I've noticed that Starfleet ships are scrutinized, blueprinted and discussed far more than any non-Starfleet ships. I wonder why that is. Thoughts?
Put simply, we have nothing to go on. We've seen what? one or two different rooms on a romulan warbird for example. Engineering and the command deck. Maybe a crew quarter. We actually see people running around the decks of a federation ship, so we're able to guess and compare blueprints and schematics with what we've seen online. Although I'd love to poke around a warbird.
Well this site here has a couple of fairly accurate fanon and non-canon blueprints of Klingon and Romulan ships as well as a couple of other non-starfleet ships.
Some of the alien adversary/ally ships do get attention, but I have noticed there isn't a whole lot paid to non-Starfleet Federation ships. One possible reason: those ships might well require the average fan to create new elements instead of copying and pasting the same nacelles and saucers in the millionth slightly different arrangement. I really liked the ship that transported the Medusan in TOS-R, and also the rather retro-futuristic TOS-R take on Aurora. There's a lot of fun to be had in non-Starfleet ships of the Federation
There is always the subsect of fandom that takes delight in uncovering and listing the various ways a ship model is modified, repainted, or shot differently to portray different ships. I personally find it fascinating to think that the two Talarian ships built for "Suddenly Human" would somehow be related to all the later incarnations of those models. The family relationship to the Klaestron cruiser might not be completely accidental, for example. And there could be a story behind how components of these ships ended up in the Qualor II collection. Why, in addition to Starfleet and the Klingon, Romulan and Cardassian forces, there could be a large "third world fleet" consisting of ships from one and the same manufacturer, and operated in small numbers by two-bit villain and guest species. Perhaps Talarians are the leading builders of such "developing empire" navies? This would be quite a nice package to be sold to some ascending star empire, really: the big twin-nacelle cruisers and cruciform-wing destroyers, augmented by the small vertical-wing scouts, plus the Batris style and the Xhosa style of transports for logistics needs. The X-wing destroyers could also serve as transports with some modifications, as seen in DS9. There are other comparable "families" resulting from the reuse of a model or its components, such as the distantly 2001-Discovery-like transport seen in "The Hunted" and in a host of later episodes. Or the Pakled ship, or the Wadi ship, both later finding uses in the Bajoran sphere of operations. Timo Saloniemi
Pretty much the only source I know of that had info on alien ships was FASA's Klingon and Romulan ships. Those tended to be less kitbashed and haphazard than their Fed designs.
And while some of the alien ships are awesome designs, I am more drawn to the Starfleet ships because... well if that Universe were real those would be our ships.
Well, I was told in no uncertain terms that FASA, who was under a LOT of constraints when the second edition books were being pumped out, had come to the conclusion "Go ahead and rush the Federation book out, all the fans are sure to get THAT one anyway." Sadly, it shows. Most of the new second edition ships were forgettable crap.
Ooh, seeing as I'm laid off at the moment, that's very tantalizing. I think (since I have the time) I'll work up an MSD and see where that goes. I might add that there are some excellent fan blueprints of the Klingon D7/K'tinga and Bird of Prey as well as the Romulan Bird of Prey over at Cygnus.
I've always been a fan of the Kumari in ENT, (which was probably the basis for future Federation Starfleet vessels)
Sure, just lose the Kumari's winglets, mate the Kumari to the ventral of Enterprise's saucer and there you go.
Earth Starfleet didn't have much of a future, and I'm sure the early Federation designs had a heavy technological influence from the Andorians, Tellarites, and so forth. The Vulcan ships of the era were certainly outperforming the NX-01, but I'm not sure to what extent Vulcan would have jumped in with the tech sharing; I like to think they would have, but it's possible they played it close to the vest for a while.