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Description

Ported to OBJ, textured, and futher modded by me for all three forms that you see above from the excellent original STL model recreation by the prolific Captain Mojo. Textures originally created by Dave "First Fleet" Metlesits for use in his own various CG modeling efforts. Based on the design created by Forest Brown and Dana Knutson for FASA Corporation's Federation Ship Recognition Manual (first edition only!) under Franchise license, as with all of FASA's various Trek gaming materials back in the day. Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. You can download Captain Mojo's recreation of the FASA TMP era original as part of his FASA Federation Non-Combatants Ship Pack Part 1 (along with other goodies) but be warned! STL models are made for use with a 3D printer and don't include textures because of that. If you want this textured like you see above then you will have to do the job yourself. Anyway, here's the link:

cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/f…

For a Feddie TMP era freighter that only appeared once in the original FASA stuff - the first edition only of its Federation Ship Recognition Manual (the one with Reliant on its front cover and not Remora) - Laweya has definitely had a fair amount of staying power over the years with FASA Trek fans. I'd like to think that one of the reasons is that it's one of the least obnoxious of a fair number of their Class I component slice-and-dice Feddie jobs in either edition of that book. It actually looks like what it's supposed to be - a large transport with planetary landing and lift-off capability - and the original FASA stats for it aren't too bad either.

Per the original FASA materials plus what I've been able to scrounge from other sources and my own unique way of looking at all of this (wink), Laweya as intended by FASA was a joint Starfleet/Merchant Marine effort that entered Federation service right after the start of the TMP era (exact date varies with source consulted). Kinda like the TOS era Independence class (FRS) freighters and the TMP era Lotus Flower (FASA), plus a half-dozen or more examples I could name if I wanted. It was designed and produced by Rakala Industries, and it can be safely assumed that Rakala in turn subcontracted out a lot of stuff (such as common TMP era component construction and so on) while it focused on actual assembly and final fitting-out and such. It was about the size of a typical Feddie light cruiser and was a straight general purpose transport, selling in base form with neither accommodation nor provision for passengers of any kind (unless backfitted later by its owners). It was one of the largest and most expensive Feddie transports capable of planetary landing and liftoff in FASA's materials, which meant that only more affluent buyers could afford it and early examples were normally found on what we would call "milk runs" -- easy cargo runs with no known threats where the considerable investment in their purchase by their owners could be used, ahmmm, "safely." (wink) Laweya as built was originally unarmed, but as more and more Laweyas entered service as the TMP era continued and many of their various owners began to risk them father afield in places where threats definitely existed, then Laweya's unarmed status became a definite liability. A number of unofficial owner armings of Laweyas in quite a variety of forms (and weaponry involved) thus took place for those being operated in border regions and in areas that space pirates favored, and the call for Laweya to be armed right off the bat became so great that Rakala had to respond accordingly. Just four years after the first Laweya was sold (to a commercial buyer, bit of trivia there) the Mark II model was introduced, with the original Laweya design being designated Mark I. The Mark II model was the first armed version of Laweya, featuring four well-placed phaser banks primarily for self defense, and it could be armed with either phaser-III (the standard self defense model) or the more powerful and longer ranged phaser-II at buyer's desire and cost (and with some purchasers uparming them more after purchase at the twin costs of cargo space lost to the uparming and reduced speed/acceleration from the extra mass - ed.). It was Starfleet that was primarily responsible for the introduction of the Mark III model four years after that, as they wanted it with an eye a potential war with the Klingon Empire that appeared to be brewing and might happen before the end of the 23rd century, Terran Gregorian measure. Laweya Mark III was essentially the same as Mark II save it was armed with the even more powerful phaser-I per Starfleet specs, and also sported the beefier Starfleet standard impulse engines and impulse deck configuration. This is the TMP era version of Laweya you see at the bottom right of the above preview piccy. A limited number of Laweya Mark IIIs were also sold for civilian use but their high price kept them out of the hands of all but those who afford them. Most Federation commercial and small-time civilian operators found the Mark II model to be their best bang for the buck, and that's why Laweya Mark II became the most common version during Laweya's long service lifetime. While Rakala stopped making the original Laweya at the end of the TMP era so it could focus its efforts on what would become its successor, the post-TMP Super Laweya, original Laweyas in all three versions that were not lost or destroyed along the way enjoyed long service lives well into the post-TMP era (and a small, steadily shrinking handful beyond, nudge-nudge). To sum everything up, FASA's Laweya was a very popular TMP era large Feddie transport, one of the largest capable of planetary operations, and its cargo-hauling capabilities were well appreciated by all beings or outfits who could afford to own one.

That's the official FASA line; leastways, my take on it (wink). FASA expert Brad R. Torgerson has his own and you're certainly welcome to look that up too. He's also the creative mind behind the post-TMP Super Laweya class (go look it up), and I'd love to feature it here at Mandel's provided a good CG model of it ever comes into my possession. As for me, my interpretation of Laweya is quite different. It's always reminded me of something from the pre-TOS era, with its shovel-shaped primary hull and boxy backside with its sharp angular contours. Not very refined for the TMP era, even though FASA has grafted TMP era warp engines and a command module onto it. I asked myself, "How would Laweya look retrograded for the late pre-TOS era, i.e the Baton Rouge generation in my and many other fanon Trek multiverse threads?" Thanks to Captain Mojo's model and with parts from his other many "kits" I was able to realize that idea, and that's what you see at the upper right in the preview piccy: a retrograded Baton Rouge generation take on FASA's Laweya. Just for kicks I also did a TOS/TAS era version and that's the one you see at the upper left. FASA's TMP era original is at the lower right. Aside from the expected command module and warp engine swapouts across the eras, the only other real issue was the placement of the impulse deck. For my pre-TOS retrograded version I moved it down to where the lowest cargo hold would normally be, since a Baton Rouge generation impulse deck is considerably larger than a TMP era one, and I also put a large landing deck extension in front of the shuttle bays and over the relocated impulse deck so pre-TOS Laweya shuttle pilots wouldn't have to deal with backwash issues whenever the impulse deck was in use. I did the same for the TOS version too even though its impulse deck isn't as wide, because I was going for a middle ground designwise here. Of course the TMP era Laweya has it's impulse deck where FASA put it in the first place, on top and between the dual hangar bays doors, and its smaller size helps to minimize backwash issues for any shuttle pilots. I also removed the landing deck extension too as FASA's original design doesn't have one, although you can put it back if you want or add a pair of Daran/Fredrickstad style extended sponsons (SoSF1, et al) if you'd still like something there to aid your shuttle pilots. Moving the impulse deck up for the TMP era also has the added benefit of freeing all that space below for that extra cargo hold, just as called for in the original FASA design.

Anyhow, and as I said, that's my interpretation of Laweya. In short, I have it starting as a Baton Rouge generation large Feddie transport that stays in continuous production until the end of the TMP era given its excellence, with two major design changes along the way (one for TOS/TAS and one for TMP), and with it still getting replaced by Brad's Super Laweya during the post-TMP era. You can take it, leave it, go with what Brad did, go with what others did, or come up with your own unique interpretation of FASA's Laweya for your own projects and stuff. Maybe some of you would like to try your hand at one or more flavors of a NuTrek Laweya conversion, or perhaps even an Adamsverse/Kelvin timeline version. Remember, Trek is now officially a multiverse and has been one for quite some time. All of us get to have our cake and eat it too. Attaboy .... XD

The original TMP era Laweya is semi-canon, given its appearance in a Franchise licensed work. All other takes on Laweya, including my own, remain fanon unless the Franchise says otherwise.

Live long and prosper.

TRIVIA - Laweya is a Javanese proper name here on Terra. Dunno if that's the form of the word that FASA intended, but that's what I got on a casual Internet search. Have fun looking up its meaning. I did. XD

ASIDE - Here's a link to Brad R. Torgerson's Super Laweya design, for any of you that might be interested in a post-TMP era successor to Laweya. Now will someone do the CG model for all of us, please?

www.ststcsolda.space/federatio…

SUGGESTION - I recommend dividing FASA's listed class numbers by a factor of ten (10) to better fit with all of the other Feddie TMP era stuff out there. FASA's class numbers are ALWAYS high.

Description

Ported to OBJ, textured, and futher modded by me for all three forms that you see above from the excellent original STL model recreation by the prolific Captain Mojo. Textures originally created by Dave "First Fleet" Metlesits for use in his own various CG modeling efforts. Based on the design created by Forest Brown and Dana Knutson for FASA Corporation's Federation Ship Recognition Manual (first edition only!) under Franchise license, as with all of FASA's various Trek gaming materials back in the day. Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. You can download Captain Mojo's recreation of the FASA TMP era original as part of his FASA Federation Non-Combatants Ship Pack Part 1 (along with other goodies) but be warned! STL models are made for use with a 3D printer and don't include textures because of that. If you want this textured like you see above then you will have to do the job yourself. Anyway, here's the link:

cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/f…

For a Feddie TMP era freighter that only appeared once in the original FASA stuff - the first edition only of its Federation Ship Recognition Manual (the one with Reliant on its front cover and not Remora) - Laweya has definitely had a fair amount of staying power over the years with FASA Trek fans. I'd like to think that one of the reasons is that it's one of the least obnoxious of a fair number of their Class I component slice-and-dice Feddie jobs in either edition of that book. It actually looks like what it's supposed to be - a large transport with planetary landing and lift-off capability - and the original FASA stats for it aren't too bad either.

Per the original FASA materials plus what I've been able to scrounge from other sources and my own unique way of looking at all of this (wink), Laweya as intended by FASA was a joint Starfleet/Merchant Marine effort that entered Federation service right after the start of the TMP era (exact date varies with source consulted). Kinda like the TOS era Independence class (FRS) freighters and the TMP era Lotus Flower (FASA), plus a half-dozen or more examples I could name if I wanted. It was designed and produced by Rakala Industries, and it can be safely assumed that Rakala in turn subcontracted out a lot of stuff (such as common TMP era component construction and so on) while it focused on actual assembly and final fitting-out and such. It was about the size of a typical Feddie light cruiser and was a straight general purpose transport, selling in base form with neither accommodation nor provision for passengers of any kind (unless backfitted later by its owners). It was one of the largest and most expensive Feddie transports capable of planetary landing and liftoff in FASA's materials, which meant that only more affluent buyers could afford it and early examples were normally found on what we would call "milk runs" -- easy cargo runs with no known threats where the considerable investment in their purchase by their owners could be used, ahmmm, "safely." (wink) Laweya as built was originally unarmed, but as more and more Laweyas entered service as the TMP era continued and many of their various owners began to risk them father afield in places where threats definitely existed, then Laweya's unarmed status became a definite liability. A number of unofficial owner armings of Laweyas in quite a variety of forms (and weaponry involved) thus took place for those being operated in border regions and in areas that space pirates favored, and the call for Laweya to be armed right off the bat became so great that Rakala had to respond accordingly. Just four years after the first Laweya was sold (to a commercial buyer, bit of trivia there) the Mark II model was introduced, with the original Laweya design being designated Mark I. The Mark II model was the first armed version of Laweya, featuring four well-placed phaser banks primarily for self defense, and it could be armed with either phaser-III (the standard self defense model) or the more powerful and longer ranged phaser-II at buyer's desire and cost (and with some purchasers uparming them more after purchase at the twin costs of cargo space lost to the uparming and reduced speed/acceleration from the extra mass - ed.). It was Starfleet that was primarily responsible for the introduction of the Mark III model four years after that, as they wanted it with an eye a potential war with the Klingon Empire that appeared to be brewing and might happen before the end of the 23rd century, Terran Gregorian measure. Laweya Mark III was essentially the same as Mark II save it was armed with the even more powerful phaser-I per Starfleet specs, and also sported the beefier Starfleet standard impulse engines and impulse deck configuration. This is the TMP era version of Laweya you see at the bottom right of the above preview piccy. A limited number of Laweya Mark IIIs were also sold for civilian use but their high price kept them out of the hands of all but those who afford them. Most Federation commercial and small-time civilian operators found the Mark II model to be their best bang for the buck, and that's why Laweya Mark II became the most common version during Laweya's long service lifetime. While Rakala stopped making the original Laweya at the end of the TMP era so it could focus its efforts on what would become its successor, the post-TMP Super Laweya, original Laweyas in all three versions that were not lost or destroyed along the way enjoyed long service lives well into the post-TMP era (and a small, steadily shrinking handful beyond, nudge-nudge). To sum everything up, FASA's Laweya was a very popular TMP era large Feddie transport, one of the largest capable of planetary operations, and its cargo-hauling capabilities were well appreciated by all beings or outfits who could afford to own one.

That's the official FASA line; leastways, my take on it (wink). FASA expert Brad R. Torgerson has his own and you're certainly welcome to look that up too. He's also the creative mind behind the post-TMP Super Laweya class (go look it up), and I'd love to feature it here at Mandel's provided a good CG model of it ever comes into my possession. As for me, my interpretation of Laweya is quite different. It's always reminded me of something from the pre-TOS era, with its shovel-shaped primary hull and boxy backside with its sharp angular contours. Not very refined for the TMP era, even though FASA has grafted TMP era warp engines and a command module onto it. I asked myself, "How would Laweya look retrograded for the late pre-TOS era, i.e the Baton Rouge generation in my and many other fanon Trek multiverse threads?" Thanks to Captain Mojo's model and with parts from his other many "kits" I was able to realize that idea, and that's what you see at the upper right in the preview piccy: a retrograded Baton Rouge generation take on FASA's Laweya. Just for kicks I also did a TOS/TAS era version and that's the one you see at the upper left. FASA's TMP era original is at the lower right. Aside from the expected command module and warp engine swapouts across the eras, the only other real issue was the placement of the impulse deck. For my pre-TOS retrograded version I moved it down to where the lowest cargo hold would normally be, since a Baton Rouge generation impulse deck is considerably larger than a TMP era one, and I also put a large landing deck extension in front of the shuttle bays and over the relocated impulse deck so pre-TOS Laweya shuttle pilots wouldn't have to deal with backwash issues whenever the impulse deck was in use. I did the same for the TOS version too even though its impulse deck isn't as wide, because I was going for a middle ground designwise here. Of course the TMP era Laweya has it's impulse deck where FASA put it in the first place, on top and between the dual hangar bays doors, and its smaller size helps to minimize backwash issues for any shuttle pilots. I also removed the landing deck extension too as FASA's original design doesn't have one, although you can put it back if you want or add a pair of Daran/Fredrickstad style extended sponsons (SoSF1, et al) if you'd still like something there to aid your shuttle pilots. Moving the impulse deck up for the TMP era also has the added benefit of freeing all that space below for that extra cargo hold, just as called for in the original FASA design.

Anyhow, and as I said, that's my interpretation of Laweya. In short, I have it starting as a Baton Rouge generation large Feddie transport that stays in continuous production until the end of the TMP era given its excellence, with two major design changes along the way (one for TOS/TAS and one for TMP), and with it still getting replaced by Brad's Super Laweya during the post-TMP era. You can take it, leave it, go with what Brad did, go with what others did, or come up with your own unique interpretation of FASA's Laweya for your own projects and stuff. Maybe some of you would like to try your hand at one or more flavors of a NuTrek Laweya conversion, or perhaps even an Adamsverse/Kelvin timeline version. Remember, Trek is now officially a multiverse and has been one for quite some time. All of us get to have our cake and eat it too. Attaboy .... XD

The original TMP era Laweya is semi-canon, given its appearance in a Franchise licensed work. All other takes on Laweya, including my own, remain fanon unless the Franchise says otherwise.

Live long and prosper.

TRIVIA - Laweya is a Javanese proper name here on Terra. Dunno if that's the form of the word that FASA intended, but that's what I got on a casual Internet search. Have fun looking up its meaning. I did. XD

ASIDE - Here's a link to Brad R. Torgerson's Super Laweya design, for any of you that might be interested in a post-TMP era successor to Laweya. Now will someone do the CG model for all of us, please?

www.ststcsolda.space/federatio…

SUGGESTION - I recommend dividing FASA's listed class numbers by a factor of ten (10) to better fit with all of the other Feddie TMP era stuff out there. FASA's class numbers are ALWAYS high.