As some of you are well aware of, the submission date for August's art contest has come and gone, and no entry of mine was submitted. That is not to say I wasn't working on it, but the 20 days I had available evidently wasn't enough, as shown below, which in the end I judged to be too incomplete to submit. Perhaps if I had another week, it would be a different story, but whether it is a matter of a lack of enough time, skill, or efficiency, I'm not expecting, or asking for any leniency. Since it wasn't submitted, it is now an ex-entry. http://www.flickr.com/photos/40445677@N06/7908477354/in/photostream/ Based upon the Mars-class's configuration, the Fuego class is a contemporary of the Lost Era. Due to the contest being over, unless there is demand for further progress, I'll probably be turning my attention to the Valkyrie. I also came up with a very extensive backstory, which I worked on today: The aftermath of the Tomed Incident of 2311 caused much disdain for Starfleet’s top brass, when the Romulan Star Empire forced the United Federation of Planets to sign a treaty two months later, prohibiting them from developing or using any cloaking devices. This was made even more troublesome, since most of the newer vessels were equipped with a cloaking device: the product of studying an obtained Romulan example. A less than majority, but still significant fraction of the fleet all had to enter drydock in order to have these cloaking devices removed, which the Romulan Senate gave Starfleet two months to do. If the Romulan Star Empire were to discover that the Federation was still using any cloaking technology based in any way on Romulan design, war would be a possibility. It was bad enough that that several bases and one vessel were lost in the incident, but the prohibition from using cloaking technology added insult to injury. The signing of the Khitomer Accords in 2293 made it seem that a large battleship, like the Proxima and Mars classes from the middle era of the 23rd century, would no longer be necessary, and even though designs were drafted up for a successor just in case, it seemed unlikely at the time that such a design would need to be built, but the Tomed Incident changed things, and Starfleet Command decided there was a need for a design that could destroy the Romulan’s warbirds, should such a need ever arrise again, so that a vessel such as the Tomed, would never get the chance set off it’s quantum singularity reactor an any inhabited sectors. The Fuego-class Battleship was proposed by Starfleet Command, and later approved by the Federation Council in 2315. Based on the configuration of the Mars-class Battleship from more than half a century again, the lead of her class, U.S.S. Fuego (NX-22540) was launched from Utopia Planitia shipyards in 2324, and after a thorough series of shakedowns and testing, commissioned in 2326. Because the Fuego class was more of monster and took more resources and time to build than originally inticipated, the smaller Niagara-class Dreadnaught was designed not too soon afterwards. Following the confirmation of the destruction of the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701-C) near Narendra III while attempting to defend a Klingon colony in March of 2344, for a few weeks, it seemed that perhaps the Fuego class would finally be put to it’s intended use, with several members of the class were among the many Starfleet vessels lined up near or along the Romulan Border, while a heated debate raged between the Federation and Klingon councils as to whether or not the two should jointly declare war on the Romulan Star Empire. In the meantime, there were many reports of Klingon vessels engaging any Romulan vessels that were in sensor range of the Klingon border... In the end, it was grudgingly decided by Starfleet Command, the Federation Council, the Klingon Council, and the Klingon Defence Force to send a stern warning to the Romulan Senate that should such an attack ever happen again, that the Federation and Klingon Councils would jointly declare war, Starfleet Command would abolish the Treaty of Algeron, and would have no qualms about using cloaking devices. The reasons for this was: 1) Because the Romulan Star Empire went into isolation ever since the Tomed Incident, intelligence on their military was scant at best. However, both Starfleet and Klingon tactical forecast suggested that given Romulan advancement in technology and design, their vessels would at least be a match for any of either party’s counterparts. 2) The Klingon Empire was still recovering from the Praxis Incident from nearly 50 years ago, and even though the fleet was close to pre-Praxis Incident strength, was not quite there just yet. The Klingon Empire also still didn’t have the reserves in resources that it once had, so in a prelonged war, the Klingon Empire was the more likely of the two to peter out, leaving the Federation to fight the Romulans alone. This wouldn’t be so bad, if not for... 3) The United Federation of Planets was not on good terms with the Cardassian Union, due to not having much tolerance for the Union’s aggressive expansionist policy. Skirmishes between encountering Cardassian and Federation vessels were not unheard of. Starfleet Intelligence suggested that should the Cardassian Union declare war on the Federation while Starfleet was engaged with the Romulan Star Empire, Starfleet’s resources would be stretched thin. Even though victory seemed likely, due to the fact that Cardassia Prime was a little behind in technology, this could change, should the Cardassians and Romulans form an actual alliance and exchange technology, the war would be brutal, the cost of victory would be high in resources and ships, and many officers would lose their lives. It is ironic that little more than a decade later, the Cardassians finally tired of the Federation’s attempts keep them from conquering other races, and declared war. Evidently, the Federation’s increasing pressure to discontinue thier occupation of Bajor was the breaking point. This war would prove to be even more brutal than Starfleet Intelligence predicted, with the Cardassian military using whatever resources they could obtain to replace what ships and military hardware Starfleet destroyed, even beginning to resort towards strip-mining their own planet. In the end, the Federation Council decided to sue for peace, to prevent the Cardassians from causing any more damage to their own planet, or any other worlds they had in thier possession, as well as to alleviate the strain on the Federation’s own resources. During the Cardassian War however, the Fuego class, despite being perhaps a little out of date, compared to the more recent starship designs, performed admirably, and was in fact one of the few starship classes that Cardassian vessels would retreat from when first sighted. It has been noted that the class’s upgrades running between 2341 and 2344 probably helped quite a bit. The U.S.S. Ares (NCC-22545) would especially gain a notority with the Cardassian military, and was one of the ships that the Obsidian Order would have liked nothing better than to see explode into a giant fireball. An attempt of 4 cruisers and 6 destroyed to engage one example of the class during a major battle, the U.S.S. ‘Oro (NCC-22549) resulted in 3 of the cruisers getting destroyed, while the fourth was barely managed to limp away courtesy of the aid from a Merced-class Light Cruiser. Half of the destroyers were destroyed, a fourth disabled, one with moderately damaged before being disabled by a Miranda-class Frigate, and the sixth destroyer destroyed with the aid of a Splendor-class Destroyer. The U.S.S. ’Oro had to disengage when her shields were close to depletion, more Cardassian vessels were beginning to engage, and she was beginning to take actual damage. The Fuego class U.S.S. Blaze (NCC-22541) proved to be far less fortunate when she engaged a Borg Cube at Wolf 359 on 12.31.2366 with 39 other vessels. She was the first of the 39 vessels destroyed that day. Reports indicate that she fired all weapons, causing considerable damage, but her shields were ultimately penatrated and she was destroyed outright when her engineering section, and her warp core, was breached. Her smaller cousin, the U.S.S. Princeton (NCC-59804) fared little better. What was left of the armada tried to capitalize on the damage the U.S.S. Blaze managed to cause, but continued to take loss after loss, and fell into chaos shortly afterwards. The was just a sign of things to come for the Fuego class. When the U.S.S. Odyssey (NCC-71832) was destroyed by Jem’Hadar vessels, and the Dominion shortly declared war on the Federation shortly afterwards, the commanding officers of the Fuego class battleships knew that their warships would once again be called to the front lines, and even with thier enormous firepower, their vessels probably would stand much better a chance than a Galaxy class, due to their shields not being much more powerful, and not quite as efficient. And indeed, that is what happened. The U.S.S. Huitzilopochtli (NCC-22546) was the first to be destroyed. Even though the multiple phaser arrays caused constant damage to attacking vessels, the Jem’Hadar’s attack vessels were too agile to target with torpedoes at the range they preferred to engage, and the Jem’Hadar liked to swarm their enemies. The U.S.S. Chi You (NCC-22547) was taken out in fashion similar to the U.S.S. Odyssey, even though she managed to take out 8 attack vessels, and damage another 5, 3 of which were destroyed by other Starfleet vessels shortly afterwards. It could be said that she took the ninth vessel that rammed her... By the time that modifications for better absorbing the Dominion’s phased polaron beam emitters had been implemented fleetwide, Starfleet had also lost the U.S.S. Flame (NCC-22544) and U.S.S. Anhur (NCC-22548) to the Dominion fleet. Attempting to capitalize on Starfleet’s losses, the Obsidian Order sent their newest and largest warship: the Hutet class battleship, to take out a vessel they hated for a long time: the U.S.S. Ares (NCC-22545). The commanding officer of the Hutet challenged the admiral in command of the U.S.S. Ares to a one on one battle between the two ships, in which the loser had to withdraw all vessels under his command to thier nearest starbase. Even though the commanding officer of the U.S.S. Ares thought that the Hutet was probably superior overall compared to the Ares, seeing as how his attachment of ships were probably outgunned anyways, he accepted. After an epic battle, the U.S.S. Ares barely managed to make it out in one piece, being forced to run away on the port upper nacelle and starboard lower nacelle, which the the chief engineer was reported to rig “right in the nick of time”. But the admiral and much of the bridge crew was killed when the bridge barely managed to escape complete destruction, and the aft section of the engineering hull had a big gapping hull, with the aft shuttlebay section completely gone. Other vessels were damaged or destroyed during a running fight with overzealous Cardassian vessels under the command of the Hutet. It was decided that the Ares had a good run, and was too damaged to be considered worth repairing. It was later decided to donate her to a Starfleet Museum, and she was later restored and put on display next to the U.S.S. Mars (NCC-2545) and U.S.S. Entente (NCC-2120). The Olympus-class Battleship U.S.S. Ares (NCC-80920) was later launched in 2380 to proudly continue the namesake. Others of the Fuego class were less fortunate, with the U.S.S. Inferno (NCC-22543) overwhelmed by not one, but two Jem’Hadar battlecruisers, while the U.S.S. Maher (NCC-22550) engaged a Dominion battleship and lost (though it has been noted that she did cause some damage, and gave other vessels time to regroup). Towards the end of the war, the America-class battleship and Entente-class dreadnought finally began to replace the Fuego class as the ultimate frontline warship. The Olympus-class battleship launched towards the end of the 2370’s, and other the much later designs such as Atlantia-class battlecarrier left the remaining Fuego class vessels to patrol core star systems. In the early 2380s, the remaining examples of the class were given a major overhaul, similar to the Ambassador class, two of which, the U.S.S. Fuego (NCC-22540) and U.S.S. Fiero (NCC-22542) were later transferred to the First Fleet in defense of Earth following the Borg Incursion of 2383. These two would later be destroyed in defense of the Solar System during an invasion attempt during the Federation-Galactic Imperial War in 2389, though not before destroying many targets using Transphasic Torpedoes. The U.S.S. ‘Oro is the last remaining example in service, and is currently stationed in the Eridani System to defend Vulcan should the need arrise. It is likely she will be decommissioned before the second half of the 25th century. It has been speculated that she might be replaced by an example of a battleship based on the Odyssey class, while another speculation has it that she will be replaced by one of the newer battlecarrier designs. And yes, there are some references to other non-cannon starship classes.
I like how the lines of the secondary hull rise and fall. Might have made the saucer broader and flatter.
I have a feeling that you mean the third and forth nacelles! From the plan views it seems like those pylons are for two more engines, not just one. At least, if this is supposed to "update" the SFB Mars-class ship, which had four IIRC. --Alex
Hm, I see what you mean. But to me, that's even less appealing. Not a big fan of three or 4 nacelles. Sofar, only the Constellation and Prometheus class worked for me.
if it makes u feel better, JES, I didn't finish my Wolf in the Fold inspired entry either. Interesting take on the Dreadnought concept BTW
From the looks of it, it appears I might have to continue work on the Fuego class, given the 7 replies and 424 views thus far. Probably won't be working on it as fast as the past month, due to there being no time constraints, but I will probably also focus more on details, color gradients, and shading. Besides, it will give me a lot of needed practice in Illustrator. For those of you who left comments, I thank you again. Thanks. I too am happy with how I managed to get the secondary hull to look. I suppose you could say that the size of the ship was determined by a couple of factors: 1) The hand-drawn final sketches 2) The size of the bridge module of the hand-drawn orthographic sketches compared to the bridge module of an Ambassador class bridge module, which I have chosen to make approximately the same in size and appearance to use as a size reference. One of the issues I had to contend with was not making the Fuego too much bigger than the Ambassador, because even though she is indeed supposed to be very powerful (for her time, though even into the TNG-era), she is not an Uber-powerful ship. I have to keep in mind the Galaxy class from much later down the line, and I don't want the Fuego class to be too much bigger than her. Still, I see no harm in expanding the diameter of the primary hull another deflector grid ring-length. I might also want to compare the deck spaces of the Ambassador class, and use that to create a deck spacing for the Fuego class. Maybe while I'm doing that, I'll also lower the middle space between two primary hull sections (dorsal and ventral saucer sections), and that will create the impression of a sleeker saucer. I've been using orthographies of Gus's set of schematics for the Ambassador class as a template for creating details and comparison, so maybe I'll leave those visible for a size reference of the Fuego class, if that is something you'd like, and you'll all be able to tell me if the Fuego class is too big. I should say that the Fuego class is about twice the length of an Ambassador class, which is partly no doubt because of my preference to make my ships long and sleek, where as the Ambassador is more of this shorter, stocky design, in comparison. Yeah, I know she isn't the most attractive looking vessel class, but that isn't her purpose in life. She is only meant to: 1) Use as many already existing parts as plausible without any sacrifice in capabilities to reduce development costs 2) Be able to blast any really big or otherwise extremely dangerous threats into space dust. This is probably the last time such a configuration is used, as more cohesive designs such as Tourangeau's Olympus class is supposed to point towards. Yeah, it does help me accept it a little better. Thanks. And she isn't a dreadnaught, but a battleship. That isn't to say I haven't contemplated what an Ambassador variant based more along the lines of the Federation class lineage might look like, but to my knowledge, the Niagara class in generally considered to be the Federation class of her era.