StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Hi all, thought I might as well post this here in case anyone is interested, I haven't posted any artwork here in a while, so...

Over at the Trek BBS myself and my 2D collaborator got sent 3 tiny screengrabs of an early shuttle/shuttlepod concept made by Rick Sternbach as a proposal for the original shuttle in TNG. It turned out it was too expensive to make at that time, so they made that horrible little square type-15 pod instead until they got their hands on the movie shuttle and chopped it down into the standard TNG shuttle we saw from season 2 onwards. According to Rick it was later dug out again as a possible Voyager series shuttle, but was by then too dated. The original model was cardboard and putty and is now long gone, but with some prodding from guys at the board my mate Reverend made 2D plans of it, which I then used as templates and made the following 3D model from.

Rear 3/4 view of Type 17 shuttle
Front 3/4 view of Type 17 shuttle
Side view of Type 17 shuttle
Front view of Type 17 shuttle
Rear view of Type 17 shuttle
Top view of Type 17 shuttle
Type 17 shuttle in shuttlebay-2

For those interested, I'll stick the model up for download on my site sometime this week when I do my update. The decals and markings were made by Reverend, and there'll probably be a couple of spare sets to show different ships and organisations by that time, he likes to give people choices.

They are nice, but I prefer runabouts. Nice pics though

Do those things have airlocks?

I doubt it, they're just shuttlepods, basic short duration transports for 2 or 3 people and nothing more. It's Rick Sternbachs design originally, you'd have to ask him. The type-15 they used for the first few episodes was literally just an angled box with a couple of engines and 2 seats, this is the version they would have built if they'd had the time and money. According to Rick however, the compound curves made it too difficult and expensive to complete in time for use in the TNG first season. Think of it as a golf-cart or something similar for getting around a factory, nothing more.

OK, I see.