Docking Scenes

I love scenes of starships docked in some spaceport or drydock facility, so I thought I would put some of my docking images on their own page.  Since the station is an ever continuing work-in-progress, there are certainly some inconsistencies between renders.
First up:

Star Station India Welcomes The Enterprise.

Dennis Bailey’s beautiful refit Enterprise pulls up to berth, for some routine maintenance.

The view from South Concourse A’s main lounge.

 

The view from maintenance bay 8.

Up Next:

 

The Phobos Arrives.

After a lengthy tour, she’ll undergo a minor refit and take on some much needed supplies while her crew enjoys a welcome shore leave.

Her arrival- another view from the Concourse.

 

The dock master boards a travel pod and initial inspections begin.

 

Inspections underway.

 

Cargo enters the shuttlebay while station maintenance crews take on some minor repairs to the starboard impulse assembly.

 

Snuggled up to the South pier’s main gangway.

 

View from the upper concourse.

 

With her impulse engine discrepancies sorted out, repairs to her primary sensor housing can begin.

 

The Corsica assumes role as one of the station’s regional defenders.

The Abbe class destroyer, USS Corsica arrives below, as viewed from SoLo: A premiere observation lounge within the inner South Arch.

Corsica begins docking procedures, with her systems still powered up.

Given their overall configuration and proximity to the fueling towers, the inner docks are often better for larger ships and shorter layovers.

Crossing paths: The arriving Corsica prepares to power down just as the outbound Strider completes final refueling procedures (early incomplete test render).

Inner docks make for a grand show from the Concourses as well, with a majority of the remaining station visible just beyond a berthed vessel.

After her long journey to even reach the station, a routine engineering diagnosis has revealed that Corsica will require a slightly more aggressive service hiatus.

Often referred to as “cradle docks,” the central docks are better apt for those longer layovers requiring greater support and maintenance.  However, drydocks are still the standard for more arduous overhaul efforts.

Switching over to the station’s umbilical support network, Corsica finally undergoes some downtime.  Operating fully on station power, she’ll be readied for a minor upgrade to the sequence timers of every plasma injector nozzle feeding the main coils of her warp nacelles.

 

Night Shift.

The large bays for maintenance and cargo storage run throughout the piers to keep the docked ships fully fit.

 As the station moves into total shadow, cargo runs and maintenance activities continue, regardless of the hour.

(I know this one doesn’t show any docked Starships, but it’s one of my favorite renders, and these auxiliary craft are indeed servicing the docked vessels, so I had to sneak it in.)

 

The Strider Takes A New Assignment.

The Ranger class scout USS Strider is reassigned to Starstation India for routine patrol duties in and around this station’s sector.

The Strider, docking at her new base assignment.

 

The Strider, dwarfed in her docking slip (early incomplete test render).

 

Sister scouts: The Mustang and the Strider share some maintenance time within the South interior slip.

 

The McCook Pulls In.

Much needed repairs can now begin after a somewhat classified mission.  She’ll undergo inspections while offloading her crew as she waits for an available drydock.

Though rumored to be patrolling near the Azure Nebula, whatever her mission entailed, it appears she was in a bit of a scuffle.

 

Though this looks like more post repair inspections, it’s actually just an earlier test render (but I really liked the angle).

 

A Slip Opens For The McCook.

Star Station India’s drydock facilities are separate and better equipped to deal with major repairs.

Fully moored and ready for that repair work.

 

With the ship’s main gangway hatch fully connected to the drydock’s mooring complex (and thus fulfilling its namesake duties), the vessel’s dorsal airlocks, individually furnished with lift platforms, are the next most effective means to exterior hull access.

 

Cargo is loaded onto extendable platforms along the ventral hull, and raised back into a bay where it can then be directed to permanent storage within dedicated holds.  These cargo holds concentrically occupy a considerable portion of the primary hull’s outer rim.  The bay itself is large enough to carry additional cargo, small auxiliary vehicles, or even large mission-specific modules determined by the ship’s assignment.

 

Workbees install and weld new hull plating for the McCook’s damaged exterior.

 

Nearly there.

 

The last of the supplies arrives.

 

McCook, Ready for departure.

 

The Phobos Pulls Into Drydock.

with her upgrades and repairs determined to be more extensive than anticipated, it is ultimately decided they will be completed in drydock rather than at Star Station India’s main docking facility.

 

Earth’s San Francisco Fleet Yards.

The San Francisco Fleet Yards is a shipyard complex in orbit of Earth, homeworld to Starfleet Command and the capital of The United Federation of Planets.

Typical drydock.

One of the yards’ organizational centers, an orbital office complex.

 

WIP: Early but incomplete images with compelling (for me at least) visual ordering.  I think of these more as “conceptual” attempts.

Early test render of the station in some of its earliest WIP stages. I really liked the angles here, displaying ships docked to the outer slips, and I’m looking forward to updating this one someday.

 

Another of those I really look forward to revisiting as more details flourish.

This was inspired by some Ralph McQuarrie concept art for Battlestar Galactica (as well as some fully realized scenes) depicting the 1st person perspective of a “shuttle making its landing bay approach.”  Again, this is early enough in the modeling process that the details are exceptionally sparse, but I loved the angles.

 

More Later…