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Description

Ported to OBJ and given preliminary textures by me from the original STL format CG model by Captain Mojo. Grayson class design created by Forest Brown and Dana Knutson for FASA Corporation's various Franchise licensed Trek gaming materials back in the day. Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. You can get Captain Mojo's original model as part of his second pack of STL format FASA's Federation Non-Combatant classes at the link below, but be warned! STL models are designed to be used by a 3D printer and are not textured, with the expectation that the end used with paint the physical printed model. If you want this textured then you will have to hand-texture it yourself, just as I did. Anyway, here's the link:

cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/f…

The Grayson class tender was one of the workhorses of the Federation Starfleet across two starship eras, TOS/TAS and TMP, and yet it went largely unsung in both due to it being a fleet auxiliary and thus not getting the spotlight or glory of regular Class I vessels. It came as part of the third wave of new Starfleet classes built during the first half of the TOS era (dating varies with the Trek multiverse thread consulted), and was built from the keel up as a fleet tender for Starfleet's new Class I and Class II combat starships. It was also later adapted to service its various auxiliary starships of all types, various Class II non-combatant patrol ship and auxiliary craft types, and most major Class III small craft types as well. Because of its intended purpose it was not built as a Class I vessel, although it utilized a single Class I warp propulsion unit given that it was literally "off the shelf" and was being made in quantity at the time for the regular Class I fleet. The rest of Grayson's unique design owed a lot to the Tellarite engineers of the Starfleet Design Bureau who came up with her. Perhaps Grayson's most unusual feature was her modular repair bay capability. Grayson's main repair bay, which was located underside and aft and ran for about three-fifths the length of the ship, was a self-contained module that could be routinely detatched and replaced with another repair module with a different configuration but compatible with Grayson's modular latching system. That way Starfleet didn't have to build specialized tenders for each of its major and minor starship classes or types. All it had to do was build appropriate repair modules to service each, attach them to any available Grayson, and then send that reconfigured Grayson to wherever it was needed. Grayson's one drawback was its single warp engine, necessitated by its unique design (and with a dual engine mounting deemed both unnecessary for its intended function and also not cost effective), and yet its Tellarite designers were thoughtful enough to configure its hull in such a way as to minimize as much as possible the tendency of all TOS/TAS era Starfleet standard PB-series warp engines to wormhole above warp 6 whenever a counterbalancing engine was not present. Not that any Grayson would normally run at warp 6 or higher anyway, unless it was in desperate hurry to get somewhere or away from any enemy that might be chasing it. Despite its one drawback Grayson proved to be an innovative design that paid off for Starfleet as soon as it became available in numbers to support fleet operations. It paid off even more so during the Four Years War with the Klingons (FASA), or Axanar Crisis/Incident to you Okuda timeline groupies (wink) -- or was instead built and entered service right after that conflict due to hard lessons learned by Starfleet about logistics and support for its new Class I fleet while fighting it, depending on the Trek multiverse thread consulted.

Grayson's flexibility and proven value ensured its long life with Starfleet. The initial order for 15 units was supplemented by at least two more production blocks (more in some Trek multiverse threads, FASA's in particular), one each in the late TOS/TAS and early TMP eras. All of the original or Block I Graysons got pulled from service as new-build Grayson Block IIIs (full TMP era form, see image upper left) entered service to replace them on a one-for-one basis, with most of the remaining Block II models getting some form of a TMP era upgrade along the way to keep up class numbers in service. As with many of its other TMP era older starship upgrade programs, available funding ran low before Starfleet was finished. Some got one of the two lesser upgrades (LN-60, LN-52), some only got a partial upgrade (selected systems only, late model PB-48 warp engine), and some were still in spacedock waiting for their upgrades as the TMP era came to an end and never received them due to the downsizing of Starfleet mandated by the early post-TMP era Khitomer Accords (STVI, implied). All Graysons regardless of configuration were retired during the early post-TMP era, starting with the oldest first (those still awaiting their TMP era upgrades) and with the newest last. By the dawn of the TNG/DS9/VOY era, Grayson was nothing but a memory save for its indelible service record and the preservation of selected artifacts, as well as a number of stripped hulls and other odd components in various Starfleet boneyards.

The image above shows the two best known forms of Grayson: one each of its most generic TOS/TAS era and TMP era forms, with both sporting the most generic of the many different repair-and-tender modules that were built for use with it. Please keep in mind as noted above that there were different Grayson modules depending on the type or class of starship or small craft to be serviced, and appearance could also vary within an era depending on refits, upgrades, and the particular model of warp engine fitted at the time. The visuals above show a late TOS/TAS era Grayson fitted with a Perth PB-32 series circumferential warp engine and a new-build TMP era Grayson sporting the era-standard Leeding LN-64 linear warp engine; however, as already noted this could and sometimes did vary. Please consult the service history of the particular Grayson class member in question as to her apperance at any given point during her service lifetime.

Grayson is semi-canon, as it was created for a Franchise-licensed work (the old FASA gaming materials).

Live long and prosper.

ASIDE 1 - Grayson is one I've wanted to add to Mandel's for quite a while given its importance and historical significance as one of Starfleet's most respected fleet tenders for its time, but I had to wait for somebody to do a CG model before I could (chuckle). You've got to have these folks, or something like them, in order to keep your major and minor combat starships and small craft repaired and in service whenever you can't get to the nearest base. Grayson can always come out to you wherever you are. Dig? FASA was one of the few groups to pay attention to auxiliary classes and Grayson is one of their best Federation efforts IMHO. To some of you she's going to be nothing more than another target for you to shoot at in your favorite Trek video game or mod, but for the rest of you who appreciate the wider picture she helps give of Starfleet as a whole, well, I'm sure you'll appreciate having her. Starfleet did. Let me also add my texture jobs are preliminary and are there mainly to give you an idea of what these might look like instead of throwing an untextured pair of models at you. If any of you can do better, then by all means please do!

ASIDE 2 - Like with a lot of other rebuilt Starfleet classes in the TMP era, Grayson's potential wormholing issues at warp went away once the design was upgraded to TMP spec and she was given a more powerful Leeding LN-64 linear warp engine, which was design to work by itself without the need for a counterbalancing engine. This allowed all Graysons so fitted to run at warp 7 standard and warp 9 in an emergency, even more when running at speed without a (heavy) tender module fitted. That's pretty fast for a single engine Starfleet auxiliary in the TMP era, given the fact that she's a clunky and heavy fleet tender and not a regular Class I starship.

ASIDE 3 - Here's a chance for all of you young pups who like playing the Trek starship schematics game like a lot of us did back in our day (and some still do) to make your own special contribution to the Trek multiverse. I've described there being multiple types of Grayson tender modules depending on how they were going to be used, and there's also going to be variations across eras. I can see you schematic types having as much fun with these as the various additional Class I transport container fan designers did back in their day. Are you up to the challenge of designing a new Grayson repair module good enough that the rest of Trek fandom will accept it? The field is wide open, folks. It's your ball, so run with it if you can!

Description

Ported to OBJ and given preliminary textures by me from the original STL format CG model by Captain Mojo. Grayson class design created by Forest Brown and Dana Knutson for FASA Corporation's various Franchise licensed Trek gaming materials back in the day. Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. You can get Captain Mojo's original model as part of his second pack of STL format FASA's Federation Non-Combatant classes at the link below, but be warned! STL models are designed to be used by a 3D printer and are not textured, with the expectation that the end used with paint the physical printed model. If you want this textured then you will have to hand-texture it yourself, just as I did. Anyway, here's the link:

cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/f…

The Grayson class tender was one of the workhorses of the Federation Starfleet across two starship eras, TOS/TAS and TMP, and yet it went largely unsung in both due to it being a fleet auxiliary and thus not getting the spotlight or glory of regular Class I vessels. It came as part of the third wave of new Starfleet classes built during the first half of the TOS era (dating varies with the Trek multiverse thread consulted), and was built from the keel up as a fleet tender for Starfleet's new Class I and Class II combat starships. It was also later adapted to service its various auxiliary starships of all types, various Class II non-combatant patrol ship and auxiliary craft types, and most major Class III small craft types as well. Because of its intended purpose it was not built as a Class I vessel, although it utilized a single Class I warp propulsion unit given that it was literally "off the shelf" and was being made in quantity at the time for the regular Class I fleet. The rest of Grayson's unique design owed a lot to the Tellarite engineers of the Starfleet Design Bureau who came up with her. Perhaps Grayson's most unusual feature was her modular repair bay capability. Grayson's main repair bay, which was located underside and aft and ran for about three-fifths the length of the ship, was a self-contained module that could be routinely detatched and replaced with another repair module with a different configuration but compatible with Grayson's modular latching system. That way Starfleet didn't have to build specialized tenders for each of its major and minor starship classes or types. All it had to do was build appropriate repair modules to service each, attach them to any available Grayson, and then send that reconfigured Grayson to wherever it was needed. Grayson's one drawback was its single warp engine, necessitated by its unique design (and with a dual engine mounting deemed both unnecessary for its intended function and also not cost effective), and yet its Tellarite designers were thoughtful enough to configure its hull in such a way as to minimize as much as possible the tendency of all TOS/TAS era Starfleet standard PB-series warp engines to wormhole above warp 6 whenever a counterbalancing engine was not present. Not that any Grayson would normally run at warp 6 or higher anyway, unless it was in desperate hurry to get somewhere or away from any enemy that might be chasing it. Despite its one drawback Grayson proved to be an innovative design that paid off for Starfleet as soon as it became available in numbers to support fleet operations. It paid off even more so during the Four Years War with the Klingons (FASA), or Axanar Crisis/Incident to you Okuda timeline groupies (wink) -- or was instead built and entered service right after that conflict due to hard lessons learned by Starfleet about logistics and support for its new Class I fleet while fighting it, depending on the Trek multiverse thread consulted.

Grayson's flexibility and proven value ensured its long life with Starfleet. The initial order for 15 units was supplemented by at least two more production blocks (more in some Trek multiverse threads, FASA's in particular), one each in the late TOS/TAS and early TMP eras. All of the original or Block I Graysons got pulled from service as new-build Grayson Block IIIs (full TMP era form, see image upper left) entered service to replace them on a one-for-one basis, with most of the remaining Block II models getting some form of a TMP era upgrade along the way to keep up class numbers in service. As with many of its other TMP era older starship upgrade programs, available funding ran low before Starfleet was finished. Some got one of the two lesser upgrades (LN-60, LN-52), some only got a partial upgrade (selected systems only, late model PB-48 warp engine), and some were still in spacedock waiting for their upgrades as the TMP era came to an end and never received them due to the downsizing of Starfleet mandated by the early post-TMP era Khitomer Accords (STVI, implied). All Graysons regardless of configuration were retired during the early post-TMP era, starting with the oldest first (those still awaiting their TMP era upgrades) and with the newest last. By the dawn of the TNG/DS9/VOY era, Grayson was nothing but a memory save for its indelible service record and the preservation of selected artifacts, as well as a number of stripped hulls and other odd components in various Starfleet boneyards.

The image above shows the two best known forms of Grayson: one each of its most generic TOS/TAS era and TMP era forms, with both sporting the most generic of the many different repair-and-tender modules that were built for use with it. Please keep in mind as noted above that there were different Grayson modules depending on the type or class of starship or small craft to be serviced, and appearance could also vary within an era depending on refits, upgrades, and the particular model of warp engine fitted at the time. The visuals above show a late TOS/TAS era Grayson fitted with a Perth PB-32 series circumferential warp engine and a new-build TMP era Grayson sporting the era-standard Leeding LN-64 linear warp engine; however, as already noted this could and sometimes did vary. Please consult the service history of the particular Grayson class member in question as to her apperance at any given point during her service lifetime.

Grayson is semi-canon, as it was created for a Franchise-licensed work (the old FASA gaming materials).

Live long and prosper.

ASIDE 1 - Grayson is one I've wanted to add to Mandel's for quite a while given its importance and historical significance as one of Starfleet's most respected fleet tenders for its time, but I had to wait for somebody to do a CG model before I could (chuckle). You've got to have these folks, or something like them, in order to keep your major and minor combat starships and small craft repaired and in service whenever you can't get to the nearest base. Grayson can always come out to you wherever you are. Dig? FASA was one of the few groups to pay attention to auxiliary classes and Grayson is one of their best Federation efforts IMHO. To some of you she's going to be nothing more than another target for you to shoot at in your favorite Trek video game or mod, but for the rest of you who appreciate the wider picture she helps give of Starfleet as a whole, well, I'm sure you'll appreciate having her. Starfleet did. Let me also add my texture jobs are preliminary and are there mainly to give you an idea of what these might look like instead of throwing an untextured pair of models at you. If any of you can do better, then by all means please do!

ASIDE 2 - Like with a lot of other rebuilt Starfleet classes in the TMP era, Grayson's potential wormholing issues at warp went away once the design was upgraded to TMP spec and she was given a more powerful Leeding LN-64 linear warp engine, which was design to work by itself without the need for a counterbalancing engine. This allowed all Graysons so fitted to run at warp 7 standard and warp 9 in an emergency, even more when running at speed without a (heavy) tender module fitted. That's pretty fast for a single engine Starfleet auxiliary in the TMP era, given the fact that she's a clunky and heavy fleet tender and not a regular Class I starship.

ASIDE 3 - Here's a chance for all of you young pups who like playing the Trek starship schematics game like a lot of us did back in our day (and some still do) to make your own special contribution to the Trek multiverse. I've described there being multiple types of Grayson tender modules depending on how they were going to be used, and there's also going to be variations across eras. I can see you schematic types having as much fun with these as the various additional Class I transport container fan designers did back in their day. Are you up to the challenge of designing a new Grayson repair module good enough that the rest of Trek fandom will accept it? The field is wide open, folks. It's your ball, so run with it if you can!