For the
2015 Ships of the Line calendar, regular contributor D.M. Phoenix gathered a force of Saber class ships. Phoenix has now posted more images of his reimagined Saber class
on his website, as well as a bit of back-story on the development of the class. Here's his real-world summary of the design:
Since the original version from First Contact was a low resolution model meant only for background shots, I took some liberties to increase the density of detail as well as steer the style more towards the Galaxy class with some subtle hints at the Defiant and Nova class lineage as well. The U.S.S. Peterson is named after my good friend and expert modeler Eric Peterson who has often assisted me in the finer points of engineering and practical design.
If you visit
Phoenix's website you'll find an in-universe account of the Saber class' history, and more pictures of this version of the design.
The Saber class was always one of my favourite ships -- and so much more intriguing because it was so elusive. Soooo cool to see the Saber in higher detail! Though, there are a lot of elements in the original that skewed toward the design lineage of the Enterprise-E that it would have been nice to keep (for example, the shape of the bridge module). Having said that, I'm all for this tiny little ship getting lots of love.
ReplyDeleteHm... I can't say I like it. It's certainly well done, but it's A) too big, and B) too curvy.
ReplyDeleteThe appeal of the Sabre class, to me, was always that it was a small, angular ship. The TNG-era Oberth, ya' know? This redesign is huge, and it's lost all of its unique lines in favor of a hodge-podge of elements from the Galaxy and Sovereign classes.
Hopefully Eaglemoss will use this design when they decide to do the Sabre as part of their ship collection. Or at least go D.M. Phoenix and have him update the detail on the older Saber class ship from 1996.
ReplyDeleteI wish that Dak Phoenix would do this with all of his designs:
ReplyDeletePost plenty of images, and maybe even a backstory behind their development.
He is REALLY good at modeling, and I wish he would show off all of his works.
Hopefully, he won't eventually take this down, and have it fall into obscurity.
This really meshes with my idea that the Saber class is a much older design than the Sovereign class, as indicated by the registry, and his explanation of how the variant first seen in First Contact is actually a cheaper, war-born variant works quite well for me.
Once I can actually afford to get into 3D modeling, If I ever get as good as him, I might actually want to do something similar with the Steamrunner, Norway, and Akira class.
I've always sort of assumed that the ones we saw first were upgraded, not shown as they were when commissioned.
Just stunning, lovely work!
ReplyDelete