Phobos- Main Engineering

An attempt to figure out the engineering section of  Kevin Riley’s beautiful model of the refit Loknar Class- USS Phobos.

Initially, I had to decide exactly where I wanted a major section that would be referred to as “Main Engineering.”  The ship’s catamaran like split aft of the primary hull results in what are essentially two secondary hulls.   Although a single engineering compartment forward of this split feeding both warp nacelles would have been practical,  the central placement of the shuttle bay managed to interfere with this.  The presence of an interconnecting pylon between each of the catamarans, as well as independent impulse engines at their aft ends, also informed the decision making process.  I decided one catamaran, the port side, would house a main engineering section responsible for monitoring all ship’s propulsion functions while the starboard side could house a dedicated auxiliary section mirroring the port.  These two sections would be directly linked however, and provide an overall balanced propulsion for the entire ship.

First, The Gallery

Some early renders. These were before I ventured into more “natural lighting.”

After feeling more comfortable rendering with Global Illumination.

Lower (Main) level at the intermix shaft juncture looking forward.

Upper level where the intermix shaft feeds into the impulse engine.  The portion of the shaft which feeds the warp nacelle is visible breaking above deck to the left. Everything is illuminated by the elements within the image.

The intermix shafts ties directly into the impulse deflection crystal dome.  Those monitors in the background would eventually be relocated.

An early view from inside what would become the maintenance tunnel/computer monitor area (obviously before I placed the monitors within, since one is visible on the other side of the grating). It does reveal a nice, though slightly obstructed view of the post-intermix plasma shaft winding upwards on its route to feed the port warp nacelle, here at the base of the nacelle support pylon.

More detailing complete

From here, the warp intermix shaft is visible below on the main level.  Also, you can finally see the shape of the large toroid structure that surrounds the impulse deflection crystal.  Design elements are finally settling into place.

A closer view of the main impulse control stations, primary egress and a view of the computer monitors in their final location.

Another shot of that plasma shaft angling towards the the port warp nacelle, the main impulse control stations, and primary egress.

Access to maintenance tunnel and computer monitors.  Note the toroid is definitely more obvious from this angle.

Early WIP shot of the maintenance tunnel.  I’ll eventually place a hatch at the end of the tube. It will lead to a section dedicated to impulse engine maintenance.

Close up of the computer monitors as seen from behind the grating with a view down the maintenance shaft.

The view of the upper level from the corridor that leads to it.

Back down to the main level, another corridor view.  This image is a bit dark and I forgot I hadn’t modeled anything on the back wall yet.

This section of the intermix shaft was clearly  inspired by the Voyager warp core from the post The Next Generation era.

I always thought it looked right out of the The Motion Picture era though, so I thought I would include it here.  This shaft’s actual purpose isn’t entirely clear to me yet, but considering the two distinct catamarans of the engineering hull, it makes for an excellent juncture shaft for interacting with the opposite side of the ship, since both sides have warp nacelles which must be fueled.  This too would make it critical as a means of diverting auxiliary power to the mirror side of the ship.  It’s placement is purposefully set up to run down, toward, and past the under-slung torpedo pod as well, so it’s probably the main feed of antimatter for arming photon torpedoes, as well as.

My latest view of the main level looking back with upper level details visible.

New main level peering aft at a finally completed bulkhead.

New bulkhead on the aft section of the impulse control deck

Closer image of another impulse control console after updating the graphics.

Even more refinements…

And, Behind the Scenes.

I began blocking with the major outboard features that I thought would interact with this area and use them as anchors and barriers to a plausible interior structure.

These features include:

The impulse deflection crystal array atop of the engineering section.

The impulse engine’s main exhaust vents aft of the ship.

The large tanks mounted on the inner walls of the engineering section’s catamarans.  I reckoned they were some sort of  fuel tanks possibly containing deuterium slush.  In the Trek Universe, deuterium is thought to be the primary matter component of the matter/anti-matter reaction warp engines.  Some of that fuel source is siphoned off, as it is also used in the impulse engines.

The engine nacelle pylons are also important to the placement of the main intermix shaft, as are a number of external hatches and view ports.  Some “hatches” are curious trapezoidal plates located at various places along the flat inner surfaces of the catamarans.  I thought they would make for interesting access to the larger, modular, engine components that could be replaced when necessary from the outside but accessed for normal maintenance from inside the engineering room. Unfortunately a few of the ship’s external view ports don’t fit with any reasonable deck layout that I could come up with, so I decided to go with artistic license on that one.

Some basic views of the impulse engine and how it connects to the internal compartment.