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Description

Modded by me from the recent and more accurate Baton Rouge class STL model by Captain Mojo, using textures originally created by Dave Metlesits for his various Trek franchise starship models and with additional or replacement parts from both Dave's own Baton Rouge class model and the older Richard Merk version. Based on the original design as created by the late Neale "Pixel Sagas" Davison (aka "Vance's Schematics) for his fanon publication Ships of the Baton Rouge Era (SBRE). Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. NO MODEL DOWNLOAD.

The late Neale Davison, aka "Vance," who passed away in 2016 and who was the master artist behind those hundreds of free classic Trek schematics that everyone today still enjoys, was the first classic Trek fan to do major things with Mr. Sternbach's Baton Rouge. He postulated several more classes in what we have since come to call the Baton Rouge generation, which were the immediate predecessors (pre-TOS) to the Federation's Class I fleet types of the TOS/TAS era in those threads of the Trek multiverse that include it. It was a very logical thing to do and many of us were impressed with his efforts at the time. I for one was so impressed that I devoted a whole section of my old Federation Spaceflight Chronology to the Baton Rouge generation, and this is one of Neale's designs that wound up being featured in it. Here for the first time ever is a 3D representation of one of Neale's original Baton Rouge generation supplemental starship classes.

Constant Warwick, named for the warship that defined the frigate type for the British Royal Navy back in the Age of Sail on Earth, was the light cruiser type of the Baton Rouge generation of Federation starships for those threads of the Trek multiverse that include it. It was originally intended as an inexpensive picket cruiser type that could be built in numbers to police the Federation's farthest borders, and thus free up the more expensive and less numerous Baton Rouges for more important things. It was the direct design ancestor of the TOS era Kearsarge class light cruiser (SFB) and shared a number of similar general features, and yet it was not as successful as its successor in its own time. To perhaps oversimplify things, it was not as capable as a multi-function starship as Baton Rouge due to limited space in its "stump" secondary hull, and this in turn limited what could be carried on board and both the kind and type of mission profiles it could perform. Its shuttle bay was also smaller by necessity and therefore limited the kind, type, and number of shuttles it could carry. As a pure warship it was quite competent and more maneuverable than Baton Rouge due to its somewhat smaller size and tighter subspace envelope, but as a multi-role starship it was decidedly lacking -- as the Federation soon found out whenever it tried to use these as such. The Federation Council was never entirely happy with Constant Warwick but kept the construction program funded anyway, recognizing the need for a light cruiser class to help share the load with Baton Rouge, even if such load sharing was only in limited ways. Attempts to address its biggest deficiencies would eventually lead to the Detroyat class heavy destroyer proposal -- one of the very last of the Baton Rouge generation Federation starship designs (see separate entry) but which wound up being redesigned and built as part of the Class I generation instead. Redesigning Constant Warwick itself for the subsequent Class I fleet and tweaking it further to better optimize it as a pure warship, given the rise of the Klingon threat in later decades, would eventually lead to its direct design successor -- the excellent TOS era Kearsarge (SFB). Finally, serious design efforts to come up with a true light cruiser class that had enough extra space for all the things it needed in order to better perform as a multi-function starship would eventually result in the TOS era's Class I Miranda light cruiser (see separate entry).

I don't have any numbers on how many Constant Warwicks were built, as Neale never provided any AFAIK. Others may have in the years since in their own Trek multiverse threads; I'll let you look those up (grin). The naming scheme would have probably followed the British pattern, naming each after famous frigate-type vessels (just like the original HMS Constant Warwick) from the past on all major Federation worlds. These would have received regular refits like all other Starfleet vessels and they were also eventually upgraded as close to the later Class I norm as their older designs and hulls would permit. Like all other Baton Rouge era starship classes Constant Warwick never got a TMP era upgrade of any kind or in any form, full or limited, given its age and hard use over the decades of its many class members. All of these were quietly required as the TOS/TAS era rolled over into the TMP era and all of them were eventually scrapped, although numerous artifacts survive.

This is my second and more accurate take on Constant Warwick. This is modded from Captain Mojo's excellent Baton Rouge model but with a new "stump" secondary hull modded from Dave's efforts as well as Dave's Baton Rouge impulse deck, as its design is needed for Constant Warwick (see ASIDE). The ventral "fins" extending from the back and on both sides of the lower primary hull are Mr. Merk's but re-positioned somewhat in order to better work with Constant Warwick's secondary hull. I also went with Mr. Merk's take on the Pegasys VX-28 warp engine with which the entire Baton Rouge generation was originally fitted at first, since his is currently the only version with the aft "crinkles" as depicted on the Baton Rouge's in Rick Sternbach's original STSFC concept art. This depiction is good for the entire class as a whole roughly for the first two decades or so of its service lifetime. The class begins undergoing its first major service life extension refits/rebuilds only a few years before the middle of the 23rd century and that first great clash between the Federation and the Klingons (Four Year's War per FASA, Axanar Crisis/Incident for you Okuda timeline groupies), and its overall appearance will be significantly altered during those first refits/rebuilds and in later such major refits/rebuilds. I intend to show you those as well as I have the time to work them up.

Constant Warwick is fanon, although it's good fanon IMHO, and it nicely fills the gap in the pre-TOS Baton Rouge generation for a light cruiser until (or unless?) the Franchise ever comes up with their own offering -- just as Miranda (canon) and Kearsarge (SFB) play these roles in the TOS/TAS and TMP eras. What you do with Neale's Constant Warwick in your own threads of the Trek multiverse is of course entirely up to you.

Live long and prosper.

TRIVIA - Constant Warwick's design heritage in the Trek multiverse can be traced all the way back to the pre-TOS Centaurean Djtartanna (FASA) and the Terran Wright (FSC), both built in the decades leading up to the Romulan War.

ASIDE - Note where Constant Warwick's shuttle bay is located, at the back of its "stump" secondary hull, below and between its split impulse engines. That means there's no significant issue with impulse deck backwash for its shuttle pilots given the proper egress (gentle arc down) and approach (gentle arc up) hangar bay paths. This wasn't true with later Class I starships that tried to duplicate this design feature (Shackleton, et al), given the way the Class I era impulse deck was redesigned.

Description

Modded by me from the recent and more accurate Baton Rouge class STL model by Captain Mojo, using textures originally created by Dave Metlesits for his various Trek franchise starship models and with additional or replacement parts from both Dave's own Baton Rouge class model and the older Richard Merk version. Based on the original design as created by the late Neale "Pixel Sagas" Davison (aka "Vance's Schematics) for his fanon publication Ships of the Baton Rouge Era (SBRE). Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. NO MODEL DOWNLOAD.

The late Neale Davison, aka "Vance," who passed away in 2016 and who was the master artist behind those hundreds of free classic Trek schematics that everyone today still enjoys, was the first classic Trek fan to do major things with Mr. Sternbach's Baton Rouge. He postulated several more classes in what we have since come to call the Baton Rouge generation, which were the immediate predecessors (pre-TOS) to the Federation's Class I fleet types of the TOS/TAS era in those threads of the Trek multiverse that include it. It was a very logical thing to do and many of us were impressed with his efforts at the time. I for one was so impressed that I devoted a whole section of my old Federation Spaceflight Chronology to the Baton Rouge generation, and this is one of Neale's designs that wound up being featured in it. Here for the first time ever is a 3D representation of one of Neale's original Baton Rouge generation supplemental starship classes.

Constant Warwick, named for the warship that defined the frigate type for the British Royal Navy back in the Age of Sail on Earth, was the light cruiser type of the Baton Rouge generation of Federation starships for those threads of the Trek multiverse that include it. It was originally intended as an inexpensive picket cruiser type that could be built in numbers to police the Federation's farthest borders, and thus free up the more expensive and less numerous Baton Rouges for more important things. It was the direct design ancestor of the TOS era Kearsarge class light cruiser (SFB) and shared a number of similar general features, and yet it was not as successful as its successor in its own time. To perhaps oversimplify things, it was not as capable as a multi-function starship as Baton Rouge due to limited space in its "stump" secondary hull, and this in turn limited what could be carried on board and both the kind and type of mission profiles it could perform. Its shuttle bay was also smaller by necessity and therefore limited the kind, type, and number of shuttles it could carry. As a pure warship it was quite competent and more maneuverable than Baton Rouge due to its somewhat smaller size and tighter subspace envelope, but as a multi-role starship it was decidedly lacking -- as the Federation soon found out whenever it tried to use these as such. The Federation Council was never entirely happy with Constant Warwick but kept the construction program funded anyway, recognizing the need for a light cruiser class to help share the load with Baton Rouge, even if such load sharing was only in limited ways. Attempts to address its biggest deficiencies would eventually lead to the Detroyat class heavy destroyer proposal -- one of the very last of the Baton Rouge generation Federation starship designs (see separate entry) but which wound up being redesigned and built as part of the Class I generation instead. Redesigning Constant Warwick itself for the subsequent Class I fleet and tweaking it further to better optimize it as a pure warship, given the rise of the Klingon threat in later decades, would eventually lead to its direct design successor -- the excellent TOS era Kearsarge (SFB). Finally, serious design efforts to come up with a true light cruiser class that had enough extra space for all the things it needed in order to better perform as a multi-function starship would eventually result in the TOS era's Class I Miranda light cruiser (see separate entry).

I don't have any numbers on how many Constant Warwicks were built, as Neale never provided any AFAIK. Others may have in the years since in their own Trek multiverse threads; I'll let you look those up (grin). The naming scheme would have probably followed the British pattern, naming each after famous frigate-type vessels (just like the original HMS Constant Warwick) from the past on all major Federation worlds. These would have received regular refits like all other Starfleet vessels and they were also eventually upgraded as close to the later Class I norm as their older designs and hulls would permit. Like all other Baton Rouge era starship classes Constant Warwick never got a TMP era upgrade of any kind or in any form, full or limited, given its age and hard use over the decades of its many class members. All of these were quietly required as the TOS/TAS era rolled over into the TMP era and all of them were eventually scrapped, although numerous artifacts survive.

This is my second and more accurate take on Constant Warwick. This is modded from Captain Mojo's excellent Baton Rouge model but with a new "stump" secondary hull modded from Dave's efforts as well as Dave's Baton Rouge impulse deck, as its design is needed for Constant Warwick (see ASIDE). The ventral "fins" extending from the back and on both sides of the lower primary hull are Mr. Merk's but re-positioned somewhat in order to better work with Constant Warwick's secondary hull. I also went with Mr. Merk's take on the Pegasys VX-28 warp engine with which the entire Baton Rouge generation was originally fitted at first, since his is currently the only version with the aft "crinkles" as depicted on the Baton Rouge's in Rick Sternbach's original STSFC concept art. This depiction is good for the entire class as a whole roughly for the first two decades or so of its service lifetime. The class begins undergoing its first major service life extension refits/rebuilds only a few years before the middle of the 23rd century and that first great clash between the Federation and the Klingons (Four Year's War per FASA, Axanar Crisis/Incident for you Okuda timeline groupies), and its overall appearance will be significantly altered during those first refits/rebuilds and in later such major refits/rebuilds. I intend to show you those as well as I have the time to work them up.

Constant Warwick is fanon, although it's good fanon IMHO, and it nicely fills the gap in the pre-TOS Baton Rouge generation for a light cruiser until (or unless?) the Franchise ever comes up with their own offering -- just as Miranda (canon) and Kearsarge (SFB) play these roles in the TOS/TAS and TMP eras. What you do with Neale's Constant Warwick in your own threads of the Trek multiverse is of course entirely up to you.

Live long and prosper.

TRIVIA - Constant Warwick's design heritage in the Trek multiverse can be traced all the way back to the pre-TOS Centaurean Djtartanna (FASA) and the Terran Wright (FSC), both built in the decades leading up to the Romulan War.

ASIDE - Note where Constant Warwick's shuttle bay is located, at the back of its "stump" secondary hull, below and between its split impulse engines. That means there's no significant issue with impulse deck backwash for its shuttle pilots given the proper egress (gentle arc down) and approach (gentle arc up) hangar bay paths. This wasn't true with later Class I starships that tried to duplicate this design feature (Shackleton, et al), given the way the Class I era impulse deck was redesigned.