find (and that which is aesthetically balanced as well) is the Jackill's prints. At least his seem to have a consistent internal logic. But even HIS leaves the primary globe too small -- by over half an inch at this size, in fact.

Eh, I'm just whinging here. I'm going to print out the plans based on the secondary hull and the engine diameter, since I KNOW those are going to be built from the Shuttle kit. As for the primary hull, I guess I may either have to keep my 4" ball, or look around for a 3.3 inch clear globe to match his plans. Amazon sells 3.5" globes; maybe I'll make 2 primary hulls and see which one looks the best. Dammit, why didn't I just buy the resin model back when it was available.