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DKeith357 — Pathfinder Class Side View
Published: 2013-07-10 18:05:41 +0000 UTC; Views: 7463; Favourites: 41; Downloads: 104
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I think i'm done for now... I am about to start the side view deck layout and after that is done there may need to be some adjustments to locations of the greebles...This is my completed (for now) version of the Pathfinder-Class Starship seen in the now off-line web Play-by-email RPG "USS Miranda". I'm using some old schematic files from the site, which were extremely small... to re-imagine the vessel. The turret sits on the secondary deflector housing, which sits on the cross bar of a larger version of the Akira-Class warp engine arms. The vessel was conceived as a heavy explorer/carrier. but in looking at the specs from the web-site that i had saved it seems to be designed by the federation as a type of battleship. Yes, I know that the federation would never call something a battleship, hence probably where the type "Heavy Explorer" came into the picture. Also back from the Bridge module is a point-defense phaser based on those scene on DS9. It raises out of the deckplating to defend the command center and primary turret.
My conception of this vessel is that is that of a heavy vessel, very few ever produced, to meet the threat of the upcoming dominion invasion seen in DS9. Designed as a battleship and pushed into service for the war. Then after the war the inside of the ship is filled out with all the labs, etc. to turn it into a front line Explorer.
The Enterprise-E and defiant are inserted for size reference based on available art of the original Pathfinder-class starship.
Original Pathfinder-class design by: P. Weber
Parts by: ~Kavinveldar
Parts by: ~Gundam1701
Thanks to: ~Kavinveldar and ~Gundam1701 for the base parts that I am heavily modifying. Amazing work guys!
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Comments: 32
I also see her as possibly not making it onto the Dominion War battlefield, but still being fielded in response to the Borg threat, and ships like the Scimitar, and seeing plenty of action in 2381 (those damned Borg!!!)!
Reimaging and improving an old design is IMO one of the funnest and hardest things to do design wise. And I actually thought that you made her completely from scratch. I wouldn't've guess that this was a parts bash. My hat goes off to you, because that isn't easy to do!
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I remember when I first came across the Pathfinder-Class U.S.S. Miranda I wasn't overly impressed with the design, though now I find myself liking it more and more every time I see it
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Yeah in-case you can't tell its one of my favorites... Maybe someday I'll have the know-how to do a complete 3d version of the ship for use in renders since i cant find one anywhere. I have all the original pics from the websites and normally cut the ships out of those and re-use in new pics. I think I've gotten pretty good at it but, its still not the same...plus I could add the additional features that I have in mind
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in the orthos i got from ussmiranda.com the nacelles were longer
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Since you are familiar with the source material, I do have one question that you might know the answer to, i have asked a couple of people...
The main warp reactor was housed in the engineering hull. There were also reactors in the upper turret section and the saucer section.
When the sections divided during MVAM mode each reactor would power its own set of warp engines. When the ship was not separated though, did the main warp reactor power the primary warp nacelles? If so, the power flow systems would have to be extremely long. What do you think?
I wish there was detailed system schematics left somewhere by P. Weber.
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that is a good question. on the few images i saved on my hard drive it can be seen that the auxillary nacelles are in order when the ship is connected. at least there's a distinct glowing just as running nacelles are glowing. but i've never seen a detailed MSD of her. so i cannot anwer for sure. and Pat Weber doesn't keep his site running since... how many years is the site down now? 6 years? 7? 8? i don't know. it's really a pitty the site was damn good.
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it is a pitty. Do you remember anything about a saber-class starship docking or normally being docked on Deck (A) and if it was attached to the ship as like a support craft?
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I know, they also had a little war engine looking section on the inside upper part of the nacelle that I also didn't add. I always loved the look but for my personnal story/roleplay I wanted to make a few changes to such as the larger looking bridge module, the point defense phaser turret, the removal of the MVAM system and the defiant type pulse phasers. I changed up the armaments quite a bit. So pretty much this is a Variant of the original Pathfinder class.
Also the original pathfinder-class was not launched until after the Dominion war (launched in 2376). I had to adjust that to in my series bible to make it work with my time line also.
This design and especially the inner-workings are always changing in my head as i look at the story i want to tell.
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as far as i know the Pathfinder was designed at a length of 1170 meters
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Yes, i have found measurments from 980 m all the way to 1170 meters.
While trying to get info for this project I found this site: www.outlandbase.me.uk/USSGalax… It has a listing with design specs of alot of ships from way back when pbem RPGs were everywhere.
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but according to size comparizons i found on ussmiranda.com in tose days i calculated different measures: 1239 meters length. but when i already liked this ship, i really loved the Pathfinder II using parts of the Excalibur II with a calculated length of 1300 meters
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The more we talk about it I think I am going to go back in and rework the side layout, I like how the top view turned out and i think my abilities improved while working on that project. I want them to match as perfectly to each other as possible plus i think you are right about the size thing. I went back and looked at some of the ship charts and i think i'll look at re-scaling a bit.
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I'm working on the top view right now, got energized last week and startred working on it again, ill show y'all the WIP very soon
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first time i saw pathfinder class was on old USS Miranda SIM page, to bad page is down and entire database, it was one of best non canon-and canon star trek ship database ever,
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I have finished the top view of my version of the pathfinder class starship.
Its can be seen here:
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very good work, do you plan any other of non canon st ships
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not any time soon, I'm working on refining the pathfinder class every now and then but mostly i'm working on kind of a series bible for my ship with room layouts, characters, and mission logs.
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ok, thx at least someone did pathfinder,
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I loved that website also, i am making a few changes to my version of the pathfinder class but it was definitely my favorite non-canon class that I've seen. I do have good news for you tho, it seems that someone still has links up to the ship database pages. here is the link: www.outlandbase.me.uk/USSGalax…
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holly molly, its a gold mine, i searching for those for very long time, i had small database i download from original miranda site in late 2006,
with your premission i would do my version of pathfinder based on yours, of course il add you in credits,
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no problem, thanks. im making progress on the top view but its slow work trying to match everything up
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if i only can find that guy Weber that designed it, but to bad he didnt leave any mail or facebook
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Yeah I've tried to find him also with no avail. Here's my top view: fav.me/d6uutls
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very good, taking that you had limited source for the top view, cant wait to see it finished,
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I almost had the saucer section finished then i loaded it this morning and my file was corrupted and everything was neon colored and washed out.... Damn it! Luckily I had a back-up save file from earlier yesterday.
You are right there is very limited source material for the top and the ones out there are very poor quality. The poor source material is also why I have decided to deviate a bit from the original design by changing up the scale and look of a few things such as the warp nacelles and the turret section. I also like the dimensions of my top-view of the secondary hull better than the skinnier version that P Weber did. Just my preference. There were also details talked about in the Pathfinder schematics that did not appear to make it to the model.
As you said earlier I really wish P. Weber was around so i could ask him a few design questions...
Such as where are the "starbase type phaser" mentioned mounted and what is the purpose of the large black squares above the thru-deck shuttlebay area on the saucer section? Which of his three warp engines in the original design had the primary responsibility for powering the main warp nacells and if that is the (larger) assumed primary on in the secondary hull how does the power travel all the way to the nacelles. What do you think? I'm open to input. Surely as a Trekkie I am not over thinking this...
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he left very few details about his ships, hardly to make them 100% acurate
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Interesting design. The saucer itself vaguely reminds me of the Constellation Class; it could be the cargo hatches on the side. Not sure about the upside-down nacelles, but hey, I've made a few designs using such a choice myself, so who am I to judge? Haha
Funny how so many people have the idea of "this vessel was designed to fight the Dominion but when that ended they turned it into a science vessel." That's very much like the background story of my Avenger/Endeavour Class. I guess it's true, there is no more originality in the world. We all just reinterpret the same concepts. Still, it's a good concept in my book; it had better be since I had used it too!
Oh, by the way, I take it the ship uses a yacht similar in design to that of the Sovereign? (I always quite liked that yacht...)
Furthermore...ever consider having a bay in it which can actually hold several Defiant Class starships? It might be kinda cool if a starship launched another starship...
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I have finished the top view of my version of the pathfinder class starship.
Its can be seen here:
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I did have an idea about putting a large bay on the rear lower engineering hull that could possibly carry an escort or mission specific craft. I noticed a large docking bay in the same are on some schematics for the Ent-B. I had an idea that during the war the area would be used as a mine layer, then after the war that would be swapped for a holding area for a construction team with craft or an escort of some type that could stay behind with the construction teams. As the ship began exploring toward the Delta quadrant they would begin relay construction projects and thingd of that nature to further the reach of star fleet communications. Just an idea...
I got the idea of the unfinished interior of the ship with post war outfitting from a hardback Star Trek Roleplayers guide book that my wife got me for Christmas last year. I thought that it made since considering that the finishing work (at least when building a house) seem to take a significant amount of time and that in a time of war the firepower was more important.
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