U.S.S. Avalon / Excelsior-class (Type-C) version 2

Last crawled date: 10 months, 3 weeks ago

U.S.S. Avalon, NCC-42024 Excelsior-class type-C Type: explorer Operator: UFP Starfleet Active: 2348-Present Decks: 26 Length: 571.67m Capacity: 1,600 humanoids Max. Speed: warp 9.68 Max. Cruising Speed: warp 8 Armament:phasers (x16 dual-phaser banks); photon torpedoes (x6 launchers) Defenses: deflector shields ======================================== Service History The U.S.S. Avalon, named after the fictional island of Avalon, or 'The Island of Apple Trees' from the Earth's Arthurian legend, was launched in 2348, two years after the bloody Khitomer-massacre ignited the first in a series of brutal wars between the Klingon and Romulan empires. Despite the Federation's policy of non-interference, the chaos of these wars frequently resulted in Starfleet vessels participating in combat with warships of other side, as well as tertiary nations and organizations trying to captitalize on the chaos to advance their own ambitions. The Avalon spent much of her early service as a peacekeeper near Klingon space, but also participated in six deep-space exploratory missions prior to the Dominion War. During this period she established first contact with 42 alien civilizations, and presided over a half-dozen Federation membership acceptance ceremonies. During the Dominion War, the Avalon was assigned to the Federation's Seventh Fleet, which saw some of the heaviest combat in the opening months of the war. After the disasterous Battle of Tyra, the Avalon was one of 14 surviving ships out of 112. The Avalon suffered major damage during the Second Battle of Betazed, resulting in the loss of its primary hull. Starfleet's resources were spread too thin to replace it, so the Avalon's stardrive section stayed in service, relegated to defensive and patrol duties until the end of the war. After the war's end, the U.S.S. Avalon was given an extensive refit at the Utopia Planetia shipyards, where it became the first of the new Type-D Excelsior-class variants. ======================================== Starship Background The Excelsior-class was initially concieved after successful testing of the U.S.S. Ardennes' transwarp drive to be the first of a new generation of Starfleet vessels, faster and more capable of any that had come before. The advent of the Excelsior led Starfleet to redefine the established warp scale, and helped push the boundaries of Federation territory, influence and knowledge over a thousand light years in every direction. For more than a century, she was the foundation of the Federation's Starfleet, with ships of her class present in nearly every major conflict and exploratory endeavor for more than a century. The Type-C variant of the Excelsior-class was introduced in the mid-23rd century, during a period of galactic strife and chaos that saw multiple violent clashes between the Klingon and Romulan Empires. The Type-C was designed to be a stronger, toughter Excelsior—with betters arms and armor—capable of withstanding even the feircests of assualts from the most belligerent of enemies. The saucer-separation function of the Excelsior-class Type-C has been completely overhauled. Explosive bolts in the neck can rapidly separate the two hulls, but both hulls are able to operate independently of one another, allowing the the crew to evacuate to one hull in the event of critical damage to the other. Only the starfdrive section, however, retains warp-capability. Unlike future Federation starship designs, the Excelsior Type-C is unable to rejoin its two hulls after saucer separation, and as such saucer seapration is a maneuver only to be done as a last resort. Because the connecting components in the neck are destroyed during the separation process, they can only be rejoined at a Federation starbase or shipyard (the saucer section would, of course, need to be towed). The interior of the neck is used for cargo storage, where only non-critical equipment is stored, and in general is unoccupied by the crew. Because of this, the Type-C has fewer decks and a decreased capacity compared to the Type-A and Type-B models. By the time of the Dominion War in the late-23rd century, the Type-C Excelsior was the most common combat-capable starship class in the Federation's Starfleet, and was instrumental in securing the Federation's eventual victory in the war. ======================================== Model Background Version 2: At a glance, v2 may not appear to be very different from v1, but it has many subtle changes. Most obvious is the completely redesigned bridge module & interior components. I've also adjusted the geometry of several sections, most notably the top of the secondary hull, to be smoother and more rounded. Version 1: the first and most impressive thing I hope you notice about my Excelsior model is that I have, finally, learned out to place curved text! Straight text on a curved saucer never looks good, and it would look especially bad on the Excelsior. I'm not going to go back and fix the text on most of my other models, but I'll definitely be fixing the Akira—that model took too much time to build to do otherwise. Speaking of which, if the Akira-class was the most difficult and time-consuming model I've made (and it was), then the Excelsior here is the runner-up. I'd estimate she took me about four months to build—yikes. I'll save most of the specific commentary for the Imgur album, but I do want to comment on a few specific aspects of the Excelsior design that I was able to 'fix.' First, my perpetual annoyance, the window rows! The studio model for the Excelsior places the window rows on the saucer rim far, far too close together, implying a saucer that is 3-5 decks thick (which could make the Excelsior-class larger than the Galaxy-class!). I was able to fix that, and also make the outer rim of windows consistent with the third row of windows on the upper terrace by making the outer rim of the saucer angled—that way it's still 2-decks high at the outermost edge, but 2.5 decks high where it intersects with the terrace. The other big problem I have with the Excelsior studio model is the placement of the forward photon torpedo tubes. On the model, two are placed on the secondary hull (one on either side of the deflector) and two are placed on the neck, very near to the top. I never liked the latter placement as it seemed foolish to me to launch torpedoes so close to the primary hull. So now all four are on the secondary hull. Of course, I've also made many other changes and alterations to try and create what I am considering to be a third variant of the Excelsior-class, after the original model and the subsequent Enterprise-B/Lakota variant introduced in Star Trek Generations. In the future, I intend to also model the Enterprise-B as well as a fourth late-type Excelsior variant, with modern phaser strips and visible escape pod hatches ala the Akira-class. (Starship information is derived partially from Memory Alpha and/or Memory Beta, and from my own imagination.) As always, you are free to use or modify this model however you wish, but PLEASE provide credit (simply mention my username and link to my 3D Warehouse mage) if you do so, and please post a comment on the page for the relative model if you do publish any modifications of my work, so I can see it, too. As always, you are free to use or modify this model however you wish, but PLEASE provide credit (simply mention my username and link to my 3D Warehouse mage) if you do so, and please post a comment on the page for the relative model if you do publish any modifications of my work, so I can see it, too. #excelsior #excelsiorclass #startrek #starship #spaceship #star_trek