Putting in for Repairs

After six months of non-stop missions and patrols, the Enterprise is nudged into Starbase 25's hangar area by tractor beams for maintenance, upgrades, and a little crew R&R.

This image, or variations on it, have been in my mind since I first laid eyes on this Ralph McQuarrie Trek concept sketch in the late '70s. [link] I just loved the visual of this huge Starbase and docking facility based within an asteroid. But strangely I never tried to explore that visual until now. What I've managed here is, AT BEST, a pale homage. Still, off all my Trek images to date, this one is most pre-planned and technically demanding. In part due to my simple 3D software of choice (DAZ Studio), I had to put this together as a composite since I had two major lighting solutions and extensive displacement happening here. The final is a mix of four image renders and an alpha map for easy component isolation.

My initial concept for this piece was to be a "post-The Ultimate Computer" image, with one of the trashed Connie's being brought into the bay. But the technical challenges were great enough in just doing a clean Connie, so I went with our Hero Girl. BTW, the shuttle in the image is named after Yuri Kasjan, the team leader who led cave explorers to the deepest place on Earth: Krubera Cave in Georgia.

The base interior is largely Coflek-Gnorg's Poser "Containment Facility", scaled up and inverted so the floor is the ceiling. The asteroid is Aery Soul's "Big Rock" freebie with a custom displacement map. Inside the ships are models by Richmerk, Prologic9, and courtesy of Celticarchie. The shuttle is from XCal Pro and the Enterprise is Aggi's from Foundation 3D.Thanks to all those great craftsmen and thanks for viewing. And thanks to Drell-7 for his valuable input during the concept phase.

Note: Version presently show is a major revision of the original posting.