I guess we have to hope those oversized nacelle caps don't give anything away then... I suppose the window on the primary hull have permanently closed drapes? At any rate, if you are tracking ships that travel faster than light with light sensors, you're pretty much in the wrong century. It seems odd that if you ever see this ship you'd better keep you're mouth shut. Starfleet has no qualms about making its own people disappear, but is rather prissy about cloaking devices? I mean, why go to the trouble of having the Enterprise steal a cloaking device if you never plan to use one? EDIT: The lines look pretty good. I am just not sure about the paint job. I take it that's some sort of spy-pod under the ship?
They too can be covered up if need be. The ship can operate for a considerable time w/o needing to use the bussards. The ship carries a fuel supply from launch, the gathered hydrogen from interstellar space only extends the supply (and not necessarily by that much). IF there were windows at all they'd have blackout shutters, yes. It's the "uncovered" little details that can trip you up. Such a ship as this could "hold station", shut down the engines, and go to passive sensors and STILL be seen via reflected light at close range, or by light from portholes and windows if it weren't "blacked out" Even Starfleet has it's military aspects. They might be less willing to go the covert ops route than, say, the modern US, but it's an option any realistic government would retain. To learn how to defeat it. Sensor pod, yes. I've used the same pod on other ships, but presumedly the Vigilances would have the absolute most cutting edge sensors IN their pods.
Love that Valhalla (best use of this saucer http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f252/CanisD/Misc/Backup/Star%20Trek/Parts/?action=view¤t=DNsaucer2.png I think Canis D did these drawings BTW... I see. JAFisher's hull and that (Canis D?) saucer look really nice together. By the by, the Carnegie reminds me of another trek novel ship--the mile long defender that was made of multiple hulls? Carnegie is the only ship with a lot of hulls that keeps that Jeffies era flow...
Thanks for the heads up on credits...I'll try to get those fixed or updated as I can. Technical note on credits: JAFisher's hull is the one on the Hubble/Roberts/York ships. I used Canis D's saucer on the Valhalla refit which otherwise consists of Vance parts or parts I "bashed" out of Vance parts (the nacelles).
In Shatner's The Return, they used a black Defiant class. I can't remember what the exact deal was with it, but it involved stealth I'm sure.
You might want to place the Valhalla's two different type of super saucers side by side and enlarge one. The first looks like an ever so slightly thicker refit, while the second looks more Ariel sized judging from the bridge. Lining the bridges up and having a side by side might be interesting to see how they would fit on the secondary hull.
I know I keep saying this project is done, but this time I think it really is. One last tinker on my Galaxy, changing the scale and some detailing.
Some stats for the NX-2900: Specifications Commissioned March 11, 2285 Length 391.6m Width 186.3m Height 86m (21 decks) Weight 1,475,600mt Crew Complement 495 officers and crew Cruising Speed Wf 11 [Cochrane scale] / 8.6 [Okuda scale] Maximum Speed Wf 13 [Cochrane scale] / 9.6 [Okuda scale] Maximum Endurance 10 years w/o refuelling Weapons 18 Mark 15-A/Type 8 twin-mount phaser banks (14 covering fore/port/starboard arcs on the saucer section, 1 each covering foreward/port/starboard and aft/port/starboard arcs on the secondary hull), 1 bank covering port, 1 bank covering starborard, and 2 Mark-15-A/Type 8 single mount phaser banks (both covering aft arc) 2 Mark 7-B rapid fire photon torpedo tubes forward, 1 tube aft. Each tube can fire up to 3 torpedoes at a time Transporters 5 6-pad personnel transporters 4 cargo transporters 3 20-pad emergency transporters Embarked Craft 6 Class L/Type 4 standard shuttles (Glenn, Gagarin, Christopher, Cochrane, Archer, April) 1 Class G-2 aquashuttle (Trieste) 2 Class H-4 long range/cargo shuttles (Atlas, Hercules) Deck Directory 1 - Bridge, airlock 2 - Ship's Office, Officer's Lounge 3 - dorsal phaser banks 4 - Senior Officer's quarters 5 - Crew quarters, Laboratories, Impulse Engineering 1 and 2 (upper level), auxilliary airlocks 6 - Lounge/messhall (forward), Arboretum (port), Auxilliary Control, Recreation Room (starboard), Briefing room, crew quarters, laboratories, Sickbay, Transporter Rooms 1-4, Main computer core, Impulse Engineering 1 and 2 (lower level), Main gangway airlock (port), Brig 7 - ventral phaser banks, Galley 8 - Cargo bay, Emergency transporter 1 and 2 9 - Sensor maintenance Secondary Hull 10 - forward torpedo Bay upper level 11 - forward torpedo bay lower level 12 - deuterium storage 13 - Main Engineering (upper level), aft dorsal phaser banks, airlock (port and starboard) 14 - Main Engineering (main level), warp nacelle power transfer conduits, Hangar deck, Main Cargo bay (upper level) 15 - Main engineering (lower level), Main Cargo Bay (lower level), shuttle storage/maintenance, Transporter Room 5, Emergency Transporter 3 16 - auxilliary computer core, material fabrication units, Waste reclamation, aft torpedo bay 17 - workshops, crew quarters, swimming pool 18 - workshops, crew quarters, consumables storage 19 - consumables storage 20 - anti-deuterium storage 21 - ventral phaser banks, warp core ejection hatch
During the period between 2313 and 2344, the Cerberus class light frigate was the exemplar of Federation defensive strategy. It was a period of peace in the Alpha Quadrant. The Khitomer Accords were holding. The Romulans seemed content to mind their own business behind the Neutral Zone. It had been ages since there had been any aggression from the "lesser" Threat powers such as the Gorn or Kzinti. Consequently, Starfleet Plans and Policies structured the balance of active forces to favor routine patrol and "policing" duties. Such assignments called for fast ships that relied more on strong shields than on raw firepower for defense, which was exactly the combination designed into the Cerberus and her sisters. Able to sustain a Warp 7 cruise on the re-calibrated "Okuda scale", they were easily able to move from system to system as needed. Upon arrival, their heavy shielding was more than a match for any known ship type available to either the Minor powers or pirate bands, which allowed the aggressors to be disabled with precision phaser fire or a well placed photon torpedo. The time of peace came to an abrupt end with the sudden re-emergence of hostilities with the Klingon Empire, with whom the Federation fought a brief but bloody conflict in the late 2340s. Hard on the heels of that conflict came the "brush-fire" wars with the Tzenkethi and Cardassian Union. As a consequence, SP&P refocused the fleet back towards a posture that permitted more aggressive response utilizing heavier weaponry. As a result, the Cerberus class was eventually withdrawn from front-line service and relegated to secondary duties starting in 2351.