Topic: Speak softly, but carry a big stick...

[Wicked Zombie]

Those of you who were following the 3 month long WIP thread on my forums were probably wondering if this would ever get finished. The Missouri was never completed, and the Mars is just plain ugly, so hopefully the third time is the charm as far as TMP Fed Battleships go:

The Carolina class first began construction as a yet unnamed Missouri class battleship. Not long after construction began, Starfleet decided to retool the project into the newly proposed "Battleship NX-4438" design. The Missouri, along with the Yamato and the over-budget Mars refits, had fell short of Starfleet's expectations (either economically, tactically, or technologically) and the Federation council decided to take one last gamble on a warship that could truly counter those of the Klingon and Romulan empires.

In less than three years the new starship, christened the U.S.S. Carolina, was launched from the naval yards at Utopia Planetia for an immediate shakedown cruise and field trials. Not long after the shakedown began, the ship engaged and destroyed a group of Klingon convoy raiders much to the surprise of the Klingon Empire who's intelligence department had been mislead into believing the new battleship being constructed was just another Missouri. After this unplanned, yet successful test of the starship's capabilities, Starfleet ordered three additional Carolina class vessels to be constructed while the Carolina herself continued field trials.

The Carolina is equipped with three shuttle bays capable of launching and servicing over a dozen fighter craft with an additional dozen shuttles, two dozen phaser emitters, eight photon torpedo launchers, a pair of Anti-Drone-Defense auto-turrets, heavy blast-armor, reinforced hull, four warp engines (two per nacelle), four fusion reactors, and battleship-grade shields. In addition, the ship has a dedicated Command-Intelligence-Center above the aft shuttlebays providing a wide field of view of the surrounding area for the command staff. A further distinction is the inclusion of an internal defense mainframe with containment force fields, hidden corridor phaser auto-cannons, and heavy-blast bulkheads to help deter/defend against enemy boarding actions. This mainframe proved instrumental during the Andromedan conflict, where assault droids beamed over from the Andromedan ships were a constant menace to the Alpha-Quadrant crews.

However, despite these advancements and capabilities, the Carolina and other battleships of her time were beginning to lose their value since they were primarily war-oriented ships. Not long after the end of the Andromedan invasion, many of these battlewagons were decommissioned or scrapped in favor of more exploration based vessels. The U.S.S. Arizona, named in honor of a slain American sea-ship, fittingly remains as one of the last of these massive vessels and is moored in low Earth orbit above Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, directly parallel to her ancestor's memorial.





























Hi-res and Low-res versions are available along with a set of blank textures for custom registries.

[Klingon Fanatic]

 

Awesome! I love the textures and the engines especially. Nice backstory too!

Excellent work and thank you for sharing this.

KF

[OlBuzzard]

WOW ..

Dude !

I love your work !  (Always have )

 

[Bernard Guignard]

Supberb

[J. Carney]

The detail is AMAZING! Ecxcellent design, and awesome textures.

[Brush Wolf]

By the title of the thread it sounded like you were making the USS Theodore Roosevelt.

[Shadowfleet]

  Woo Hoo!!!! Absolutely awesome. Thanks WZ. I like the design alot, especially the top of the saucer and bridge. As always your texture work is topnotch.

[Norsehound]

I thought curved nacelle pylons didn't exist in TMP, and were clearly a TNG feature?

Impressive as always, except the pylon curvature, which I never understood anyway.

[Greenvalv]

I LOVE IT, best looking TMP ship I have ever seen, magnificent!

[FoaS_XC]

Kick ass, as i said.

[GotAFarmYet?]

Like it allot!

was never fond of the three and four warp engine designes myself. Always thought that was more because of SFB that Trek that those type of designes evolved.

[Norsehound]

I prefer the three-nacelle dreadnoughts over anything TNG puts up. The only impressive 'dreadnought' post TNG is the Sovergin, but of course that's classed under 'explorer' now, isn't it?

And besides, even though Gene roddenberry said no three or one nacelled designs, TNG breaks that rule by having both in the BoBw graveyard.

[Wicked Zombie]

It was never decreed that curved pylons can't exist before TNG. The Excelsior and Oberth both had non-straight pylons, and they were certainly TMP era. Regardless, I used them because they worked with the design. Straight pylons didn't work with the Carolina and if something doesn't work, you try something that does. Whether or not they clash with the era/type/race/etc. of the ship can be dealt with afterwards.

[Mackie]

A nice ship
but as its been said, i dont think curved pylons are really a TMP thing

and as for my opinion about "Speak softly, but carry a big stick"
Be LOUD and be RUDE so you dont need to bring out big sticks

[Wicked Zombie]

These curved pylons don't really resemble anything seen in TNG (canon wise). In fact, the only major instance of curved pylons, which were really just Excelsior pylons with a rounded bend, were on the Galaxy and Amassador types. Most Federation starships have had straight pylons, regardless of the era, so the ones used on the Carolina and other ships I've made are a fairly unique trait.

[Dawntreader]

I don't care about that pylon issue, that is just awsome.  On a side note, I might need a towel after seeing this ship.

[Norsehound]

The pylon issue is just a pet peeve of mine because somehow I enjoy pure TMP designs far more than anything TNG and beyond.

The way I see it personally, the Federation ship design mentality didn't really go into ornimenting their ships until sometime just before TNG. For in TMP, the only real curved surface we see are things like the secondary hull of starships (circular, like the Constitution, and half-circular on the exclsior, from the front profile). For the most part saucers were round and everything was balanced.

The Ambassador carries many of these traits too and doesn't go overboard. It is also one of the few TNG designs I like...except for the nacelles. Nacelles here get shorter than the primary hull, which I think is another drawback.

The Enterprise-D (also known by some as the loveboat in space) is very front-heavy with most of the emphasis placed on a wide, oval saucer, and curved lines instead of straight ones. IIRC, the only straight lines really on the ship are seen from the side- specificly the 'equators' running along the primary and secondary hulls, as well as the shorter warp engines.

Post TNG - Movies seem to be taking chapters from TMP designs- inroducing the Sovergin with pylons just as long if not longer than the re-arranged primary hull. This gives the Sovergin, IMO, a more balanced look that doesn't seem to put too much emphasis on anything.

Then again, the Sovergin also had curved pylons also, but it wasn't a TMP ship. The summary of all this I guess is that TMP ships use more straight lines than ships of later eras, especially TNG. Just something to notice.

[Major A Payne]

I don't know WZ. To me the ship just looks far to advanced to be a TMP design. Maybe early TNG, or one to bridge the gap between the two eras. Either way its an excellent design and the modelling is top notch as usually expected.

[Wicked Zombie]

TMP ships can use whatever lines that look good, it doesn't matter what other eras have. As long as the overall appearance of the design fits the time period that it's for, then everything else will work out. While some may focus on the mere lines of a ship, I prefer to focus on the actual elements of what the ship has to help define when it is from.

If I had added escape pods, phaser arrays, and all those other typical TNG traits, it wouldn't really look like a TNG design because it wouldn't have the style of that era. A set of curved pylons isn't enough to distinguish it and muddle the timeframe, just like a big, boat-shaped hull isn't enough to toss the Excelsior out the window. One of those "forrest-for-the-trees" situations.

I'm sure people had the same reaction when the Excelsior appeared, something that was very different from the Constitution and Miranda. Long nacelles, thick neck, boat-hull, handlebar pylons - all things that hadn't been seen prior to ST3. There's also the very unusual Oberth, another design that strays from the norm. That goes to show that the designers were trying new things and not limiting themselves to what was done previously. Now those ships are generally accepted as defining the TMP era, so there's no reason why other designs can't do the same.

MP - The ship is late TMP era, as the Andromedan Invasion supposedly took place in the 2290s, at least as far as the original SFB timeline is concerned. Since the Carolina is the last of the 'old-school' battlewagons it's feasible that it would have some of the old and new technologies/concepts from a period just prior to the 24th century.

[Azel]

OK...WTF is wrong with you guys!
This model is in no way indicative of a TNG ship...not one TNG ship shares any features with this ship...other than the standard saucer/hull/nacelle combination.
In fact only TMP ships have the curved pylons...not straight as some of you think....do some research, and you'll see what I am talking about .
TNG ships have curved corners not curved pylons....ever heard of a ship called Akyazi?
I mean dammit, I have never seen such a BS complaint in my life...Look, if you don't like it...don't DL it...or build one your damned self.
pet peeve?? pet peeve!!
this is my pet peeve...a lot of hard work goes into building a ship to fit the bill, that doesn't look like a damned TMP Connie Kitbash that makes no sense(no offence to you kitbashers out there you know I support you!)...or some pathetic BS excuse for those fan-boyed "uber cruiser".
a real design that follows the line of thinking to make a transition from TMP towards the future, transcending the Eras ...Like the excelsior...and you guys whine about it???

....(and you wonder why I ducked out of here)

BTW:
Hello Sandman, MP, FW, FotS, Mackie, Ol'Buzz and others!!!