In retrospect I feel that I've done well, but there are things I would do differently given another chance.
The engineering section looks a bit clunky, the deflector dish is very vanilla, and it’s cavity ought to angle upwards to match the curvature of the neck (like the Enterprise-D). Moving away from a consolidated primary and secondary hull was risky, but in combining the nacelle struts with the neck, I feel I've held true to a the consolidated hull philosophy, albeit in a new direction.
Somehow despite the elongated saucer and streamlined nacelle features my design feels more at home between the Enterprise C and D, or perhaps as an alternative to the E. I've failed to create a new branch off the same limb.
Part of this is an attempt to re-create the hull texture of TMP Enterprise. Namely subtle differences in hull plating specularity. That style is my personal favorite, but was abandoned in TNG and beyond. Cryptic will of course be creating their own texture set(s) however, so I felt comfortable emulating my favorite style for the sake of attractiveness over continuity, but this may have been unwise.
The nacelles could be a bit lower, closer to the saucer, and truer to the Enterprise's characteristic silhouette. My saucer is rather lumpy, and perhaps a little too reminiscent in shape to an egg, and my windows aren't all perfectly to scale. My deck heights are also slightly inconsistent, and at the top of the neck the deck with the airlock is actually angled up slightly, though I suppose this is okay in a... what do you call the enclosed ramp that leads from the gate to the airplane?... Googling... ah, a “jetway” or "airbridge" sort of way.
Overall, I should have come up with something a bit more streamlined and compact, with a bit more attention to the characteristics that evolved after TNG, but I’m very proud of my work, and very grateful to you for helping me develop it
I'll be uploading both my submission image and the video at 6pm Alaska time on the 14th, about 26 hours prior to the deadline. That should give me enough time to react and compensate for anything unforeseen, while still limiting the amount of exposure to potential plagiarizers, and hopefully keeping me on the "Recent" page after the contest closes.
Wish me luck!
