u/ShardSolar

Hey everyone! Sorry for missing last week’s update — been under the weather. But progress continues on the build!

What happened this week:

Noticed some linage problems on the saucer — pretty sure it’s from the model replicating certain systems when I was referencing it. If that’s not the cause, I’ll track down the real culprit and straighten them out manually.

I figured out exactly where I went wrong — I thought those lines were part of the pylon and didn’t realize they needed to follow the full circle. Lesson learned: get a bird’s eye view way sooner next time. Once I saw it from above it was obvious. Fixed and looking clean!

Getting close to wrapping the pylon, but ran into a snag: the shape simplification left basically no interior space. To finish the cleanup properly I need to work the top and bottom simultaneously so they meet right. A bit more of a puzzle than expected.

With the top making good progress, it’s time to flip the build and tackle the underside. The real work begins!

Quick update from last week — I actually had to scrap the initial voxelization and start over. Here’s why and where we landed.

The Restart

After starting hull cleanup I realized my scale was way off — the model came out at 701 blocks long, three times the intended size. Found a better tool called Bloxelizer (bloxelizer.com) which lets you input exact target dimensions. New scale:

•	Length: 449 blocks  
•	Width: 271 blocks  
•	Height: 69 blocks

This puts it at 2x the real ship’s canonical size, which is the standard for a build like this.

Lesson Learned the Hard Way

Hollow the model BEFORE cutting it in half. Axiom won’t hollow a half model. Save yourself the headache.

Saucer Progress

This is where the good news is. The Drexler saucer is an oval, not a circle — the ratio between Z and X diameter is 0.8449. For every layer I place a cylinder, I multiply the Z diameter by 0.8449 to get the correct X diameter. Axiom handles oval shapes natively which makes this very manageable.

Half the bridge section is cleaned up and looking great. Next goal is finishing the back of the bridge, then the forward pylon connectors, then the rest of the saucer and underside.

Nacelle Update

Still brute forcing the nacelle shape. Broke it down into individual components — body, saddle, bussard, and vents — and tackling each separately. The bussard width is now where I want it. Still working on the saddle and vent sections.

One complication — the promotional art and the actual STL model differ noticeably in places, particularly the saddle section. May end up following the promo art over the model if I can’t get the shape right from the STL.

What’s Left for Hull Cleanup

•	Nacelles (\~2 more weeks)  
•	Pylons  
•	Saucer underside and 6 layers topside