Engineering Reports Ready

After two days of construction, the engineering department has been hulled off and built. Future refurb and additions to control panels, etc. may occur, but this is largely the design that will remain. Below are shots of the construction process.

Engineering space prior to being hulled off (astern, far end). The black/grey posts are markers to give a feel for how many decks the spaces will hold.

The reactor core connected to the two main engines (left and right). 

Close-up of the core itself.

View of the reactor control tower from the starboard engine.

Reactor control tower, post hull-in.

From starboard, looking over control panels and reactor space.

Bird's eye view from starboard quarter, looking forward at the control tower and core.

Engineering, fully hulled in.

As can be seen in the screenshots, there's still a lot of empty space in engineering. I believe I will likely turn some of that space into workshop areas, emergency shelters (in case the reactor leaks), and other machine spaces. It doesn't make sense, in my mind, for a ship to have an excess of free space, especially in a combat vessel. This is something I will revisit later.

Next Steps:

Having now hulled in the engineering compartment, the next step will be laying the groundwork for the first deck above flight ops (2 Deck). This will house crew messes, galley, and so forth. The front end of the ship will remain free for the moment, as that will, in its entirety, house weapons control, the ops room, bridge, etc.