 |
NCC-1948 Ireland Class Heavy Cruiser |
|
|
NCC-1948 Ireland Class Heavy Cruiser |
 |
|
 Ship Design/Info |
In Progress Pictures |
Finished Model Pictures |
Model Movies |
| About the model and
design: I first came up with the concept for this ship in April of 2004. I was considering writing a series of short stories and wanted to flesh out the basic environments and settings. I even went as far as initial characters for the crew. However work became very busy and other life factors forced me to shelve the idea. I would periodically day dream about picking it back up. But for the most part it was locked somewhere in the back of my mind, and in an old sketch book. Then one Saturday morning in January of 2007 out of nowhere I woke up dreaming about the ship design from 3 years previous. It was so vivid and clear in every detail, that it was like my muse had struck and commanded, "Build it now!" A few stops at a hobby shop and a hardware store and away I went on the build. From a design stand point I knew I wanted to do a late original series design that incorporated leanings toward technology seen in the early Star Trek films. As well as incorporate design elements of both eras (original series and early films). I also wanted to follow the form following function approach that Andrew Probert had taken. Sci-Fi and Star Trek in particular have had dozens of starship designs that were chosen or thrown together just because they looked cool. But in many cases, the designs didn't take practical elements into account. It wasn't enough for it to look cool. There had to be a reason for the design. A purpose for every curve and angle. After all Sci-Fi is only believable if the pseudo-technology you are throwing at a person seems practical, or in the least reasonable. So I decided that an underlying theme of the overall design was redundancy. Think about it. How many books or films have you seen where the crew of ship 'X' died horribly because pseudo-technology component 'Y' burned out, malfunctioned, etc. Let’s face it, if you're light years from home and a major system goes out on you or is irreparably damaged, to quote the late Jon Pertwee, "You're well and truly screwed." So I put a lot of thought into the types of redundant systems that an exploration vessel would need. In the Star Trek mythoi it would seem logical, pun intended, that after 100 years of exploration you would start to incorporate such thing into your ship designs. To that end, the Ireland class is smaller length and height wise than a constitution class, but more densely packed with decks for crew and systems space. If by this point your thinking, "God, he's put way too much thought into this." Well you are probably right. But then it has been rolling around the back of my head on and off for 4 years. ;) The McCashin is named in honor of a dear friend who has always been there for me.
Below are some photos of the ship at the 2008 IPMS Region 4 Model Show:
There were so many pictures for this kit, that I had to split them into 4 galleries:
|
