This was a project that was long delayed. But let me start with this…I think that Ryan Church is a fantastic artist. However, I have the feeling that when he designed the new U.S.S. Enterprise, for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, he did not approach it the same way as previous Star Trek starship designers/concept artists did. There doesnt seem to be enough of the “Form Follows Function” philosophy. It took me a while, but I slowly began to like the new design. I get what they were trying to do with it. Once I reached that point, I had to design my own. I thought what better way to do that than to use my previous Pioneer Class starship. I have long had a desire to refit the Pioneer, and had tried some sketches using Excelsior Class, Ambassador Class, and even Galaxy Class components, but they never really gelled into a cohesive design. So, recently we started playing with the components of Ryan Church’s Enterprise. Using the film, and a few Fan-Based schematics we found online as reference, and a few months of trial and error, we finally completed this drawing. I liked it so much I had to make a copy and added a little color to it, something I never did with the original.
Once this is complete, we hope to re-create a finely detailed rendering with our trusty old version of Photoshop, and hope to finish the other views and an internal diagram as well.
Collinization 2.0 