NX Shuttlepod Length

[DSG2k]

Ex Astris and DITL both had NX shuttlepod length guesses (6m and 7m, respectively, with uncertainty expressed in both cases).

Though we don't have official orthographic five-views of the CGI, it nevertheless seemed odd that a vehicle so often surrounded by people of known height should be so mysterious.

So, I tried to do some measuring. Starting with the structure of this low-poly model, altering the proportions and heavily reworking the nose, windshield, and upper rear* (the model as built relied heavily on texturing to 'cheat' the appearance of correct structure), I tried to make the vessel correspond fairly well to Raul Quiles' five-view here and to my own eyeball appraisal, notably and especially a few comparisons to folks standing around the door.

Thus, I think I have a different answer as to the ship's length, being about 8 meters.





(* I still have work to do on the area of the engine top if I wanted the model to look more accurate to the canon vessel, but it'll do for this purpose.)

The SketchUp model itself can be made available by request.

[Graham Kennedy]

The main problem with the shuttle is that it appears bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

The main problem with the shuttle is that it appears bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

... So it's a TARDIS?

[Graham Kennedy]

Seems to be...

[DSG2k]

I think that's gotta just be a trick of the eye. Whereas the TOS shuttle had a separate interior set, I haven't heard any suggestion that the shuttlepods did. If so, I would not have expected them to go to all the trouble of finishing the complete interiors of what would thus be exterior mockups.

You can see interior and exterior shots together at these Drex Files links:

http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2010/02/ ... pod-found/
http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/04/ ... d-cockpit/

[DSG2k]

Actually, Drexler appears to specifically note that they were single sets in a comment reply to Thorsten here:

http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/04/ ... d-cockpit/

[Mark]

They must have gotten a hell of an angle, because when we've seen the inside of shuttlepods from an external shot, they look seriously cramped.....but on a strictly interior shot, not so much.

[DSG2k]

Well, most sets are constructed with "wild" walls that can be removed to poke a camera into the hole . . . most bridges have those. In the case of the shuttlepods, you've got three doors, the bubble canopy, and perhaps other spots (for instance, I might've tried to design the thing to allow the back wall to be shot through, though that might've required too much design effort).

The TNG shuttlepod, for instance, was simply a series of complete individual pieces leaned together as needed.

But, if there's evidence for a separate interior set that they used, I'm certainly open to it. But then again, given that my scaling is based purely on the exterior, then it might still be valid *for the exterior* (i.e. the issue would be similar to scaling the TOS shuttle (versus the larger interior set and specific length from dialog)).