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Description

Ported to OBJ and custom textured by me from the excellent untextured STL model by Captain Mojo. Based on the design originally created by David Miles and Dale L. Kemper for FASA Corporation's Stardate magazine and for use in FASA's various Trek Franchise licensed gaming products back in the day. Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. You can download Aral as part of Captain Mojo's Orion ships pack from the link below, but be warned! STL model files are made for printing with a 3D printer and with the expectation that the end user will hand-paint the model once it is printed. If you want this in textured form for your own various 3D model projects then you will have to texture it yourself, just as I did. Here's the link:

cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/f…

When one speaks of the TOS/TAS and TMP era Orion Aral, one is not talking about a specific class of Orion ships as such. What they are talking about instead is an Aral type, which covers tens of thousands of different small Orion custom built fast transports (as of the late TMP era - ed.) but all sharing in common the base Aral type hull (see preview piccy lower right). It was a universal small transport space hull designed in such a manner that it could be fitted with whatever other compatible starship components that the local Orion (or Orion pirate) shipyard happened to have on hand or could get by any and all means. The original TOS/TAS era form of Aral, which you see above (see preview piccy upper left and center), was made entirely with Orion built and Orion designed components; however, the number of variations on the basic Aral type increased dramatically as more and more legit and clandestine Orion shipyards built their own custom versions of Aral. For example, it was very common to see an Aral type in Federation space fitted with Federation type technology or copies of it, in Klingon space with Klingon type technology, and so on. In those regions where various major and/or minor spacefaring powers came together, such as the Triangle (FASA) and the WYN Star Cluster (SFB), Aral fits could and frequently DID vary wildly as various different components from various powers were grafted onto the base Aral hull. It was also quite common for a local operator's Aral types to be fitted with components salvaged from battle wrecks or stripped from other vessels (not always willingly). This practice also increased the wide variety of Aral types that were operated in both eras. It has been said by others and there is indeed a lot of truth to the statement that no two Arals looked alike -- unless you're talking about the earliest Orion built models from the TOS/TAS era. One of these is shown in the above preview piccy for reference purposes and is wearing the characteristic purple paint scheme favored by certain Orion factions down through the years (ref ENT "Bound"). Remember, the only thing that all Aral types had in common visually was their base hulls. That's pretty much the only way one could positively identify an Aral type.

In all forms and however its overall appearance could and indeed did vary considerably, certain things remained constant among all Aral types. They were intended for use as fast transports, small and light and quick because of that, with the top speed of each determined by the type of warp engines fitted and how compatible they were with Orion energy doubling output technology. That was also how they earned their common nickname of light blockade runners, and they worked well in this role when compared to the larger and more capable Wanderer class (see separate entry). All Aral types tended to average about 20,000 to 30,000 tons standard (subspace) displacement, all of them could fit an external cargo module beneath their common Aral hulls and specifically designed for it that effectively doubled their cargo capacity (at the cost of reduced speed and acceleration), and almost all of them were lightly armed given their relatively small size and need for cargo carrying capability. Finally, almost all Aral types were capable of planetary landing and liftoff, although this capability depended a lot on the other components used to build one. There are examples of Aral types that couldn't do this given the way they were put together, although they tended to be few and far between. Most Aral type owners and operators wanted that capability and for understandable reasons.

Let me remind you once again that what you see above in the preview piccy is the original Aral type configuration, built entirely with Orion components mated to the stock Aral type hull. The only sure way to identify the tens of thousands of later Aral type variants is to look for the Aral type hull that all of them share in common.

This is semi-canon, as it was created for a Franchise licensed product (FASA's old Trek gaming materials)

ASIDE - The Aral base hull makes for a great starting point for all of you Trek fans who like to make your own custom starships. Just don't forget how small it is in comparison to other ships in the Trek universe in this era, such as the time-honored Constitution and Klolode classes, okay? -_^

Description

Ported to OBJ and custom textured by me from the excellent untextured STL model by Captain Mojo. Based on the design originally created by David Miles and Dale L. Kemper for FASA Corporation's Stardate magazine and for use in FASA's various Trek Franchise licensed gaming products back in the day. Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. You can download Aral as part of Captain Mojo's Orion ships pack from the link below, but be warned! STL model files are made for printing with a 3D printer and with the expectation that the end user will hand-paint the model once it is printed. If you want this in textured form for your own various 3D model projects then you will have to texture it yourself, just as I did. Here's the link:

cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/f…

When one speaks of the TOS/TAS and TMP era Orion Aral, one is not talking about a specific class of Orion ships as such. What they are talking about instead is an Aral type, which covers tens of thousands of different small Orion custom built fast transports (as of the late TMP era - ed.) but all sharing in common the base Aral type hull (see preview piccy lower right). It was a universal small transport space hull designed in such a manner that it could be fitted with whatever other compatible starship components that the local Orion (or Orion pirate) shipyard happened to have on hand or could get by any and all means. The original TOS/TAS era form of Aral, which you see above (see preview piccy upper left and center), was made entirely with Orion built and Orion designed components; however, the number of variations on the basic Aral type increased dramatically as more and more legit and clandestine Orion shipyards built their own custom versions of Aral. For example, it was very common to see an Aral type in Federation space fitted with Federation type technology or copies of it, in Klingon space with Klingon type technology, and so on. In those regions where various major and/or minor spacefaring powers came together, such as the Triangle (FASA) and the WYN Star Cluster (SFB), Aral fits could and frequently DID vary wildly as various different components from various powers were grafted onto the base Aral hull. It was also quite common for a local operator's Aral types to be fitted with components salvaged from battle wrecks or stripped from other vessels (not always willingly). This practice also increased the wide variety of Aral types that were operated in both eras. It has been said by others and there is indeed a lot of truth to the statement that no two Arals looked alike -- unless you're talking about the earliest Orion built models from the TOS/TAS era. One of these is shown in the above preview piccy for reference purposes and is wearing the characteristic purple paint scheme favored by certain Orion factions down through the years (ref ENT "Bound"). Remember, the only thing that all Aral types had in common visually was their base hulls. That's pretty much the only way one could positively identify an Aral type.

In all forms and however its overall appearance could and indeed did vary considerably, certain things remained constant among all Aral types. They were intended for use as fast transports, small and light and quick because of that, with the top speed of each determined by the type of warp engines fitted and how compatible they were with Orion energy doubling output technology. That was also how they earned their common nickname of light blockade runners, and they worked well in this role when compared to the larger and more capable Wanderer class (see separate entry). All Aral types tended to average about 20,000 to 30,000 tons standard (subspace) displacement, all of them could fit an external cargo module beneath their common Aral hulls and specifically designed for it that effectively doubled their cargo capacity (at the cost of reduced speed and acceleration), and almost all of them were lightly armed given their relatively small size and need for cargo carrying capability. Finally, almost all Aral types were capable of planetary landing and liftoff, although this capability depended a lot on the other components used to build one. There are examples of Aral types that couldn't do this given the way they were put together, although they tended to be few and far between. Most Aral type owners and operators wanted that capability and for understandable reasons.

Let me remind you once again that what you see above in the preview piccy is the original Aral type configuration, built entirely with Orion components mated to the stock Aral type hull. The only sure way to identify the tens of thousands of later Aral type variants is to look for the Aral type hull that all of them share in common.

This is semi-canon, as it was created for a Franchise licensed product (FASA's old Trek gaming materials)

ASIDE - The Aral base hull makes for a great starting point for all of you Trek fans who like to make your own custom starships. Just don't forget how small it is in comparison to other ships in the Trek universe in this era, such as the time-honored Constitution and Klolode classes, okay? -_^