My homebrew kitbashes

[Kaiser]

Yep despite extra deflector by itself it looks much better

 

[Ian Keldon]

You have an extra deflector in the front view.

I saw that almost as soon as I posted it.

Yep despite extra deflector by itself it looks much better

Fixed.

 

[Ian Keldon]

some bonus material on the Aesirs:

From "Jane's Fighting Starships" Communications to the Editor (August 2295 edition)


"Aesir-class Battlecruisers: Soldiers that need to fade away"
Submitted by Commodore Augustus Wainright, Starfleet Plans and Policies Division

Few subjects are as controversial as that of Starfleet's battlecruiser program. Starships designed primarily around combat operations have always been the "third rail" (to use an ancient term) of Plans and Policies debates. Supported mostly by TacFleet and it's boosters, battlecruisers (along with dreadnaughts) are ships built in the sincere hope that they will never have to be employed.

With the general outbreak of peace following the signing of the Khitomer Accord, the time has come to finally face the fact that battlecruisers have never provided a solid return on investment for Starfleet, either because they proved impossible to perfect (as in the disaster that was the Menahga class), or simply were too resource intensive to maintain relative to the amount of time spent on deployment.

The later case is represented by the 2 dozen Aesir class hulls currently gathering dust at Utopia Planetia, Proxima, and Beta Antares Fleet yards. While ton for ton one of the most capable combatants we've ever built, the Aesirs are like Arabian horses: high strung and high maintenance. The PB-49 hybrid/circumfrential nacelles may have provided sustained cruise speeds in the Warp 11 range, but only because the Mark 6 M/AMRC was designed for reactant injection rates nearly 25% greater than any other reactor in service. The attendant need for increased reactant storage led to the elongation of the secondary hull, increasing the ship's mass and reducing it's maneuverability.

With nothing out there appearing to pose any significant threat to Federation interests, the tonnage limits imposed by the Accords, and the overall expense of maintaining relatively inefficient and overly-specialized combat vessels, it's well past time that the Aesir class, like it's mythological namesakes, pass from this world and into legend.

 

[Kaiser]

Cool Back story

 

[Ian Keldon]

From "Jane's Fighting Starships" Communications to the Editor (October 2295 edition)

"A Response to: 'Aesir-class Battlecruisers: Soldiers that need to fade away' "
Submitted by Captain Sedak, Commanding Officer, USS Valhalla

With respect to Commodore Wainright's Communication to the Editor of August 2295, I find I must proffer the following rebuttal:

Waste is illogical. Decommissioning and scrapping the Aesir class would represent a significant sacrifice in terms of components, even taking recycling of components into account. The primary structural assemblies, particularly the hull frames, the reactor core bracings and the main plasma conduit supports are unique to this design, and unsuitable for use in any other class starship. Given that the average Aesir class hull has less than 10,000 hours flight time (out of a projected 173,000 flight hour primary endurance), it would be unfortunate to sacrifice hulls in such good condition when other options are available.

Down-powering the weapons configuration would place the ships within treaty stipulations, while retaining the "rapid response" capability represented by the Mark 6/PB-49 engine specifications. Multi-mission capacity could be enhanced by the substitution of a standard-size Type 9 primary hull in place of the Type 7 currently employed, with only slight modifications needed to the warp field configuration control software. The estimated loss of approximately .4932274 of one warp factor would be an entirely acceptable trade off.

From "Jane's Fighting Starships" Communications to the Editor (December 2295 edition)

"Regarding Aesir*-class refits"
Submitted by Commodore Augustus Wainright, Starfleet Plans and Policies Division

Captain Sedak's proposal, while admirable in it's intent, frankly does little to address the primary issues involved with the Aesir class program.

The substitution of a Type 9 saucer for the current Type 7 only exacerbates the mass situation, adding the better part of 17,000 metric tons to the ship. This would result in even further degraded maneuverability, and place additional strains on both the structural integrity and inertial damper systems, and exacerbating the power efficiency issue. Losing nearly 13% of it's sustained cruise speed and a reduced weapons capacity on top of all that makes even less sense than the proposal to retain the class "as is".

I must wonder if Captain Sedak's logic is "uncertain" where this issue is concerned.

 

[Albertese]

I've been following this thread for a while, and, even though I'm not a huge fan of cut-n-paste starship design, I have enjoyed seeing the progression of Ian Keldon's design sensibility. A lot of these designs don't strike me as very sound from an engineering standpoint. And (maybe my biggest complaint towards this sort of design thought process) does Starfleet really need thousands of ship that are odd re-arrangements of cruiser parts?

That said, I do like several of the more utilitarian designs you've got here. Most recently the Saint Christopher. I like the Lafayette and the George Washington, too. (Though the Lafayette seems too big to be an escort, judging by the windows...)

The DVD set of TOS contains an interview with Matt Jefferies from shortly before he passed away. In it, he tells a story of a time when he was at some sort of convention and was asked to judge a contest of people's original Star Trek models. He made a bunch of people upset because the model he picked as the winner was built by a clear amateur who probably hadn't even discovered sandpaper yet. And this over many very beautifully assembled Enterprise kitbashes. When asked why he picked that one, he replied that it was the only original one, the other were just reassembled parts. Besides her sister ships, there are not really any ships on TOS, Federation or otherwise which feature any Connie parts. I really like fan designs which show us something really new. Though, as has been said, cut-n-paste is a good beginning. I know I've made my share of them as a kid myself.

So, Ian Keldon, keep up the good work.

--Alex

 

[Kaiser]

From "Jane's Fighting Starships" Communications to the Editor (October 2295 edition)

"A Response to: 'Aesir-class Battlecruisers: Soldiers that need to fade away' "
Submitted by Captain Sedak, Commanding Officer, USS Valhalla

With respect to Commodore Wainright's Communication to the Editor of August 2295, I find I must proffer the following rebuttal:

Waste is illogical. Decommissioning and scrapping the Aesir class would represent a significant sacrifice in terms of components, even taking recycling of components into account. The primary structural assemblies, particularly the hull frames, the reactor core bracings and the main plasma conduit supports are unique to this design, and unsuitable for use in any other class starship. Given that the average Aesir class hull has less than 10,000 hours flight time (out of a projected 173,000 flight hour primary endurance), it would be unfortunate to sacrifice hulls in such good condition when other options are available.

Down-powering the weapons configuration would place the ships within treaty stipulations, while retaining the "rapid response" capability represented by the Mark 6/PB-49 engine specifications. Multi-mission capacity could be enhanced by the substitution of a standard-size Type 9 primary hull in place of the Type 7 currently employed, with only slight modifications needed to the warp field configuration control software. The estimated loss of approximately .4932274 of one warp factor would be an entirely acceptable trade off.

From "Jane's Fighting Starships" Communications to the Editor (December 2295 edition)

"Regarding Aesir*-class refits"
Submitted by Commodore Augustus Wainright, Starfleet Plans and Policies Division

Captain Sedak's proposal, while admirable in it's intent, frankly does little to address the primary issues involved with the Aesir class program.

The substitution of a Type 9 saucer for the current Type 7 only exacerbates the mass situation, adding the better part of 17,000 metric tons to the ship. This would result in even further degraded maneuverability, and place additional strains on both the structural integrity and inertial damper systems, and exacerbating the power efficiency issue. Losing nearly 13% of it's sustained cruise speed and a reduced weapons capacity on top of all that makes even less sense than the proposal to retain the class "as is".

I must wonder if Captain Sedak's logic is "uncertain" where this issue is concerned.

to be honest id also Question his Logic...

Refit looks nice but if it performed worse than the original then i wouldnt bother to refit them..

 

[Ian Keldon]

Well, Wainright was taking a bit of a cheap shot at the good Captain with that remark. To say that of a Vulcan is something of an insult as it implies he's letting his emotions get the better of him.

New one testing out a "harvested" part from a Vance ship.

USS Ramius

 

[Kaiser]

looks awesome

and I like the Broadside Phaser bank

 

[Ian Keldon]

Design wise, the Ramius is a bit sub-par. That flat-bottom saucer eliminates the usual emplacements. I had to include those broadside banks (more aft banks with some broadside coverage really) to help cover the ventral firing arcs. She still has significant blockages, unfortunately.

 

[Ian Keldon]

One more...this one has one of my first serious attempts at doing a part myself with any detail to it (the nacelle pylons). I did borrow some of the detailing from a Vance part.

Dallas-class perimeter action vessel

 

[Kaiser]

looks good to me

 

[Bernard Guignard]

you are coming along nicely young padawan

 

[KNH]

A great step towards finding your own style and direction. I love it!

 

[publiusr]

A cross between Valhalla and the Galaxy class would be nice. The super saucer and the nice big secondary hull, but with raised nacelles of the Valhalla.

I don't mind kitbashes at all--the only thing that needs original drawings are the nacelle support pylons. There needs to be some new mersions of those so as to keep things organic.

Cranked arrow designs where the nacelles either emerge from where they do on the Refit--or a bit lower down and back from that extended secondary hull.

The nacelle pylons then flow back, then up and back at a different angle, so as to keep the rakish look. Simple triangular nacelle suports clash with the fluid secondary hull. Those are best for Stargazer designs whereoriginally seen--in their industrial setting.

 

[JES]

This little attempt is a significant step. Making a new part, even a simple one, is a very important step. I have also noticed that in the last couple of works, there seems to be more of an attempt to get rid of any signs of copy and pasting, which I consider to be essential. And I also appreciate how you are also adding smaller registry markings the the nacelles ends.

One of the next steps that I would focus on is the shade of the color you use for your parts and registries, so that they are too light or, specifically in your case, too dark or bold. I like how the registry for the Valhalla isn't too dark for example.

I would also try to notice the details of the parts that you use. What I do as I look at other people's works is play around with the details in my head, and try to come up with variations. I draw details and curves that draw my eye in the air, and try to think of new details for future designs. They are usually similar, but not identical. Depending on how good you are at drawing, you might even want to try to brainstorm ideas by sketching. The harder part might be figuring out how to apply your ideas in-program within a reasonable amount of time, so I would pace yourself, and try to improve your attention to detail little by little, for either every ship you do, or every batch.

 

[Ian Keldon]

The contrast issue is something that crops up from time to time...not sure how it happens or how to fix it. I think it may have something to do with downconverting to jpeg on some big files, or some weird thing Photobucket is doing to them on the upload. I just don't know.

Tonight's entry is the Mosby class scout. I know on the surface it seems like a simple modification of the bog-standard Ranger class from FASA, but it took me a LOT of work to put together from parts I'd "salvaged" from the Vance Ranger. I had to rework the pylons a bit to make them larger to fit the configuration I had in mind. I moved the phaser emplacements and added to them, and I did a resize of the bridge dome to bring the hump more in line with the rest of the ship scale-wise. All in all, it took the better part of 2 hours and ~30 layers to get everything the way I wanted it.

Mosby-class scout

 

[Kaiser]

Looks very good and better than any other redraw of the FASA Ranger Class

 

[Ian Keldon]

Vance gets all the credit for the basic parts of course...all I did was redraw a few bits here and there (such as making the pylon a bit longer than it was before).

Because pulbisur asked, and I had nothing better to do, here's a Galaxy/Valhalla hybrid. I went ahead and labeled it the Galaxy.

Not sure I agree that she looks better with her nacelles "up"...

 

[publiusr]

Thank you for that. It looks more even and balanced to me. It might look better with different nacelle supports.

BTW The Mosby is far better than the stock Ranger, which looks more like a tiny SFB Fast patrol boat than anything else....