Tuesday, July 3, 2012

XCV-330 Enterprise

Here are some images of my 1/144 scale (?) scratch build of my interpretation of the XCV-330 Enterprise from the Star Trek universe Based off of the Matt Jefferies Painting.
I know, I know. Why would I have the United Federation of Planets logo all over the ship when the UFP did not come into existence yet when this ship was in service?  Well I say it was hauled out of the museum and put back into service after the formation of the UFP due to e required need for more transport vessels.

From Memory Alpha:

The USS Enterprise (XCV 330) was an Earth starship that was in service prior to 2143.
A painting of a ship from the same class appeared on the wall of the 602 Club on Earth in 2143. (ENT: "First Flight")A similar painting was on display on a wall in Admiral Maxwell Forrest's office on Earth in 2154. (ENT: "Home")
This Enterprise was honored with an illustration on the USS Enterprise's recreation deck after its refit in the early 2270s. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture


The following is from a Lincoln Enterprises catalog, describing some elevations of the ship that could be purchased through the company:
"Gene Roddenberry's imagination brings you "Starship". The vessel of the future as only he could picture it. This could be the forerunner of a new TV series, a Starship operated by an enormous computer which is a lifeform itself. Each human on board is a genius, a highly trained science specialist, part of a team of Galactic trouble shooters. A brand-new concept in future space travel. We also have three different views of the Metatransit system, side elevations of the systems analysis unit, and the Metaflier section of the Starship. Imagine yourself on a mission in space aboard this luxury cruiser. You'll be spellbound!"
  • Chart B of the Star Trek Maps (1980) features a side-view drawing (port) of the Enterprise. On that drawing, the ring-pylon is marked "7". The long "neck" of the ship is marked "ENTERPRISE" - no prefix or registry. The drawing is captioned:
"Starliners. Earth's first attempts at manned interstellar probes were launched during the 2050s at various target stars within fifteen light years of Sol. Only one, the UESP Enterprise, reached its destination – the sunlike binary pair of Alpha Centauri – before they were overtaken by the new faster-than-light spacecraft. The 120-meter-long Starliners had a crew complement of 35." The UESP-prefix presumably stands for "United Earth Space Probe", which would make Enterprise a ship of the United Earth Space Probe Agency.
  • The Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology (1980) features a side-view drawing and a detailed painting of the Enterprise. This however might not even be the same ship. Only the overall shape is similar. The book includes the following descriptions:
USS Enterprise - Declaration Class 2123-2165. Length: 300 m, Weight: 52.7 mil. kg, Ship's complement: 950. Propulsion: Adv. Second Generation Warp Drive. A total of 957 of these warp 3.2 starliners were built for the Cultural Exchange Project of the United Federation of Planets. The Enterprise was the first ship to be equipped with a subspace radio and was the most popular passenger carrier of its time.
It should be noted that in the timeline of the Spaceflight Chronology, for example, the Federation was incorporated in 2087 and the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) was launched in 2188. So in the canon timeline, this Enterprise would have to be placed somewhere in the very late 22nd to the early 23rd century, well after the time of Star Trek: Enterprise.
  • In the July 2002 Issue 39 of Star Trek: The Magazine Doug Drexler stated, that the Enterprise was one of the inspirations for his design of the Vulcan Suurok-class starship. The ring-shaped configuration was solidified for other Vulcan starships in the series. This might retroactively suggest that the XCV 330, as an early design by Humans, was heavily based on Vulcan ships.
  • According to the novel Star Trek: Ex Machina, this Enterprise was only an unused prototype based on Vulcan ships of the same period.
  • The Star Trek: Ships of the Line (2011) calender listed in its center spread a comparison of the Enterprise (NX-01) and the Enterprise (XCV-330) and carried the following description:
The XCV ENTERPRISE was a radical reinvention of warp technology based on Vulcan design principles. It proved to be 17% more efficient than Vulcan ships, but had trouble turning at high warp speed, thus making it impractical for exploration where sudden course changes would have to be made. It was considered a technological dead-end in Earth Starship Design.
An updated version of the common paintings of this design is the January image in the calendar. The artwork was composed by artist Mark Rademaker.

8 comments:

  1. Wow! that is very cool. It's one thing to be able to put something together, that somebody else made, but to make it from scratch is a whole different ballgame! Great job!

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  2. Thanks Pat - those rings were a real bugger I can tell you.

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  3. That's a VERY nice interpretation of the XCV-330. :)

    Found your blog after someone saw your TOS/TMP hybrid USS Tamerlane over on the Tamerlane online comic forum.

    If you've not already joined, you should have a look at the new Trek modeling forum All Scale Trek. Your Trek models would go down a treat there! :)

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