I like the New Orleans class but I HATE THE HIGHLIGHTER PENS. I'd even buy the Eaglemoss model if I could figure out how to remove the highlighter pens without leaving big holes in the model.
There's a very important message in this video: you can make terrific ship designs with simple creativity and freedom. Budget does not denote excellence without the imagination to back it up. I'd take these ship designs (and those of First Contact) over all the Trek designs made since.
Personally, I always thought the TNG era ship language was gaudy and overblown... I found the 1701-D fugly the first time I saw it as a 12 year old and my opinion hasn't changed since. My favorite was the Art Deco inspired designs from the refit / original movie era. That said, I'd take anything presented in this video, literally studio models made from AMT kits and high-liters, over all of the crap in the JJ Trek movies / shows.
I have a model of the Kyushu on my desk, I was looking up lesser known ships and came across it once and just instantly fell in love with the New Orleans class
More like First Person: Hey, where did my highlighters go? Co-worker: They boldly went were no highlighter has gone before. First Person: What??? Wait! never mind... Just just keep them.
@@stardude2006 I know...you'd think there would be more of them flying around. They are pretty large vessels in their own right; probably a heavy cruiser.
It very heavily reminds me of the Stargazer. When I first started playing STO I stayed in a Cheyenne for quite a while because it is fairly strong for a low level vessel.
I have an theory as to why we didn’t see these in the dominion war while we did see older stuff like the Excelsiors and Mirandas. In WW2 the backbone of the british battleship fleet was the five Queen Elizabeth’s and the 5 revenge class battleships, now the QE’s were older, and that resulted in them being upgraded before the Revenges. So when war broke out the QE’s were the workhorses of the Royal Navy, while the revenges were stuck on convoy and shore bombardment duty. What if the same thing occurred in Star Trek, the federation knew war was coming, and as the Lakota showed, they were upgrading older ships. What if they upgraded the oldest ships, the Excelsiors and Mirandas first, and the unmodernised ships were left for convoy duty and system defence?
The Revenges weren't upgraded because they were basically cheaper versions of the QEs. They were far slower and could use coal, which the RN had started to worry they couldn't get enough of in wartime. Their slower speed meant that despite their iterative improvements over the QEs, they were actually far less useful ships. Also all of them would have been replaced with N3/G3 class ships, except the inter-war naval treaties prevented that, only allowing the Royal Navy to build the Nelson class. When they did get to build more battleships, they were limited by treaty limitations to less powerful guns than the QEs Honestly a better comparison would probably be HMS Dreadnought - the Galaxy Class is so much more powerful than the rest of the fleet, that *everything* is equally obsolete compared to it, so Starfleet Command doesn't see any reason to go too nuts replacing ships - especially as Starfleet needs a large fleet to fulfil its various missions, rather than say the Romulans or Klingons who have less territory, fewer obligations (their fleets are for war and that's basically it, unlike Starfleet) or other methods of making their fleet stretch further (eg. no Romulan colony is going to rebel when there could be a cloaked Tal Shiar ship in orbit, obviating the need to actually have "showing the flag" visits.)
@@scandor8599 there were plans to upgrade the Revenges.5 ships with 8 15 inch guns Each aren’t something you just waste. HMS Royal Oak was the only one with any upgrades by the time the war started, and then it got torpedoed at anchor.
@@scandor8599 there is also a simple bit of logic thats ignored. You design a ship, it's a good well rounded ship that fits the purpose you plan for it, it's cheap, simple to build, and its design let's you upgrade it constantly. Now you could build 10 of these, then design another ship to do the same job, but that would mean retooling construction yards, retraining crews and a more complicated supply chain for spare parts. Or you could build 1000 of them, and occasionally build a half dozen more specialist ships for other missions. That's the logic the federation seemed to go with, and honestly it makes sense. You don't need a large complicated mix of ship types when 2-3 will do for 99% of all mission types.
That is true to some extend in the context of battleships. They are super-expensive and take a long time to build. They didn't do that with destroyers and frigates. So Miranda and Oberth are out of the question right away. Excelsior may work, but given how many of them were build, I still think it's not the best analogy. Also, that worked because there wasn't really much technological progress in battleship technology between WW1 and WW2. Things like gunnery optics, ballistic computers, etc. were better, but it was a slow evolution, not a revolution. So the older ships could have still been upgraded to keep up with the progress. Now, in contrast of a revolutionary upgrade in thechnology. HMS Dreadnaught was introduced in 1906 and before WW1 started, most, if not all, "pre-dreadnaughts" were out of commision, because they couldn't keep up with the new standard. Similary, after WW2, with the domination of carrier vessels over battleships and an advent of modern rocketry, very few battleships stayed in service for more than a couple of years after WW2. And those that did, like the USS Missouri for example, did so more because of tradition and prestige, rather than usefullness. Now, I don't know how significant are the technological advancements in Star Trek between TMP era and TNG era, but I would expect the latter, rather than the former. But of course, I could be wrong.
Yeah. The fleet would have been refit extensively by the dominion war a lot if 23rd century ships very much still fit for purpose despite their age. Shame it's implied a lot of the refit era ships were destroyed during this war.
Of these ships, I would have to say the Cheyenne class. My favorite Trek design is still the Akira class, followed by The excelsior. But of the kitbashes, I like the Cheyenne the most. Something about the quad nacells really makes me happy. The symmetry is elegant.
The *Cheyenne class* is definitely my favourite. I have a thing for four nacelle ships, they look _balanced…_ like a *space* craft should. The off vertical centreline two nacelle layouts "indicate a two dimensional pattern of thinking" - to quote Spock. If only in Picard that had become the new StarFleet paradigm (with them brought in close on thick pylons or even attached directly like the Defiant, to show a muscular compact look with menace). They had already gotten rid of the silly long thin neck by the end of the TNG era, with the new Intrepid class and later the Sovereign class attaching the primary hull directly to the secondary hull. And then there were the new *First Contact* anti Borg ships. A continuation of that aesthetic would have been beautiful and also shown StarFleet getting more pragmatic and militant.
I love these lesser known ships Akira class (one of my Favorites) Centaur class Norway class Steamrunner Class Alaska Class Prometheus And the Dauntless (Even if it was an alien ship, it still looked amazing) *And thank you Eaglemoss for allowing me to finally get my hands on these rare ships!
The good news is there is a mod for Sins of a Solar Empire called Star Trek Armada 3 which includes all of these ships in some form: Phoenix class is a heavy command/support cruiser while the Nebula class is a battlecruiser. New Orleans class is a long range siege/torpedo cruiser Challenger class pulls double duty as a ship that can be called in for support and a refit version called the Sarek class which is a diplomatic cruiser. The Freedom, Cheyenne, Springfield and Niagara classes are all used as part of support fleets. The models are pretty detailed too. I would highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't played it before and just goes to show they have not been entirely forgotten.
@@yourcurtainsareugly The Galaxy-class warp nacelles each have two warp coils in them sharing one nacelle, so four warp coils total (vs 2 coils total for the TOS Enterprise), you can see the two sets of lights in some shots on TNG. Kind of like the double-engine nacelles on the B-52 Stratofortress.
I utterly love the New Orleans. I like to just headcanon that we see so many Excelsiors because the more modern ships are on very long range assignments and things, and older ships fill in safe gaps in peacetime.
My favorite 24th century ship was actually one that was unmentioned in this video, the Centaur-class. Granted, it *was* a kitbash of an Excelsior and Miranda classes, but there's something I just really liked about it. It looks really sleek, and perfectly suited for the role of a fast attack destroyer.
@@zafranorbian757 pretty much, I think the beta Canon for it is a cobbled together ship to augment dwindling fleet numbers as they were designing and building new vessels
When I asked this question to Michael Okuda on Twitter his response was that the nebula class WAS the fruit of that effort to get the Wolf 359 ships into prominence. It speaks to the producers' sensibilities that only one ship- the nebula- got such a gift.
It's always nice to see people honoring those designs. Star Trek mod developers (e.g. for Stellaris or SoaSE) sometimes takes them in their mods which is always nice to see. You definitely could make another video over more of those forgotten ship designs!
Honestly I like em all. Yes even the stupid single nacelle ship with the Turbo-Laser on it. Kitbashing is such a neat art, and I think that they did an admirable job with the designs they were able to make.
Great assessment, and agree about the general starfleet ascetic thing, don't know why after Yesterday's Enterprise, we didn't see Ambassador class ships popping up (especially for the vip service). After all they did spend time and money on the model shots for it
I like the Cheyenne class, but it just seems so wide and cumbersome- the nacelles so far away from the saucer section make it feel a little chunky as well. That being said, I absolutely ADORE the New Orleans class, and it has quickly become one of my favorite Starfleet ships designs of all time.
If they'd been using good cgi at the time, they probably would've used those ships more. Unfortunately, using physical models was their biggest limitation. The quicker a model was made, the less screen worthy they thought it was. Hero ships always had more details and budget behind them so they ended up used the most, even if it was silly to see a hundred year old in-universe design.
Yes I totally agree with these kit bashes deserved some actual screen time.These are much better than that Horrible Intrepid/Marquis raider kit bash(Shudders) I can see them ascetically fitting in and serving alongside the Constellation class. Maybe when the Borg are encountered and the dominion/brief Klingon Federation war looms Star fleet needs force projection so stared using these mothballed designs again with upgraded technologies ..
My Headcanon is that some of the ships used at Worf 359 were either prototypes or single class ships. The kind of ships that Starfleet maybe built one or two of and it is why we do not get to see them more often. It could be that once Starfleet technology advanced to the Galaxy and Nebula class ships, they may have had a lot of testbed ships to test concepts before putting those two ships into full production. It would explain why the saucer is similar.
@@StadtplanDan Like I said to my friends, I have names for each of the new star wars movies: 7) The Farce Awakens 8) The Last Star Wars movie I'll ever see 9) The Rise of I don't give a Frak. As for Star Trek Picard... CBS can keep that train wreck.
It’s almost as if rushing something in a few days with a shelved video game design, looks worse than having weeks to design new arrangements of existing parts.
I really like the challenger class/ vertically stacked nacelle ship from my Starfleet Battles days where it was always a destroyer class that I played as a picket ship in fleet battles.
My theory for the Yeager has always been: It's a testbed for different warp-cores, impulse drives and deflectors. While the aft section looks like a Maquis raider, in-universe it isn't one, but a modular structure which allows easy access to and replacement of huge parts of the engine. Come the Dominion war, the ship got "drafted" as a courier. That's why we see the Yeager in DS9 so often. Well, that's my head-canon, anyway. I like the Yeager!
NO. None of that. Shame on you. dear god like...is that courier ship really big enough to support the Intrepid's saucer? I dunno man. I feel like there's no way that scales correctly but maybe I'm nuts.
I personally never really cared for the look of the yeager, to me it was the scrappiest looking of the purpose built background ships. it took two very opposite looking ships; the sleek Intrepid with the scrappy looking Peregrine (which really worked for the Maquis as they would have limited resources) and put them together and at least for me the end result doesn't work, but that's just me.
I really like the New Orleans as well. The idea of those external pods being torpedo hard points is a fun one turning the ship into a torpedo boat. I used to use the New Orleans in Star Trek Online back when I played it just because the design was so cool.
*freedom class fly by the screen* Me the capitan: "Don't mind me folks I'm just heading to the neutral zone in hopes i get my ass kicked. No I will not fight back."
The kit-bashing done by the miniature dept. did produce some really cool and interesting designs. On another note: I'm rather surprised that you guys haven't done anything from U.F.O, Thunderbirds, or Space 1999! I mean... the Eagle is a classic!!!
These Videos are awesome. I like that you are showing love to the other starships from Star Trek. My Favorite of the TNG era starships that we never saw was Definently the Cheyenne Class.
lore-wise we don't see them later on because so much of that wave was destroyed at wolf359 and by the dominion war were too old. but they were much more prominent During the Cardassian border war. (BTW you didn't mention the 3 nacelled Niagara class now thats a strange ship.)
I like the New Orleans class but I HATE THE HIGHLIGHTER PENS. I'd even buy the Eaglemoss model if I could figure out how to remove the highlighter pens without leaving big holes in the model.
@@deusexaethera That’s the best part: the 3 highlighter torpedo tubes LOL!! Learning that that’s what they were reminded me of my own model/LEGO building days as a kid when anything could be mounted of glued to a ship to make an extra few laser blasters!
I basically agree with you. It always bothered me in TNG that 1. only the same types of ships were to be seen and 2. mostly they were from past times. But the different warp nacelle designs, from ships of the same era, would have disturbed the overall look of the series. - So for all new ship types I would have matched this detail with the design of the Galaxy and Nebula class ships.
@@jenesuispasbavard No, that make no sense at all. There are a variety of different ship types for a reason, one type and one type only makes no sense, not even in wartime. I could spend 20 mins listing all the reasons you don't use only 1 type of ship. What if it turned out that ship type had a fatal flaw?
@@HeroOfAlliance yea like i understand it takes nearly as much time to make a high qulity cg model as it does a physical but the added benifit is you dont have to lug arround 75-120 lbs of starship when you want one in the frame not to mention the fact of battle damage can be shown on cg models withouth having to perminately destroy it. + if the film studios were smart about multimedia they would export the cg film modles to game companys to have accurate ships
Thing is, making proper studio models that could be motion controlled was super expensive in those days. The films had the budget, so the show reused those models to save money. That's why the Romulans only ever got the D'deridix class and the scout ship until Nemesis. And of course they reused the Klingon Bird-of-Prey so many times and in so many different ways that now it's practically canon that there are multiple kinds, one a small ship with a crew of about seven and the other almost the same size as a Vor'cha class.
I'm pretty much with you on these: love the New Orleans class (9/10), hate the Challenger class (2/10) it looks naff (British word for useless, no good, in case you're not familiar with it), awkward and unbalanced. Of the others, I like the Springfield class (7/10) and think the Freedom class are OK, a bit so-so. I wouldn't give it more than a grudging 6/10, actually leaving more to 5/10. Those are just my aesthetic judgements. I'm nowhere near as knowledgeable as any of the people who have posted here. I've only just become aware of your channel and have just subscribed. So by way introduction I thought I'd add bit of background. I was a big fan of TOS and was very sceptical about TNG when it first came out, but was quickly disabused of my reservations and was very impressed at how it stayed true to TOS initially, but developed really nicely. My favourite episode is probably ‘Yesterday's Enterprise’ and I really loved how the consequences and repercussions of the events in that episode affected later ones. I thought DS9 was really going into steady decline from season 2, but persevered and am glad I did. It started picking up again in season 3 and was vintage by season 5. I was not so keen on Voyager, although I thought that really picked up with the addition of Seven of Nine and I really liked Enterprise and not just because I found Jolene Blalock unbelievably hot. A quick summary of my opinions there. I enjoyed the video, many thanks, and look forward to more. 🍻
True, but the Doritos has this D tier, spare part, will never be important kitbash vibe. The Springfield actually looks like a ship that could be of significance at some point.
bah. I like the ceritos. I'm just trying ot figure out if it's using a warp sled or if that's a permenent part of the ship. However a springfield class or a nebula variant would have been pretty amazing.
You know Lower Decks could be a good opportunity for all these "background" ship designs to shine, much like how the background crews are the centre of the show.
Dude i gotta agree with you. The New Orleans class looks like a grand ship, and the nebula modularity would absolutely work. Fine the federation is technically post scarcity, but they arne't post time managment or post manpower. So anything that can save time? Good reason to go with that so your limited man and equipment pool can move on to something else.
One of my biggest complaints about TNG was the lack of a fleet. They always made it seem like 20 ships was a large fleet but in reality, it would take thousands of ships to protect the Federation. I know it was a limitation due to budget, but imagine if TNG had been made today, we probably would have seen more ships.
In TOS there were scouts and destroyers with just one warp nacelle, as well as tugs with two nacelles below the saucer section and no secondary hull. The tugs hauled around a huge tubular hull a couple of times the length of the ship.
@@TheCormTube The Saladin was a destroyer, and had a scout sub-variant, the Hermes class, that dropped some guns for extra sensors. i could see the Freedom class being a similar concept but with 24th century design.. combining the short endurance destroyer and the sensor heavy scout roles into one hull (so they can claim it isn't a dedicated warship), used for anti-piracy patrols and civilian rescue/aid type roles within the federation's core areas. i'd also assume that underslung turret looking thing was actually a sensor array, like the similar structure seen on the Constellation class's underside.
The problems with all those kitbash ships were that they were not lit. And geting them to the point where lighting could be installed would be as much of an undertaking as building a new moddel. Which comes back to them not having the money to regularly build new lit moddels which meant recyceling the ones they had. Which were mostly TMP ones.
Aww, I always had a soft spot for the Freedom Class. I like that it's kind of an odd ball, makes it seem like a ship clearly designed for some unusual, specific purpose in a fictional seeing where all the ships are generalists.
I really wish that we could have had a lot more Ambassador class ships. It only had a few appearances*, and should have had many more. *according to Memory Alpha: 4 in TNG, 1 in DS9, and 1 in ENT.
Agreed on the cheyenne and new Orleans. You can even see in season 7 episode the pegasus where in engineering one of the displays shows a 4 nacelle ship even though it was depicted as oberth. Given the dialog that the ship was 20 yrs old and held tech that would eventually find its way on the galaxy class, i could see the cheyenne being the one buried in the asteroid rather than the war canoe (love that term from Lore Reloaded) Also someone else here commented about ambassador class. Would have loved to see those too as well as maybe kitbashes of both the galaxy and ambassador in Miranda class configurations. Imagine a smaller galaxy saucer with a roll bar and under slung nacelles.
Personally i would have liked to see more of the new designs that only came with the First Contact movie, especially the Norway and Sabre class. But those came too late for the show, only appearing briefly in later installments.
@@Ty-yt3lj I have seen so many good ambassador fan kit bashes and original designs and it's a shame we've not seen then. How good did the C look when it turned up in Yesterday's Enterprise.
I agree wholeheartedly with you on this. It wasn't until the New Orleans class was introduced into STO that I fell in love with her. She always seemed to me to be a Next Generation take on the classic Constitution class. I've always had a place in my heart for the various Nebulas, again, as I've felt they were very much a NG version of the Miranda, with meta improvements (visible deflector dish, explainable rollbar weapons, etc).
My Freedom-class would give the Cerritos a run for its money
4 ปีที่แล้ว +1
The Niagara and Freedom classes represent a good transition from the Ambassador class to the Galaxy class. The old, flatter saucer design, but with new warp nacelles. The Challenger, Springfield and New Orleans classes clearly look like little brothers and sisters of the Galaxy and Nebula classes. I think these designs are really well done. The Cheyenne class is such an attempt to recreate the Constellation class with elements of the Galaxy class. Appears more friendly. It's a shame they never built a model for the Bradbury class. Only the prototype NX-72307 was mentioned in one episode.
I have a soft spot for the Freedom class because of that silly gun, but also it takes me back to the old FASA Star Trek TOS RPG single nacelled ships. I always preferred being the overlooked underdog who achieves great things in adversity, and the Freedom class with its silly gun, single nacelle and overly cool name really hits that button for me.
I agree, my top 3 are the New Orleans Class (1), the Cheyenne Class (2), and the Springfield Class (3). I really wish all three designs had seen more screen time in TNG and DS9.
The New Orleans and Cheyanne class I liked. A game modd for sins of a solar empire had these ships but the were bought and/or summoned ships. But enjoyed using them. The came with the other two ships you mention but the nebula class and pheonix version you could build. My frind and I spend many ours playing this modd.
My favorite of those has to be the Cheyenne class. To me her design makes a lot of sense, doesn't feel too radical for Starfleet, and makes a nice stepping stone between the Constellation and the Prometheus class design lineage.
I love the Cheyenne class, in part because not only does it follow Rodenberry's Rules for design (unlike the Challenger or Freedom Classes), but the nacelles are evenly spaced around the ship's center of mass (the Constitution Class may be nice to look at, but I just find it weird putting engines that far off-center vertically).
Speaking of the Challenger and vertical aligned nacelles. A ship I really love is the Akula class destroyer. A TMP kit bash which as far as I know is mostly from the Starfleet Command games. I do not think it ever got a canon showing beyond the 14 Degrees East games and the Star Trek Continuum Homeworld mod. The closest onscreen depiction would be the Kelvin if it had nacelles above and below.
Not really 2360's designs but, don't forget the Niagara-class and original USS Pegasus, both Ambassador-class kitbashes. The "turbolaser" on the Freedom-class was taken I think from the Constellation-class. Also, there were a couple more Nebula kitbashes other than the Melbourne you showed. There was a "long hulled" version with a torpedo pod that was in Sisko's ready room. There was a long hulled one with extra nacelles on the stern in BOBW and The Emissary. There was another long hulled one with extra nacelles on the saucer in Future Imperfect. This doesn't count the minor differences like the secondary hull shape of the CGI model or the impulse engine (or lack of them) differences. There was also a DS9 kitbash that I almost never seen mentioned, the Miranda with an AWACS dish and forward hanger bay.
I agree fully on the New Orleans class. I have an Eaglemoss model or it as it was so nice. You should check out Andrew Proberts version of the Ambassador class, it is the perfect blend of the Excelcior and Galaxy class.
New Orleans and Cheyennes are probably my favorite kitbash ships from TNG, not counting the Nebula which while technically a Galaxy kitbash, it stands apart enough in a way that the Miranda does compared to the Constitution despite it too technically being a kitbash.
Honestly, I'm a fan of all 3 focused designs here. I used the Cheyenne in Star Trek Online all the way back in the beta 10 years ago and never got rid of her (still taking up space in dock even now) but have to admit, I also love the New Orleans Class design.
Starfleet ships with vertical nacelle arrangements always put me in mind of someone showing up to the big fleet battle on a unicycle, like the music should shift from stirring orchestral themes to being played on a carnival organ.
One of the writers or producers said that there were actually 2 U.S.S. Melbourne's at the Battle of Wolf 359. 1 was an Excelsior class and the other was a Nebula class. The idea was and they never got to put it in the episode, that the Excelsior class was being retired and replaced by the Nebula class. And that the Nebula Class Melbourne was the one offered to Riker.
The New Orleans Class is my favorite of these ships. In fact it's one of my favorites all together. It's a cool design and it looks like something we really should have seen more in TNG. It would have been great if we saw more of them in the Dominion War as support craft.
The New Orleans class is my fave of the three, and there exists a very well put together Technical manual for the Cheyenne exists out there online that really details the ship out. But the Springfield-class is where the prize is. Very little about the ship is known beyond a couple paragraphs done by the fandom. It has the modular attachment like the Nebula on top and a underslung Nav deflector sensor pod structure like the Oberth, except this ship looks pretty well armed. And It looks cool. With pretty much the freedom to go anywhere you want with it. The Springfield is the one needing attention the most.
I wished the 2360's era Execlisors had a remodel refit with cosmetic changes like lengthen Ambassador style nacelles and saucer to distinguish it from its original 2280's design and bring the older starships closer with the modern mid 24th century designs. I would also like to see many of the TNG kitbashes far more often
I'm a Star Trek fan from way back and i agree that the New Orleans Class Frigate would have been a wonderful addition to the Federation Fleet on a more prominent basis
Check out our Original Science Fiction Audio Drama: The Sojourn!
www.thesojournaudiodrama.com/
My favorite forgotten ship was the Centaur-Class Destroyer. Then BAM, it got some screen time on DS9
I like the New Orleans class but I HATE THE HIGHLIGHTER PENS. I'd even buy the Eaglemoss model if I could figure out how to remove the highlighter pens without leaving big holes in the model.
Spacedock a bit later but prolly the Prometheus non-multi vector version (aka not the NX)
@@doubledekercouch But he already covered the NX version which is his favorite ship of all time.
Darwin Xavier I’m on about the production version, which doesn’t have multi vector
The New Orleans class was definitively the highlight of the video.
Face-palms...
Underrated comment.
*badump-tiss*
Take my angry upvote!
HA!
I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of the _New Orleans_ class starship. It’s a real favourite of mine that should’ve gotten more screen time.
There's a very important message in this video: you can make terrific ship designs with simple creativity and freedom. Budget does not denote excellence without the imagination to back it up. I'd take these ship designs (and those of First Contact) over all the Trek designs made since.
Personally, I always thought the TNG era ship language was gaudy and overblown... I found the 1701-D fugly the first time I saw it as a 12 year old and my opinion hasn't changed since. My favorite was the Art Deco inspired designs from the refit / original movie era. That said, I'd take anything presented in this video, literally studio models made from AMT kits and high-liters, over all of the crap in the JJ Trek movies / shows.
I have a model of the Kyushu on my desk, I was looking up lesser known ships and came across it once and just instantly fell in love with the New Orleans class
Always had a soft spot for the Nebula. Back when I played the mid-90s Trek CCG, it was my best Federation ship.
I’m surprised that the Nebulas didn’t receive more adulation here. Arguably, one of the sexiest starship designs in the entire series.
More like First Person: Hey, where did my highlighters go?
Co-worker: They boldly went were no highlighter has gone before.
First Person: What??? Wait! never mind... Just just keep them.
Wish they'd shown more Ambassador class ships running around. Those, and maybe a variant of the Galaxy class...not the dreadnought version.
Yeah, it would make sense for there to be more Ambassadors still around than Excelsiors. Both were the premiere heavy cruisers of their day.
We only see the Enterprise C and the USS Zhukov the only 2 Ambassadors ever featured. 🙁
@@stardude2006 I know...you'd think there would be more of them flying around. They are pretty large vessels in their own right; probably a heavy cruiser.
The model burned in a fire.
@@kyle857 Well, damn...that'll do it. Shame, such a nice ship. Would have been nice to see more of it in TNG, or DS9.
Cheyenne for me. Reminiscent of the ship from the TOS era novel Dreadnought.
The Cheyenne class was one of my favorite ships to use in Star Trek Online
You mean the USS Star Empire?
It very heavily reminds me of the Stargazer. When I first started playing STO I stayed in a Cheyenne for quite a while because it is fairly strong for a low level vessel.
It's a direct update of the Constellation class that Picard used to captain....except the shuttle bays are at the rear instead of around the saucer.
the Springfield Class is my favourite out of these. Looks like the most versatile Design to me.
I'd vibe with it.
@@nws_of_cushing_ok7188 👀
My fave design ever : The Cheyenne class. Brilliant.
the Cheyenne, like the New Orleans uses markers. They are the warp nacelles.
I have an theory as to why we didn’t see these in the dominion war while we did see older stuff like the Excelsiors and Mirandas. In WW2 the backbone of the british battleship fleet was the five Queen Elizabeth’s and the 5 revenge class battleships, now the QE’s were older, and that resulted in them being upgraded before the Revenges. So when war broke out the QE’s were the workhorses of the Royal Navy, while the revenges were stuck on convoy and shore bombardment duty. What if the same thing occurred in Star Trek, the federation knew war was coming, and as the Lakota showed, they were upgrading older ships. What if they upgraded the oldest ships, the Excelsiors and Mirandas first, and the unmodernised ships were left for convoy duty and system defence?
The Revenges weren't upgraded because they were basically cheaper versions of the QEs. They were far slower and could use coal, which the RN had started to worry they couldn't get enough of in wartime. Their slower speed meant that despite their iterative improvements over the QEs, they were actually far less useful ships. Also all of them would have been replaced with N3/G3 class ships, except the inter-war naval treaties prevented that, only allowing the Royal Navy to build the Nelson class. When they did get to build more battleships, they were limited by treaty limitations to less powerful guns than the QEs
Honestly a better comparison would probably be HMS Dreadnought - the Galaxy Class is so much more powerful than the rest of the fleet, that *everything* is equally obsolete compared to it, so Starfleet Command doesn't see any reason to go too nuts replacing ships - especially as Starfleet needs a large fleet to fulfil its various missions, rather than say the Romulans or Klingons who have less territory, fewer obligations (their fleets are for war and that's basically it, unlike Starfleet) or other methods of making their fleet stretch further (eg. no Romulan colony is going to rebel when there could be a cloaked Tal Shiar ship in orbit, obviating the need to actually have "showing the flag" visits.)
@@scandor8599 there were plans to upgrade the Revenges.5 ships with 8 15 inch guns Each aren’t something you just waste. HMS Royal Oak was the only one with any upgrades by the time the war started, and then it got torpedoed at anchor.
@@scandor8599 there is also a simple bit of logic thats ignored. You design a ship, it's a good well rounded ship that fits the purpose you plan for it, it's cheap, simple to build, and its design let's you upgrade it constantly. Now you could build 10 of these, then design another ship to do the same job, but that would mean retooling construction yards, retraining crews and a more complicated supply chain for spare parts. Or you could build 1000 of them, and occasionally build a half dozen more specialist ships for other missions. That's the logic the federation seemed to go with, and honestly it makes sense. You don't need a large complicated mix of ship types when 2-3 will do for 99% of all mission types.
That is true to some extend in the context of battleships. They are super-expensive and take a long time to build. They didn't do that with destroyers and frigates. So Miranda and Oberth are out of the question right away. Excelsior may work, but given how many of them were build, I still think it's not the best analogy. Also, that worked because there wasn't really much technological progress in battleship technology between WW1 and WW2. Things like gunnery optics, ballistic computers, etc. were better, but it was a slow evolution, not a revolution. So the older ships could have still been upgraded to keep up with the progress. Now, in contrast of a revolutionary upgrade in thechnology. HMS Dreadnaught was introduced in 1906 and before WW1 started, most, if not all, "pre-dreadnaughts" were out of commision, because they couldn't keep up with the new standard. Similary, after WW2, with the domination of carrier vessels over battleships and an advent of modern rocketry, very few battleships stayed in service for more than a couple of years after WW2. And those that did, like the USS Missouri for example, did so more because of tradition and prestige, rather than usefullness. Now, I don't know how significant are the technological advancements in Star Trek between TMP era and TNG era, but I would expect the latter, rather than the former. But of course, I could be wrong.
Yeah. The fleet would have been refit extensively by the dominion war a lot if 23rd century ships very much still fit for purpose despite their age. Shame it's implied a lot of the refit era ships were destroyed during this war.
Of these ships, I would have to say the Cheyenne class. My favorite Trek design is still the Akira class, followed by The excelsior. But of the kitbashes, I like the Cheyenne the most. Something about the quad nacells really makes me happy. The symmetry is elegant.
The *Cheyenne class* is definitely my favourite.
I have a thing for four nacelle ships, they look _balanced…_ like a *space* craft should.
The off vertical centreline two nacelle layouts "indicate a two dimensional pattern of thinking" - to quote Spock.
If only in Picard that had become the new StarFleet paradigm (with them brought in close on thick pylons or even attached directly like the Defiant, to show a muscular compact look with menace).
They had already gotten rid of the silly long thin neck by the end of the TNG era, with the new Intrepid class and later the Sovereign class attaching the primary hull directly to the secondary hull.
And then there were the new *First Contact* anti Borg ships.
A continuation of that aesthetic would have been beautiful and also shown StarFleet getting more pragmatic and militant.
But that would have made sense, which the current showrunners & producers don't seem to have much of with many things regarding Trek...
Daniel as usual spot on. We're a Federation Chapter in New Orleans. We've been happy with being the lead ship of the class for a decade now.
I love these lesser known ships
Akira class (one of my Favorites)
Centaur class
Norway class
Steamrunner Class
Alaska Class
Prometheus
And the Dauntless (Even if it was an alien ship, it still looked amazing)
*And thank you Eaglemoss for allowing me to finally get my hands on these rare ships!
The Alaska only appeared in the fandom, though.
The norway is so underrated
The good news is there is a mod for Sins of a Solar Empire called Star Trek Armada 3 which includes all of these ships in some form:
Phoenix class is a heavy command/support cruiser while the Nebula class is a battlecruiser.
New Orleans class is a long range siege/torpedo cruiser
Challenger class pulls double duty as a ship that can be called in for support and a refit version called the Sarek class which is a diplomatic cruiser.
The Freedom, Cheyenne, Springfield and Niagara classes are all used as part of support fleets.
The models are pretty detailed too. I would highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't played it before and just goes to show they have not been entirely forgotten.
You forgot the Niagra class. Definitely NOT one of my favorite designs, but it is a rare 3-nacelle ship.
I think Niagra need a tweak to it pylons, like shorten them and rearrange them to make them look sleek and to flow better.
Technically it has 6 since those style of nacelles are double. The enterprise D has 4 for example.
@@kyle857 What the heck does this mean? Each nacelle is two nacelles? Do you know what nacelle means?
Exactly what I was just thinkin'! I like the odd designs! ^^
@@yourcurtainsareugly The Galaxy-class warp nacelles each have two warp coils in them sharing one nacelle, so four warp coils total (vs 2 coils total for the TOS Enterprise), you can see the two sets of lights in some shots on TNG. Kind of like the double-engine nacelles on the B-52 Stratofortress.
The Cheyenne is a damn sexy ship, is sleek, elegant and pretty unique.
I love the 4 nacelle Nebula-Class variant, there is just something about the various sized nacelles that just works.
I utterly love the New Orleans. I like to just headcanon that we see so many Excelsiors because the more modern ships are on very long range assignments and things, and older ships fill in safe gaps in peacetime.
I fly a New Orleans class in STO, it's a beast. I've always loved the look of the Cheyenne class.
Hi I fly a nebula ship in sto
My favorite 24th century ship was actually one that was unmentioned in this video, the Centaur-class.
Granted, it *was* a kitbash of an Excelsior and Miranda classes, but there's something I just really liked about it. It looks really sleek, and perfectly suited for the role of a fast attack destroyer.
I'm a fan of the Freedom class, I'm a sucker for oddball ship designs
it has a very interesting design it looks very compact, it looks like a corvette or patrol ship
It has a minimalist feeling. Like it has one thing of everything needed, not less not more.
@@giovannirodriguesdasilva646 its listed as a destroyer funny enough
@@zafranorbian757 pretty much, I think the beta Canon for it is a cobbled together ship to augment dwindling fleet numbers as they were designing and building new vessels
@@DanielMcCool95 It's not a destroyer that would trust my life, for a support ship it's fine, but for a front-line ship it doesn't look very robust
When I asked this question to Michael Okuda on Twitter his response was that the nebula class WAS the fruit of that effort to get the Wolf 359 ships into prominence. It speaks to the producers' sensibilities that only one ship- the nebula- got such a gift.
It's always nice to see people honoring those designs. Star Trek mod developers (e.g. for Stellaris or SoaSE) sometimes takes them in their mods which is always nice to see. You definitely could make another video over more of those forgotten ship designs!
Always been a fan of the Nebula Class. I just like the way it looks.
I love all of these, even the goofy Challenger and Freedom classes. I've built models of all of these because I absolutely love the aesthetic.
Spacedock: Which ship do you want?
Me: yes
Kit-Bashing perfection - yes they are highlighter pens painted grey, but nobody thought so until you pointed that out ....
I like the single nacelle Freedom class from the TNG era. It can trace it's lineage back to the Saladin class during the TOS era.
Honestly I like em all. Yes even the stupid single nacelle ship with the Turbo-Laser on it. Kitbashing is such a neat art, and I think that they did an admirable job with the designs they were able to make.
I love the Cheyenne and the New Orleans class.
Great assessment, and agree about the general starfleet ascetic thing, don't know why after Yesterday's Enterprise, we didn't see Ambassador class ships popping up (especially for the vip service). After all they did spend time and money on the model shots for it
Sounds like the title of an EC Henry video.
Can't wait for him to do a high res model job on a few of these.
@@singletona082 So would I. He seems focused on Star Wars right now though, which I enjoy too
I like the Cheyenne class, but it just seems so wide and cumbersome- the nacelles so far away from the saucer section make it feel a little chunky as well. That being said, I absolutely ADORE the New Orleans class, and it has quickly become one of my favorite Starfleet ships designs of all time.
If they'd been using good cgi at the time, they probably would've used those ships more. Unfortunately, using physical models was their biggest limitation. The quicker a model was made, the less screen worthy they thought it was.
Hero ships always had more details and budget behind them so they ended up used the most, even if it was silly to see a hundred year old in-universe design.
models were often blow up and looked better then cgi at the time. actually models still look better then a lot of cgi and is often cheaper.
Yes I totally agree with these kit bashes deserved some actual screen time.These are much better than that Horrible Intrepid/Marquis raider kit bash(Shudders) I can see them ascetically fitting in and serving alongside the Constellation class. Maybe when the Borg are encountered and the dominion/brief Klingon Federation war looms Star fleet needs force projection so stared using these mothballed designs again with upgraded technologies ..
I was always a fan of the Equinox in Voyager
My Headcanon is that some of the ships used at Worf 359 were either prototypes or single class ships. The kind of ships that Starfleet maybe built one or two of and it is why we do not get to see them more often. It could be that once Starfleet technology advanced to the Galaxy and Nebula class ships, they may have had a lot of testbed ships to test concepts before putting those two ships into full production. It would explain why the saucer is similar.
It's like they had more creativity, with a small budget, lower tech, and still came up with something better than the copy paste of Star Trek Picard.
Not to mention the low effort, almost copy-paste job done for the planet-killing star destroyers in Rise of Skywalker.
@@StadtplanDan Like I said to my friends, I have names for each of the new star wars movies:
7) The Farce Awakens
8) The Last Star Wars movie I'll ever see
9) The Rise of I don't give a Frak.
As for Star Trek Picard... CBS can keep that train wreck.
@@FoxMagi Hopefully the corporate infighting will murder ST: Picked Over Corpse and ST: Disease...
It’s almost as if rushing something in a few days with a shelved video game design, looks worse than having weeks to design new arrangements of existing parts.
I really like the challenger class/ vertically stacked nacelle ship from my Starfleet Battles days where it was always a destroyer class that I played as a picket ship in fleet battles.
The Nebula is the best kitbash ship, but Yeager class love forever!
My theory for the Yeager has always been: It's a testbed for different warp-cores, impulse drives and deflectors. While the aft section looks like a Maquis raider, in-universe it isn't one, but a modular structure which allows easy access to and replacement of huge parts of the engine.
Come the Dominion war, the ship got "drafted" as a courier. That's why we see the Yeager in DS9 so often.
Well, that's my head-canon, anyway. I like the Yeager!
NO. None of that. Shame on you.
dear god like...is that courier ship really big enough to support the Intrepid's saucer? I dunno man. I feel like there's no way that scales correctly but maybe I'm nuts.
@@tkardaishou I know, but still just love how scrappy its looks like!
I personally never really cared for the look of the yeager, to me it was the scrappiest looking of the purpose built background ships. it took two very opposite looking ships; the sleek Intrepid with the scrappy looking Peregrine (which really worked for the Maquis as they would have limited resources) and put them together and at least for me the end result doesn't work, but that's just me.
sorry but the nebula was fugly
I really like the New Orleans as well. The idea of those external pods being torpedo hard points is a fun one turning the ship into a torpedo boat. I used to use the New Orleans in Star Trek Online back when I played it just because the design was so cool.
The Freedom Class looks like it screams: "Please kill me!"
*freedom class fly by the screen*
Me the capitan: "Don't mind me folks I'm just heading to the neutral zone in hopes i get my ass kicked. No I will not fight back."
The kit-bashing done by the miniature dept. did produce some really cool and interesting designs. On another note: I'm rather surprised that you guys haven't done anything from U.F.O, Thunderbirds, or Space 1999! I mean... the Eagle is a classic!!!
Kitbash: *exists*
Daniel “I love it!”
These Videos are awesome. I like that you are showing love to the other starships from Star Trek. My Favorite of the TNG era starships that we never saw was Definently the Cheyenne Class.
lore-wise we don't see them later on because so much of that wave was destroyed at wolf359 and by the dominion war were too old. but they were much more prominent During the Cardassian border war. (BTW you didn't mention the 3 nacelled Niagara class now thats a strange ship.)
I know! Where is the Niagara Class?!?
@@bobthecopywriter easily the strangest of the designs.
The Cheyenne Class looks really cool.
You just wanted to praise the New Orleans again, didnt you?
It is the best ship
I like the New Orleans class but I HATE THE HIGHLIGHTER PENS. I'd even buy the Eaglemoss model if I could figure out how to remove the highlighter pens without leaving big holes in the model.
@@deusexaethera That’s the best part: the 3 highlighter torpedo tubes LOL!! Learning that that’s what they were reminded me of my own model/LEGO building days as a kid when anything could be mounted of glued to a ship to make an extra few laser blasters!
I basically agree with you. It always bothered me in TNG that 1. only the same types of ships were to be seen and 2. mostly they were from past times.
But the different warp nacelle designs, from ships of the same era, would have disturbed the overall look of the series. - So for all new ship types I would have matched this detail with the design of the Galaxy and Nebula class ships.
and then we got the last space fight in Picard;
100 times the same ship;
...sad
Ugh, the Copy-Paste armada.
Did the UFP forget how to make a proper fleet in the Picard era?
Consider we are now in the age of CGI yet we got less ship variant then the 80s :(
I mean it kinda makes sense for a wartime fleet...
@@jenesuispasbavard No, that make no sense at all. There are a variety of different ship types for a reason, one type and one type only makes no sense, not even in wartime. I could spend 20 mins listing all the reasons you don't use only 1 type of ship. What if it turned out that ship type had a fatal flaw?
@@HeroOfAlliance yea like i understand it takes nearly as much time to make a high qulity cg model as it does a physical but the added benifit is you dont have to lug arround 75-120 lbs of starship when you want one in the frame not to mention the fact of battle damage can be shown on cg models withouth having to perminately destroy it. + if the film studios were smart about multimedia they would export the cg film modles to game companys to have accurate ships
Thing is, making proper studio models that could be motion controlled was super expensive in those days. The films had the budget, so the show reused those models to save money. That's why the Romulans only ever got the D'deridix class and the scout ship until Nemesis. And of course they reused the Klingon Bird-of-Prey so many times and in so many different ways that now it's practically canon that there are multiple kinds, one a small ship with a crew of about seven and the other almost the same size as a Vor'cha class.
I'm pretty much with you on these: love the New Orleans class (9/10), hate the Challenger class (2/10) it looks naff (British word for useless, no good, in case you're not familiar with it), awkward and unbalanced. Of the others, I like the Springfield class (7/10) and think the Freedom class are OK, a bit so-so. I wouldn't give it more than a grudging 6/10, actually leaving more to 5/10. Those are just my aesthetic judgements. I'm nowhere near as knowledgeable as any of the people who have posted here.
I've only just become aware of your channel and have just subscribed. So by way introduction I thought I'd add bit of background. I was a big fan of TOS and was very sceptical about TNG when it first came out, but was quickly disabused of my reservations and was very impressed at how it stayed true to TOS initially, but developed really nicely. My favourite episode is probably ‘Yesterday's Enterprise’ and I really loved how the consequences and repercussions of the events in that episode affected later ones. I thought DS9 was really going into steady decline from season 2, but persevered and am glad I did. It started picking up again in season 3 and was vintage by season 5. I was not so keen on Voyager, although I thought that really picked up with the addition of Seven of Nine and I really liked Enterprise and not just because I found Jolene Blalock unbelievably hot.
A quick summary of my opinions there. I enjoyed the video, many thanks, and look forward to more. 🍻
Love the Cheyenne class, looks simply amazing and adds diversity to Starfleet.
I like the Freedom class, actually.
Yay! I'm not the only one!
@@nuclearfilms3341 It's a strong callback to the destroyers and scouts of the original TOS tech manual.
My favorite of those is definitely the Cheyenne. I used to play STO, and have always had a love for their quad nacelle designs.
...for some reason looking at the Springfield-class I find myself thinking it would've made a better ship for Lower Decks than the Doritos.
True, but the Doritos has this D tier, spare part, will never be important kitbash vibe. The Springfield actually looks like a ship that could be of significance at some point.
@@zafranorbian757 The Doritos looks like something that a first year wash-out shit the bed with, not a proper starship.
bah. I like the ceritos. I'm just trying ot figure out if it's using a warp sled or if that's a permenent part of the ship.
However a springfield class or a nebula variant would have been pretty amazing.
You know Lower Decks could be a good opportunity for all these "background" ship designs to shine, much like how the background crews are the centre of the show.
@@singletona082 It's just a Steamrunner class precursor.
Dude i gotta agree with you. The New Orleans class looks like a grand ship, and the nebula modularity would absolutely work. Fine the federation is technically post scarcity, but they arne't post time managment or post manpower. So anything that can save time? Good reason to go with that so your limited man and equipment pool can move on to something else.
One of my biggest complaints about TNG was the lack of a fleet. They always made it seem like 20 ships was a large fleet but in reality, it would take thousands of ships to protect the Federation. I know it was a limitation due to budget, but imagine if TNG had been made today, we probably would have seen more ships.
Yeah. Like... 200 of the same ship on that last episode of picard
DS9 kinda had that.
In TOS there were scouts and destroyers with just one warp nacelle, as well as tugs with two nacelles below the saucer section and no secondary hull. The tugs hauled around a huge tubular hull a couple of times the length of the ship.
The Challenger Class makes more sense for warp bubbles in theory.
The Nebula is my favourite 2350-60s Starfleet design. Not even close.
The Freedom Class is the TNG era Saladin class. A lazy design just to shoehorn a mid-level cruiser into the fleet.
Looks like a corvette or patrol ship
I thought it was a scout ship.
@@TheCormTube The Saladin was a destroyer, and had a scout sub-variant, the Hermes class, that dropped some guns for extra sensors.
i could see the Freedom class being a similar concept but with 24th century design.. combining the short endurance destroyer and the sensor heavy scout roles into one hull (so they can claim it isn't a dedicated warship), used for anti-piracy patrols and civilian rescue/aid type roles within the federation's core areas.
i'd also assume that underslung turret looking thing was actually a sensor array, like the similar structure seen on the Constellation class's underside.
The Freedom class looks like the destroyer from the TOS Technical Manual
The problems with all those kitbash ships were that they were not lit. And geting them to the point where lighting could be installed would be as much of an undertaking as building a new moddel. Which comes back to them not having the money to regularly build new lit moddels which meant recyceling the ones they had. Which were mostly TMP ones.
Definitely the Chyanne-class
Aww, I always had a soft spot for the Freedom Class. I like that it's kind of an odd ball, makes it seem like a ship clearly designed for some unusual, specific purpose in a fictional seeing where all the ships are generalists.
I really wish that we could have had a lot more Ambassador class ships. It only had a few appearances*, and should have had many more.
*according to Memory Alpha: 4 in TNG, 1 in DS9, and 1 in ENT.
I'd love to see both versions of her. That'd be sweet.
Agreed on the cheyenne and new Orleans. You can even see in season 7 episode the pegasus where in engineering one of the displays shows a 4 nacelle ship even though it was depicted as oberth. Given the dialog that the ship was 20 yrs old and held tech that would eventually find its way on the galaxy class, i could see the cheyenne being the one buried in the asteroid rather than the war canoe (love that term from Lore Reloaded)
Also someone else here commented about ambassador class. Would have loved to see those too as well as maybe kitbashes of both the galaxy and ambassador in Miranda class configurations. Imagine a smaller galaxy saucer with a roll bar and under slung nacelles.
Personally i would have liked to see more of the new designs that only came with the First Contact movie, especially the Norway and Sabre class.
But those came too late for the show, only appearing briefly in later installments.
Definitely the Norway. Such a shame that ship model was so cursed.
3:25 I see daniel can't comprehend the tactical superiority granted by the pizza cutter profile
Should have seen more enterprise C era ships as well......
What’s worse is they seriously considered designing a ship using ambassador class parts to play the USS Pegasus
@@Ty-yt3lj I have seen so many good ambassador fan kit bashes and original designs and it's a shame we've not seen then. How good did the C look when it turned up in Yesterday's Enterprise.
Reece Drury to be quite frank I don't like it's design. Kind of a weird fusion of a Constitution refit and galaxy Class
I agree wholeheartedly with you on this. It wasn't until the New Orleans class was introduced into STO that I fell in love with her. She always seemed to me to be a Next Generation take on the classic Constitution class. I've always had a place in my heart for the various Nebulas, again, as I've felt they were very much a NG version of the Miranda, with meta improvements (visible deflector dish, explainable rollbar weapons, etc).
You'd captain a Freedom class if given the chance. Admit it.
God no. I already have a pizza cutter in my kitchen. I don't need to fly one through space.
@@akiramasashi9317 but can it go to warp?
@@qdunker It can after I chug about a liter of coffee.
@@akiramasashi9317 dang, we need your coffee
My Freedom-class would give the Cerritos a run for its money
The Niagara and Freedom classes represent a good transition from the Ambassador class to the Galaxy class. The old, flatter saucer design, but with new warp nacelles. The Challenger, Springfield and New Orleans classes clearly look like little brothers and sisters of the Galaxy and Nebula classes. I think these designs are really well done. The Cheyenne class is such an attempt to recreate the Constellation class with elements of the Galaxy class. Appears more friendly. It's a shame they never built a model for the Bradbury class. Only the prototype NX-72307 was mentioned in one episode.
You didn't mention the greatest kitbash of all time, _perhaps because it's DS9 and not TNG…_
The *Yeager.*
I have a soft spot for the Freedom class because of that silly gun, but also it takes me back to the old FASA Star Trek TOS RPG single nacelled ships. I always preferred being the overlooked underdog who achieves great things in adversity, and the Freedom class with its silly gun, single nacelle and overly cool name really hits that button for me.
I agree, my top 3 are the New Orleans Class (1), the Cheyenne Class (2), and the Springfield Class (3). I really wish all three designs had seen more screen time in TNG and DS9.
The New Orleans and Cheyanne class I liked. A game modd for sins of a solar empire had these ships but the were bought and/or summoned ships. But enjoyed using them. The came with the other two ships you mention but the nebula class and pheonix version you could build. My frind and I spend many ours playing this modd.
My favorite of those has to be the Cheyenne class. To me her design makes a lot of sense, doesn't feel too radical for Starfleet, and makes a nice stepping stone between the Constellation and the Prometheus class design lineage.
I love the Cheyenne class, in part because not only does it follow Rodenberry's Rules for design (unlike the Challenger or Freedom Classes), but the nacelles are evenly spaced around the ship's center of mass (the Constitution Class may be nice to look at, but I just find it weird putting engines that far off-center vertically).
Speaking of the Challenger and vertical aligned nacelles. A ship I really love is the Akula class destroyer. A TMP kit bash which as far as I know is mostly from the Starfleet Command games. I do not think it ever got a canon showing beyond the 14 Degrees East games and the Star Trek Continuum Homeworld mod. The closest onscreen depiction would be the Kelvin if it had nacelles above and below.
Not really 2360's designs but, don't forget the Niagara-class and original USS Pegasus, both Ambassador-class kitbashes.
The "turbolaser" on the Freedom-class was taken I think from the Constellation-class.
Also, there were a couple more Nebula kitbashes other than the Melbourne you showed. There was a "long hulled" version with a torpedo pod that was in Sisko's ready room. There was a long hulled one with extra nacelles on the stern in BOBW and The Emissary. There was another long hulled one with extra nacelles on the saucer in Future Imperfect. This doesn't count the minor differences like the secondary hull shape of the CGI model or the impulse engine (or lack of them) differences.
There was also a DS9 kitbash that I almost never seen mentioned, the Miranda with an AWACS dish and forward hanger bay.
I agree fully on the New Orleans class. I have an Eaglemoss model or it as it was so nice. You should check out Andrew Proberts version of the Ambassador class, it is the perfect blend of the Excelcior and Galaxy class.
New Orleans and Cheyennes are probably my favorite kitbash ships from TNG, not counting the Nebula which while technically a Galaxy kitbash, it stands apart enough in a way that the Miranda does compared to the Constitution despite it too technically being a kitbash.
Honestly, I'm a fan of all 3 focused designs here. I used the Cheyenne in Star Trek Online all the way back in the beta 10 years ago and never got rid of her (still taking up space in dock even now) but have to admit, I also love the New Orleans Class design.
Starfleet ships with vertical nacelle arrangements always put me in mind of someone showing up to the big fleet battle on a unicycle, like the music should shift from stirring orchestral themes to being played on a carnival organ.
One of the writers or producers said that there were actually 2 U.S.S. Melbourne's at the Battle of Wolf 359. 1 was an Excelsior class and the other was a Nebula class. The idea was and they never got to put it in the episode, that the Excelsior class was being retired and replaced by the Nebula class. And that the Nebula Class Melbourne was the one offered to Riker.
The New Orleans Class is my favorite of these ships. In fact it's one of my favorites all together. It's a cool design and it looks like something we really should have seen more in TNG. It would have been great if we saw more of them in the Dominion War as support craft.
I have to agree that the New Orleans class is the best of the bunch. I'm happy that I own all of those models thanks to the Eaglemoss collection.
you're speaking my language!
I loved these ships and always wanted to see more of them!
personal faves of that lineup are the Springfield and New Orleans.
The New Orleans class is my fave of the three, and there exists a very well put together Technical manual for the Cheyenne exists out there online that really details the ship out. But the Springfield-class is where the prize is. Very little about the ship is known beyond a couple paragraphs done by the fandom. It has the modular attachment like the Nebula on top and a underslung Nav deflector sensor pod structure like the Oberth, except this ship looks pretty well armed. And It looks cool. With pretty much the freedom to go anywhere you want with it. The Springfield is the one needing attention the most.
I wished the 2360's era Execlisors had a remodel refit with cosmetic changes like lengthen Ambassador style nacelles and saucer to distinguish it from its original 2280's design and bring the older starships closer with the modern mid 24th century designs.
I would also like to see many of the TNG kitbashes far more often
Love the Norway and Akira Class.
I'm a Star Trek fan from way back and i agree that the New Orleans Class Frigate would have been a wonderful addition to the Federation Fleet on a more prominent basis
The Cheyenne is easily my favourite. It's beautiful. If you hadn't told me that was a kit bash, I would never have known.
As a fan of the TNG aesthetic I agree with your points. The New Orleans would have to be the best of this bunch for me.
I really enjoyed the Springfield class, thank you for brining it to light!
My favorite was always the Springfield with the marker nacelles. Forget marker torpedo pods, nacelles are where it's at.