Excelsior Class: Star Trek starship parts kit expansion #10 by CaptainMojo

Last crawled date: 3 years, 3 months ago

Note: Because Thingiverse has had problems in the past, especially with including all files in a single zip, I’ve also posted these files to an alternative Google drive location. You can access that location here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1q5InMEsRsjxbqX-kAU32wL8m9HJDOmbA?usp=sharing
This is the tenth expansion parts kit meant to complement my original Star Trek Constitution Class Parts Kit, providing parts and ship models to support the Excelsior class starship as seen in the Star Trek Movies and TNG/DS9. It also contains support for the controversial Excelsior-based kitbash Centaur-type.
See my Thingiverse Profile for the full list of parts kits I’ve released so far. All parts are meant to be cross-compatible between kits.

These models are in no way perfect, but I've tried to match the shapes and component placements to all three major versions of the studio model as closely as my skills and target print size (1/2500 and below) allows. I’ve based these designs on Mark Breuer’s excellent reference plans. Marks advice from his years of studying the original studio model has drastically improved the quality of these models.
This kit supports the following variants of the Excelsior:
Mk 1 – The NX 2000 as seen in Star Trek III.
MK 2 – The NCC 2000 as seen in Star Trek VI and later productions.
MK 3 – The refit design used as the Enterprise NCC 1701-B in Star Trek Generations.
Centaur-type - Kitbash ship seen in the DS9 episode Sacrifice of Angels.
Centaur uses parts reused from my earlier Miranda class parts kit.
Note: The standard versions of the Excelsior contain several details that may make printing at small scale difficult. The saucer shield grid, ruffled neck and nacelles, and, probably most importantly, the cavernous cargo bay on the bottom of the secondary hull are likely to cause the most problems. To alleviate this issue, I’m including lower-detail versions of the ship and part files that minimize or remove some of these details. Hopefully these versions will be easier to print if you’re having problems with the standard versions.
Notes on scaling and working with Blender
My target scale for all source files and output STL files is 1:1000. Although these files have not been extensively tested through printing, they are intended to be resized to match common modelling and miniatures scales.
Target scale      
Scale STL files to:      
Notes
1/3900
0.25641026 (25.6%)
FASA miniature scale
1/3788
0.26399155 (26.4%)
ADB Starline 2400 scale
1/3125
0.32 (32%)
ADB Starline 2500 scale
1/2500
0.4 (40%)
The Trek modelers "Golden scale"
1/1600
0.625 (62.5%)
TOS 3-Ship Set scale
1/1400
0.714285714 (71%)
Common resin model scale
1/650
1.538461538 (153%)
Modelling scale
1/537
1.862197393 (186%)
Common scale for TMP models
1/350
2.857142857 (285%)
Large scale
Note: Because the Centaur type uses different scale parts from both the Miranda and Excelsior classes, there is debate over its actual intended size. If scaled to the Excelsior saucer, it should be \~380m long. If the Miranda parts, only 210m long. I have scaled the model to the larger size. If you’d like to print the smaller version, use the scaling guide above and multiply that value by 0.55.
Ex Astris Scientia discusses the issues and evidence on this debate.
Blender
Blender is free, which to be honest was the primary factor in my decision to learn it. There are many fine video and text tutorials available online if you're interested in learning more. For a basic tutorial on moving and joining objects in Blender(which should be the minimum you need to know when working with these parts), see this instructables tutorial. You can use File -> Import -> Stl (.stl) and File -> Export -> Stl (.stl) to load or save STL files in blender.
Note: These kits were built using Blender 2.8.
Post-processing STL output
Although all of the STL files included have been tested as valid watertight meshes, joining the parts together and exporting new STL files can introduce small errors that may cause issues with slicing programs. I recommend any STL files you create are checked using a program like Netfabb Basic free edition. Doing a simple "Close All Holes" repair has fixed most of the issues I've run into so far. If you do run into issues with mesh quality, please let me know.
Parts list
This parts kits includes the following files.
Parts
Part
Description
excelsior-nacelle-port.stl
Port nacelle used in MK1 and MK2 versions.
excelsior-nacelle-port-low-detail.stl
Lower-detail port nacelle used in MK1 and MK2 versions.
excelsior-nacelle-starboard.stl
Starboard nacelle used in MK1 and MK2 versions.
excelsior-nacelle-starboard-low-detail.stl
Lower-detail starboard nacelle used in MK1 and MK2 versions.
excelsior-nacelle-center.stl
Center nacelle based on MK1 and MK2 nacelles (not used in any sample ships).
excelsior-nacelle-center-low-detail.stl
Low detailed center nacelle based on MK1 and MK2 nacelles (not used in any sample ships).
excelsior-nacelle-pylon-port.stl
Pylon connecting port nacelle with secondary hull (used by all versions).
excelsior-nacelle-pylon-starboard.stl
Pylon connecting center nacelle with secondary hull (used by all versions).
excelsior-nacelle-pylon-center.stl
Simplified vertical pylon for connecting center nacelle (not used in any sample ships).
excelsior-neck.stl
Standard neck with ruffled surface.
excelsior-neck-low-detail.stl
Simplified neck without ruffled details.
excelsior-saucer-mk1.stl
Standard MK1 saucer.
excelsior-saucer-mk1-low-detail.stl
Lower detailed standard MK1 saucer.
excelsior-saucer-mk1-standalone.stl
MK1 saucer without the neck cutout.
excelsior-saucer-mk1-standalone-low-detail.stl
Lower details MK1 saucer without the neck cutout.
excelsior-saucer-mk2.stl
Standard MK2 saucer.
excelsior-saucer-mk2-low-detail.stl
Lower detailed standard MK2 saucer.
excelsior-saucer-mk2-standalone-low-detail.stl
MK2 saucer without the neck cutout.
excelsior-saucer-mk2-standalone.stl
Lower details MK2 saucer without the neck cutout.
excelsior-secondary-hull-mk1.stl
MK1 secondary hull.
excelsior-secondary-hull-mk1-low-detail.stl
Lower detailed MK1 secondary hull with cargo bay reduced to minor indent.
excelsior-secondary-hull-mk2.stl
MK2 secondary hull.
excelsior-secondary-hull-mk2-low-detail.stl
Lower detailed MK2 secondary hull with cargo bay reduced to minor indent.
excelsior-nacelle-port-mk3.stl
Port nacelle used in MK3 version.
excelsior-nacelle-port-mk3-low-detail.stl
Lower-detail port nacelle used in MK3 version.
excelsior-nacelle-starboard-mk3.stl
Starboard nacelle used in MK3 version.
excelsior-nacelle-starboard-mk3-low-detail.stl
Lower-detail starboard nacelle used in MK3 version.
excelsior-nacelle-center-mk3.stl
Center nacelle based on MK3 nacelles (not used in any sample ships).
excelsior-nacelle-center-mk3-low-detail.stl
Low detailed center nacelle based on MK3 nacelles (not used in any sample ships).
excelsior-saucer-mk3.stl
Standard MK3 saucer.
excelsior-saucer-mk3-low-detail.stl
Lower detailed standard MK3 saucer.
excelsior-saucer-mk3-standalone-low-detail.stl
MK3 saucer without the neck cutout.
excelsior-saucer-mk3-standalone.stl
Lower details MK3 saucer without the neck cutout.
excelsior-secondary-hull-mk3-low-detail.stl
MK3 secondary hull.
excelsior-secondary-hull-mk3.stl
Lower detailed MK2 secondary hull with cargo bay reduced to minor indent.
centaur-nacelle-port.stl
Centaur-type port nacelle.
centaur-nacelle-starboard.stl
Centaur-type starboard nacelle.
centaur-rollbar.stl
Miranda-style rollbar connecting saucer to nacelles. Includes torpedo modules.
centaur-saucer.stl
Centaur saucer.
Combined ship STLs
These files provide sample ships generated using the parts included in this kit.
Part
Description
ship-excelsior-mk1.stl
Standard MK1 Excelsior class model.
ship-excelsior-mk1-low-detail.stl
Lower-detail MK1 Excelsior class model.
ship-excelsior-mk2.stl
Standard MK2 Excelsior class model.
ship-excelsior-mk2-low-detail.stl
Lower-detail MK2 Excelsior class model.
ship-excelsior-mk3.stl
Standard MK3 Excelsior class model.
ship-excelsior-mk3-low-detail.stl
Lower-detail MK3 Excelsior class model.
ship-centaur.stl
Centaur type ship model.
Blender files
The following zip files contain a parts file, containing the STL parts arranged as used in the sample ship designs, and a parts source file, containing the raw blender objects used to create the parts:
Excelsior-Blender-files.zip
Centaur-Blender-files.zip
License
I'm releasing this under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. You're free to distribute and modify these files (even for commercial use), provided you attribute the creator and distribute your contributions under the same license.