Im glad you like it guys. Again, its thanks to DJ for alot of the design improvements. Let me be more specific as to the places his designs took me in a new direction.
First, the saucer. His way of capping the interior bulge on the saucer top, then a flat deck followed by another disk drop off to the edge. That improved the saucer shape.
Next, his window cuts. All of the cuts I had done in the past didnt come out right because they were not deep enough.
Third, his deflectors, and this is a big one. I have always been horrible at Fed deflectors, but DJ gave me both the split design as well an oval take...then I went from there. Decided to minimize actual radiation areas to lessen venerability and came up with what you see...inspired by the Intrepid deflector as well.
There were a number of other smaller ideas from his design cues I picked up on...I tried to use them as inspirations only and make them my own, so as not to plagiarize his wonderful work.
I started picking up too many Sov design cues though, and decided to change the deflector to a "pod in recess" design to make it more unique.
That is not to mention the huge amount of suggestions from the people posting in this thread that led to numerous changes. I think it turned out pretty well, but there is still lots more to do.
Whats incredible to me is that he may, in fact, be able to use some of my design cues for ideas as well...this makes me very happy, as it should be a two way process. This is how I believe modding should operate. We all feed and learn from each other, and all benefit as a result.
I will post my latest sep changes shortly to see if you guys like them.