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New Orleans class

Bill Morris

Commodore
Commodore
How about this one? Okay?

Orleans2.png
 
Tricky, we never got a real good 'scale' for the New Orleans (since it's a wreck bash of mis-matched TNG parts), but I would probably make it a lot bigger than that - closer to the Ambassador in size. You've got it smaller than a Constitution class vessel here.
 
I don't know. Bernd puts it at "about 340 meters" overall length. That's how I scaled it. People who have done meshes, detailed drawings, and size charts have it anywhere from 340 to 360.

Here it is scaled against the 526-meter Ambassasor class to 510, 360, and 340:


NewOrSize.png
 
I have to agree with Vance here I've always thought the New Orleans were about ambassador size. but saying that maybe 450 meters would be better
 
I'm more partial towards the smallest possible size, something below 350 meters: this agrees with the saucer deck (porthole) count, more or less agrees with the superstructure deck count and, most importantly, gives this ship a distinct identity. We already have plenty of larger vessels - why would Starfleet build yet one more, to a different shape? There's something of a "demand" for smaller ones in the apparent "Galaxy generation" of starships.

I'd also postulate that all three marker-pen pods are identical and interchangeable in content and function, although it probably wouldn't be impossible for these vessels to ship a mixture of different pods as required by the mission.

Given the prominent podded construction, I'd probably erase some systems from the "basic hull" altogether. It doesn't look to me as if the ship would or could have a shuttlebay, either in the saucer or in the aft hull (although admittedly the aft secondary hull is badly damaged and could have "formerly" featured such a bay).

Whether there's a torpedo launcher at the location of the red square in the neck or, say, a tractor beam emitter, is also debatable. If this ship already sports three pods with possibly four torpedo launchers each, the need for "fixed" armament would seem to be greatly diminished. A Miranda doesn't seem to have non-podded launchers, either...

Omission of some of these "traditional" starship elements from the main hull would nicely agree with the idea of a small vessel, one not well suited for wide-spectrum missions.

Timo Saloniemi
 
Tricky, we never got a real good 'scale' for the New Orleans (since it's a wreck bash of mis-matched TNG parts), but I would probably make it a lot bigger than that - closer to the Ambassador in size. You've got it smaller than a Constitution class vessel here.

I disagree...this model has been scaled by a couple of sources LCARS24 has it right. It's not meant to be a big ship.
 
I disagree...this model has been scaled by a couple of sources LCARS24 has it right. It's not meant to be a big ship.

It's not MEANT to be anything, except a 'backgrounder', meaning you're not supposed to make a lot of notice of it. (Seriously, we pay far, far more atteniton to this than the designers did - just ask 'em!)

Really, the problem with the smaller sizes is really the shape of the saucer, making a HUGE amount of internal volume that's pretty wasted and kinda silly. I generally keep the saucer for these bashes at around Ambassador size, just to make 'em useful.
 
Tigger's work suggested that the outboard pods house the six torpedo tubes, and were essentially bolt-ons added when the war with the Cardassians heated up in the 2350s. The New Orleans had originally been intended as an explorer, and the lack of torpedoes initially left it underarmed against the Cardassians.
 
I disagree...this model has been scaled by a couple of sources LCARS24 has it right. It's not meant to be a big ship.

It's not MEANT to be anything, except a 'backgrounder', meaning you're not supposed to make a lot of notice of it. (Seriously, we pay far, far more atteniton to this than the designers did - just ask 'em!)

Really, the problem with the smaller sizes is really the shape of the saucer, making a HUGE amount of internal volume that's pretty wasted and kinda silly. I generally keep the saucer for these bashes at around Ambassador size, just to make 'em useful.

The ship has a scale, Vance it was on screen. While determining the size of a 3D object is highly problematic and estimate and surface features are good clues.

I believe volume can be used in a variety of ways although I understand your gripes here. I'm more than comfortable with the smaller size.
 
Most fandom and semi canon sourse list the class as a heavy frigate. I'd put her size somewhere between a Miranda and an Excelsior.
 
Well, the episode "Conspiracy" did call the New Orleans class a frigate out and loud. And this design might do some justice to the designation: perhaps Starfleet slaps the frigate sticker to starships that rely heavily on external, swappable modules when they want to be formidable warships? Fandom has long called the Miranda class a frigate as well, and the only way we can tell her apart from a cruiser is that she carries some of her goodies in an external pod.

Timo Saloniemi
 
FWIW, the Springfield class kitbash uses a saucer that's nearly identical to the New Orleans one, with similarly custom-resized portholes and lifeboats. She, too, features external modules: a big sensor pod or somesuch is ventrally attached. A possible sister frigate design, just with different, possibly older engines (two of the marker-pen nacelles that the Cheyenne packs in two pairs).

Timo Saloniemi
 
Whether there's a torpedo launcher at the location of the red square in the neck or, say, a tractor beam emitter, is also debatable. If this ship already sports three pods with possibly four torpedo launchers each, the need for "fixed" armament would seem to be greatly diminished. A Miranda doesn't seem to have non-podded launchers, either...

Timo Saloniemi

The non-podded USS Saratoga had torpedo launchers. I'm pretty sure I heard the captain ordered them loaded or prepared at the start of the Battle of Wolf 359 in "Emissary".
 
True. But the Saratoga did have pods, attached to the sides of the hull. The torpedo armament could have been located in those pods; there aren't too many good locations for it in the main hull, and there aren't examples of torpedoes being fired from completely non-podded Miranda variants.

Granted that the pods don't look like they could easily sport the familiar type of torpedo launchers, either. But we know that torp tubes come in a number of different styles; on the Defiant, for example, the quantums come out of small dark slits (which were originally designed to be mere seams for detaching lifepods, but the ship got re-scaled and her surface features re-designated after the modelmakers had finished their work).

Perhaps the Saratoga side pods, which had prominent dish antennas pointing forward, had a number of torpedo bays firing to the sides or to aft?

Timo Saloniemi
 
Jackill, who AFAIK know is the only one to have included the Saratoga as a separate design, had those as sensor units. He did forget the torpedo systems in the specs, since there didn't seem to be any traditional launchers on the model and some of the similar frigate designs seen in works like Ships of the Star Fleet omitted them in favor of heavier phasers. But it's certainly possible the Saratoga could have less obvious launchers like those seen on some of the older FJ designs.
 
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