You know, while your in-universe explanation for the Ticonderoga does make sense, the way the nacelle attaches on the Preble 1) doesn't have the neck interfere with those gold exhaust vents behind the bussards and 2) gives the ship some character and sets it apart a bit from just being a TNG Saladin, along with the topside deflector.
Okay, then. BTW, I'm going to be scarce during the day - the firewall at work just decided to block TBBS this week.
Been a while since I updated the comparison chart on my kitbash page. Here's the side views so far, flush left (providing my web provider is up)
For some reason Reeses is almost the perfect pre-TOS ship design, it has enough crudeness with a certain style to it. Kinda like the huge monitors the British build, HMS Erebus for example, its strange looking, functional, clunky but it has a certain beauty. I like all of Reeses pieces as long they're firmly attached to each other, Reeses in pieces would be a sad thing...
And I built the damn thing as a joke, too. Go figure. Back before Polar Lights got the Trek license, we were constantly begging them to go for it over at HobbyTalk. So I took two Polar Lights models - the Jetson's saucer and the Dick Tracy Space Coupe - jammed 'em together and made a "Polar Lights Star Trek model."
Say, Forbin, now that you've done the Broadsword (the side view of which I had been drooling over for a long time before you finally built her), you ever gonna bash the Wolf from your story? I just love that behemoth. EDIT: Oh and that new comparison chart is awsesome, of course.
Ah, yes...the Wolf. Love that thing. I remember buying the printed diagrams of that many years ago and used it as a major plot device in an alternate-universe RPG where the Terran Empire was using it to destroy the Changeling's homeworld in the Gamma Quadrant, wiping out the last vestiges of the Dominion. It was so awesome I had to use it somehow, although I think it fits more in the mirror universe than the prime universe. Planet-killing mass drivers isn't very Starfleet-y.
Oh, but torpedoes that cheat their way around shields by phasing is? Just look at Arturis and I think you'll agree that the Collective routinely brings out the best in people.
Heh...yeah...well...I guess everyone tends to selectively pack away their moral compass when they're looking at potential genocide, granted. I guess that's why I enjoyed the novel "Vendetta" when it was discovered that the Doomsday Machine planet killers were built by Guinan's people to kill Borg Cubes. Effective, but not terribly well planned out all the way to the end though...
I muse on building a Wolf once in a while, but then I come to my senses. Some one did build one and sent me pictures. I seem to recall he also built some smaller "escort" versions from the Babylon 5 model kit. The Broadsword side view definitely needs redrawing now that I've finally built the model. Gotta get to that next. But... oh god, all those windows!!!
Slow Progress and many distractions. USS TERRELL, now with aft view. I only have room for two views on each page, so I try to make it the most interesting view. The stern of the Terrell shows the engine configuration best, plus the hangar doors.
Here's the TM page. I'm not the best at thinking up specs, so feel free to chime in. Just the basics, though, not warp speed onset times or hit points or all the stuff Jackill puts in his books.