Help fixing the angle on a warp pylon?

[Pandaphil]

Okay, before I say anything else, this is my very first attempt at a serious scratchbuild that doesn't use existing parts. Its mainly just an 'I'm bored' project , so I guess it won't be the end of the world if I end up chucking it all in the parts bin.
I don't have any facy tools other than eyeball's a ruler, a straight edge and modelling tools.

I'm trying to do a Chandley-style starship design with wing mounted warp engines. It looks fine from above,

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-7/276900/top.jpg

but the problem is the side view, where the engines will tilt down at an angle.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-7/276900/side.jpg

It seems like just slicing off a wedge from the wingtip will fix the side problem, but then from above, the engines will tilt inward. I suppose warping the wings might work, but trimming seems like it should do the trick. Any suggestions?

[ajmadison]

The trick to getting your warp nacelles to be parallel to the center axis of your starship, you need the ends of your pylons to be parallel to the center axis of the ship.

To make that happen, you should first set up the nacelle end of the pylons where you want them, and coax the other end so it attaches to the ship. This may require some shims or some sort of "gull wing" bits so the ship mounts of the pylon attach where you want them to on the primary hull.

The other alternative are pylons with a twist to them, since the ship mount attachment point is not parallel to the center axis to the ship, and you want the nacelle ends to be parallel to the center axis of the ship.

[naoto]

Basically you want the pylons to be "flat" with respect to direction of travel -- meaning that as seen directly from front or directly from back, the leading edge and trailing edges of the pylons should be parallel. For dihederal wings, the leading edge will meet the saucer at a point higher up than the leading edge -- so at the point where the pylon meets the saucer, pylons look like it's at an angle with the front higher than the back.
quick doodle

For anhederal wings it's the reverse -- so the point where the pylons attach, the front appears to be lower than the front.

Also note that since the intersection between the saucer and pylon is not a straight edge, the attachment point won't look like a straight line. For dihederal wings the attachment edge will look like the center is bowed upward. For anhederal wings the attachment edge will look like the center is "cupped" (slightly depressed). In either case, the apparent curvature of the attachment point will initially seem like it is wrong (but is indeed correct).

[Ziz]

The trick to getting your warp nacelles to be parallel to the center axis of your starship, you need the ends of your pylons to be parallel to the center axis of the ship.

To make that happen, you should first set up the nacelle end of the pylons where you want them, and coax the other end so it attaches to the ship. This may require some shims or some sort of "gull wing" bits so the ship mounts of the pylon attach where you want them to on the primary hull.

Agreed. Build some kind of bracing system to hold the saucer and nacelles in place relative to each other then play with the pylon trimming until it fits in the space in between. Legos work great for this procedure

[Pandaphil]

Many thanks for the tips everyone. I'll keep hacking away at it.

Now if I can just remember where I stashed my rolls of masking tape...