Trekyards EP290 - USS Melbourne

[@watchthe1369]

It does a good job of following the TNG aesthetic. You did a good job of cross referencing your technology. The nebulas with their hangar space could get lots of fighters in theatre, but there was a definite needs for some sort of utility ship with lots of small craft. That 2-4 deck plug going right thru the ship with maintenance and manfacturing space was a home run that explains why this ship exists. The use of the Defiant warp engine technology was a solis base hit as well, the main saucer being a mobile heavy firepower back up for the fighters is an awesome concept.

[@kevinwestrom4775]

That's a really well-done design, the front to back hangar deck with squadrons of shuttles and run-abouts, fighters, and fight-optimized run-abouts is a great idea strategically in tactical situations. Having primary & secondary warp coils is a good idea also, however that might be done to make it possible. I could see either a Galaxy-class or Galaxy-variant, i.e. Nebula-class having that sort of capabilities designed into it for best set of capacity for fighting enemy ships.

[@RunePenrod]

A bit late to the party, but I really like the design. Would love to fly her in STO. Well done indeed!

[@gyozakeynsianism]

Very cool design. Interesting how the designer worked it into the canon timeline - not quite a Sovereign but more advanced than a Galaxy.

[@cecils.graham2913]

Love the new opening scene. Great job. guys. Love seeing this channel growing and improving.

[@davidschroeder839]

Great work on this ship Lonnie!

[@jeffhallam2004]

Interesting...so definitely built for the Dominion War...she's a hearty ship.

[@Loony3334]

You can count on a few aussies being on it, myself included! Love it! Why the hell isn’t this in cannon? Very sleek, but more importantly deadly. 🇦🇺

[@thomasjenkins5727]

Interesting answer to why Starfleet would end up with a battle carrier. Switching the design intent from colony-ship to battle-carrier partway through construction makes a lot of sense, since they did something similar with the Sovereign, as I understand it. My own way of bringing carriers into Star Fleet is to have them carry repair-craft, and serve as a support ship for the fleet. I think that could work for the Melbourne too, given its general design and the advanced repair craft mentioned in thee episode. I wonder if you could fit a Defiant in that hanger.

[@HalferLandPerformance]

Like it...mix between D and E. Actually Is one of my favorites now

[@stevenewman1393]

🖖😎👍Very nicely well done and very informatively executed and explained indeed guys 👌.

[@pshalleck]

Some of the CG motion here reminds me of Battlestar Galactica, especially that first rotating shot with the runabouts swarming out. At some angles the curves and layers reminds me of the Guardian-class in Star Trek Online - but much more aggressive. Beautiful!

[@sayeednmb]

Excellent and very well thought out design for a ship never reviewed before. I would definitely like to see more of your work. Lonnie must definitely needs to come back to Trekyards.

[@STNuevo]

This shuttlebay is awesome and a well thought-out warp nacelle concept. Good work.

[@FLAME456X]

Inspired ofc by the D'Deredex class warbird nacelles as he stated.

[@seanoneill9606]

Indeed.

[@brandonjohnson9973]

This design is dominant to say the least! Dude has a gift that's for damn sure.

[@singingtoad]

I really like this design. Well done. Cheers!

[@conorleroy2362]

Not sure if you guys cares but if you guys are bored like me during the covid times you can watch pretty much all the new movies and series on instaflixxer. Have been binge watching with my gf for the last couple of weeks :)

[@sauljustice9668]

@Conor Leroy yea, been watching on instaflixxer for since december myself =)

[@croatiansamurai7361]

I like the design and backstory of the ship. Yes, I would like to see more ships designs.

[@matthewknobel6954]

My god, a federation ship with fighters and marines. If I did not know better it could be Babylon 5 or Battlestar. It always seemed strange to me that large capital ships would not have a fighter screen and an actual military detachment, given how much trouble the ships seems to get into (or is it just the enterprise?). I know that this does not jive with Roddenberry's utopia vision, but it is more realistic.

[@joeyd1404]

I f***ing love this channel. the rendering of the shuttle bay that traverses the length of the secondary hull was epic.

[@TheG21145]

Gorgeous ship. Great video 😊

[@shinjofox]

Nice design. Fits into Federation design more than a lot of carriers i have seen. I would be interested to see more of Lonnies designs.

[@saquist]

It reminds me a the Bridge Commander USS Titan Galaxy EVO staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1328/images/47215_1.jpg -Galaxy's 15,000 Evacuation was extremely conservative. It's capable of a normal crew of 11,602 . -5:43 Incredible views!!! -What destroyed Odyssey was that the attack ship collided near the Deuterium Fuel Tank. The Tank is surrounded by oxygenated decks and detonated. That detonation eventual breached the core. The nacelle strike was irrelevant to the ship's destruction. It should be noted no ship should be able to sustain the kinetic damage of collisions at these speeds.

[@Jack_Stafford]

*THAT OPENING ANIMATION!* Wow, that is great stuff right there! Love the ship too and all the renders/lighting that had to entail, but especially really enjoyed the opening transitions between the Enterprises! I can see a lot of extra work went into this episode! Great job!

[@seanoneill9606]

I really like it. This is one of the best fan designs I have seen.

[@watchthe1369]

I would expect the command module to be able to act like an orbital work pod sort of thing, not a planetary lander though.

[@ericzaiz8358]

Wish you had a link to an album with the pictures for ships like these, hard finding pictures of them... Or at least a link to the guys page so I can support him too.

[@TheMockSun]

www.deviantart.com/lonzo5

[@MrSheckstr]

So his naming of the ship the USS Melbourne he made reference to the USS Midway and the battle of Midway .... we could go two ways with this 1 in memory of the battle of Wolf 357 (or whatever the number if I got it wrong) This could be the Wolf class of ship with each ship being named for a ship destroyed in that battle. OR At a certain point marking the anniversary of that battle Starfleet decided to dedicate several classes of ships with each class being named for one of the major ships from that battle?

[@TheMockSun]

steven heckert, that's a good point. I'm sure there would be a Wolf, as well as at least a handful of others. For them to have been commissioned as major capital ships like Galaxy, Nebula, etc, their predecessors were probably pretty important in the first place, so it would make sense to name a future major ship after each of them.

[@Jack_Stafford]

I really like that the glowing elements are kept at a minimum, to me that just lends itself closer to realism like the refit Connie. Great job! Love the sharp angled aggressive edges while still looking like a federation ship!

[@InventorZahran]

The Melbourne-class Starship provides an excellent visual transition between the Galaxy-class and Sovereign-class!

[@randymiller1330]

I'd like to see a Dreadnought version much like that of the Galaxy X...that'd be an awesome ship

[@a.j.leonard964]

Don't forget the Shelley class thru deck carrier

[@Headwind-sw9eh]

Okay. This is a VERY cool ship!!!

[@Headwind-sw9eh]

Definitely bring Lonnie back! Make sure to commission him with a senior officer rank, too!

[@jamesjr5500]

Great new intro!! Loved the USS Melbourne!! Very cool ship and story.

[@power543]

thanks! Re-made UHQ Versions of all of our intros coming for 2018 along with a re brand and update!!

[@Jack_Stafford]

Incredible animations! Always love to see your work and I know you take a lot of care to get them just right which shows in the finished product! Great job!

[@donaldhill3823]

Excellent design. Love it.

[@PhilDrury]

I like this ship! THIS is a Federation Battlestar without looking like a Battlestar!

[@Twitchguy]

I’m wondering where I can go to try my hand at designing a ship like this! I love the look btw of this one but this ship & the Arizona class gave me a great idea for a new type of ship that I’ve not seen in any of the videos yet

[@therandommenace3434]

a VERY cool ship. My favorite.

[@larrytreadway2671]

Would love to see this in sto you should submit it for there summer ship design event at they're doing this year

[@simonkerr1899]

Would have been nice to include some separation animation. Not a bad design 👌

[@Blade_Runner_79]

WOW! Now that is a fully fleshed-out and beautiful and natural successor to Enterprises that have come before. What a beautiful piece of art! I bet this was really fun to light and render because of all the interesting angles and the detail put into the design. If only this could have been the Enterprise in the movies or the ship in Discovery... seriously a gorgeous piece of engineering and artistic Vision. Bravo!

[@Jack_Stafford]

BladeRunner agreed on every point! Loved all the Fantastic rendering and Lighting in this episode including they all knew shiny intro that Commander Cockings did at the beginning. I was a big fan of the previous opening and love this one as well! I know a lot of work goes into these episodes and there is so much talent from everyone involved and just want to say I really appreciate it!

[@ericmci900]

This is absolutely one the best looking Star Trek designs. And a very capable ship.

[@cjs1710]

That's a great design. I normally dislike Starfleet carrier designs but that's just fantastic! And not OP like a lot of fan designs are

[@nuruddinshah684]

Heard about the "spec" of the ship FINALLY. A ship that can ACTUALLY FIGHT

[@ifergal]

Great CGI and modelling but i was really hoping/expecting to see saucer separation animation too. That would have been awesome!

[@TheMockSun]

ifergal, I've got a couple of projects to wrap up, but I'm going to be churning out some Melbourne goodies in the near future ;)

[@wingsabre]

In the Voyager episode "Life Line," they mentioned that they routed two deep space exploration ships to meet up with Voyager. My feeling was it was likely two Galaxy class or a Galaxy class and a Nebula class. Both ships where big, and fairly self sustaining. This ship class would be a good fit for that type of a mission as well.

[@ryebread095]

It is very similar visually to the Guardian Cruiser from Star Trek Online

[@Uchilsson]

Its great! Bring more ;) I think that cariers in Star Trek uninivera are deadly, but tactic of use are poor (for example in DS9)

[@isfj1009]

This is a cool ship. Totally digg'n the design lines! I do like the carrier aspect. :)

[@darthparkus1223]

Lonnie I really like the ship good job it should be on the big screen also I want to see more ships done by you Trekyards thank for the Awesome EP.

[@TheMockSun]

Your'e much too kind! It was a blast to build and film. Can't thank these guys enough! lonzo5.deviantart.com

[@garykyle3737]

Please more! very good design! Thank you

[@jsmasters77]

This ship could be the next ST show, "Star Trek: The Melbourne Story"

[@trustin.p9504]

Great show guys. Great ship.👍

[@Epics00]

At first I was not thrilled about it but the more l listened to the concept and the I heard about it's capabilities the more I liked it. In the end I feel it's a ship I'd like to see on the big screen.

[@melissac8063]

I love this design 😇

[@Stronghand-yw1lk]

I dig it. In STO this would be an engineering heavy vessel with maybe a secondary focus in science due to what I am guessing is a secondary deflector array on the saucer.

[@Capronice]

That a good looking ship. I like how similar to Next Generation Enterprise it is and reminds me of the original Enterprise from Star Trek. Very nice mix of the two ships. I could see this ship being the ship chosen for Next Generation.

[@wolfblaide]

Given this is a federation ship, wouldn't they consider naming a ship "Melbourne" after earlier HMAS Melbourne ships in the Royal Australian Navy? One of these was the last aircraft carrier put into service for the RAN. The wonderful irony is that HMAS Melbourne actually rammed and sank the HMAS Voyager (as an accident), killing lots of the crew on HMAS Voyager.

[@Jack_Stafford]

wolfblaide that is very interesting and coincidental!

[@Toobeegort]

Didn't the HMAS Melbourne sink more ships in peace time than it did at war?

[@hunterpdx7061]

I know you've created a dedicated carrier, which is why it's enormous, but for some reason I can't quite figure out the aesthetic of the ship seems like it would do better as about the size of an Intrepid class. I keep flashing back to a Nova class design when I look at it. Nevertheless it's lovely.

[@TheMockSun]

Hunter PDX, I think it's the size and distribution of the windows. The decks come out to the right height, but the external details throw it off.

[@sleipnirodin2881]

Marvellous design and *"YAS!"* , a carrier. *#Lonnie** McAfee "encore"*

[@clark85]

great ship! Reminds me of a redesigned star drive section of the galaxy class but fully realised into a fully functional starhip. Definitely have him back!

[@ferguseyre2587]

new intro looks amazing

[@starrellington7942]

Melbourne was a excelsior class ship

[@Rick_Cleland]

_Was*,_ until the Borg destroyed it.

[@raijinmeister]

Freaking amazing. STO needs that beauty. The only thing that always bugs me about carriers and fighters in space is the fact of being a fighter pilot would be almost a death sentence, especially in ST universe, with all the pinpoint accuracy ships have. If they were drones with a few bulky heavily armored modified shuttles to C&C those drone wings, then would be awesome.

[@kevinwiltshire2217]

Would love to see a heavy cruiser design

[@jeremiahgrant8728]

I want this on STO

[@JonarusDraconius]

An engineering cruiser-carrier, rather than that weird science carrier thing they have currently!

[@CaptainSovereign]

t6.9 for 3500zen

[@jeremiahgrant8728]

lol I have the operations and tactical carriers, so far i'm impressed, just want a second hanger bay though...

[@TomCat777]

Hello, Truly amazing ship. Love the look and basic design. Would love to see this in STO. I know I would pay to get this ship and you can tell it would be a beast. Very creative.

[@rsean4083]

It would be cool to see this ship and the Arizona class battle carrier used in a fan film

[@bluemodelt]

New into is very nice.Any chance of you guys reviewing STAGE 9 virtual tour of the enterprise?

[@power543]

thanks! Re-made UHQ Versions of all of our intros coming for 2018 along with a re brand and update!! The Enterprise C is not missing, neither is the 1701. The intro is based on the idea of creating a ship and ships in Drydock. Only the NX-01...1701 Refit/A...Ent B...Ent D and Ent E were seen in Drydock and so those were the only ones featured in this intro. Its the same (Just remastered) to the old Originals Intro!

[@bobroberts4934]

Good ship sir. I feel it makes a carrier class fit into the Trek universe.

[@EcokadeBlogspot]

Lonnie, we love this! We want more Lonnie ships!!!

[@Capronice]

No one will cut that ship at the neck. I like it a lot.

[@Ostermond]

I certainly like this design! I personally wish I could design/model starships like this.

[@balrighty3523]

So it has fabrication facilities capable of building runabouts. Would these be the same facilities that let Voyager churn out all of its replacement shuttlecraft?

[@Stormplayers]

i loved the opening sound track on this one... plz tell me you can share it with me!!

[@rdionne]

I would to see someone flesh out the idea for Assault/combat roundabouts. Have the middle section be a giant torpedo bay and have enhanced engines for maneuverability at impulse speed but a penalty of a lower warp speed. Would be neat to fit those to this ship.

[@marleymcleay9228]

It is an amazing design, I love the dedication to have this craft realized. To me this is function first in philosophy, it has an unusual heavy secondary hull, and I see influence of the Nebula class and possibly Nova, a heavy almost intimidating presence. Well done. How long did it take to develop the ships history, let alone design? ;-)

[@TheMockSun]

Thank you! The design came first in the form of a rough sketch. It took me about three months altogether to design the ship, and Stuart, Sam and I fleshed out the story over the course of two weeks or so, based on a few rough notes I'd taken. My inspiration was the Federation class dreadnought, which also influenced Stuart's U.S.S. Foley. I also wanted something that, while incorporating some innovations like the warp-capable saucer, would be more of an ultimate realization of a traditional starship, rather than a huge leap forward like the Intrepid or Sovereign.

[@TheDanlovejoy]

Great ship, would love to see what else this guy has designed.

[@TheMockSun]

Thanks, man! Here ya go. I post on the main page all the time as well. lonzo5.deviantart.com

[@colanitower]

+Lonnie McAfee Nice gallery you have there. The Klingon battlecruiser looks 'Federationalized', as if the Klingon Empire has joined the Federation and they could combine Klingon and Federation technology in a new class of battlecruisers.

[@RaikenXion]

Smart little ship, "little?"

[@andipawlik3468]

This would have been a great starting point for Discovery. Around 10 ten years after DS9 ended. There you could introduce a new species, or time-traveling Klingons, if it has to be them. Also, you could easily introduce a new tech like the Spore Drive without all the issues you have with canon in a prequel (or technically inquel) show.

[@paradisebreeze1705]

Andi Pawlik nah just scrub discovery and it’s stupid ideas

[@TheMockSun]

Btw, this episode is the first I'm seeing the new intro-- great job, Sam!

[@power543]

yeh! 2018 re-makes of all of our intros.....this one just happened to come out in 2017 lol! GO back and check the old Originals episodes to see how much better this one is and how much ive improved in 2 years!! new Re-Mastered intros for every show coming in 2018!!! :D

[@90lancaster]

I'm amused that this should show up now, I was only recently chatting about the design potential for re-purposing a Galaxy Class with the change of the saucer to one with it's own Warp capability and it's own warp core to bolster the ship in combined form. This has some stylistic and capability cues to what I was thinking of. I was also just recently discussing Anti-piracy & troop assualt tactics in the 23rd and 24th Century (post Motion Picture) and Marines and when their role in Starfleet ended (if it did) so that is a coincidence too. I just wish that the production staff were as deep into the idea and practicalities of Starfleet tech in both of terms of how it is and how it perhaps should be both to make the Universe make more sense & be more realistic. Anyway nice ship

[@MrSheckstr]

90 Lancaster as far as making the G class warp capable, I would suggest turning much of the ventral part of the saucer section into an engineering section with four smaller warp nacelles that lower down and out of the saucer like landing struts. OR... two nacelles on deck 10 the retract out of the aft end and two ports on the forward edge of deck 10 that open up on two bussard collectors

[@hallanfrost2998]

In regards to fighters in star trek they could make them into autominus drone fighters as after all shjps often us preprogrammed attack pattens so an AI doing it wouldn't make much difference.

[@theatheistpaladin]

It is a strange cross between galaxy, intrepid, and sovereign class. How do you get the CGI of the ship? I want to do my own concept. Inspired by Michio Kaku/Vulcan like ship. An Ultradeep space colony ship.

[@TheMockSun]

I use Blender3D. It's free and ultra-powerful. Update: www.blender.org

[@Ostermond]

You use Blender? Holy damn. I'm guessing you build it out of 3D primitives? Oh, here's a question. how do you construct the secondary hulls? Those've always been a thorn in my side when it comes to modeling/trying to model starships.

[@theatheistpaladin]

You mean: www.blender.org .com doesn't exist.

[@TheMockSun]

:p amateur hour. Thanks for the correction!

[@TheMockSun]

Yep, subdivision and box modeling. I just start from a cube and try to get a rough match to the shape of the ortho view. Then I work from there, subdividing individual segments and sliding sets of vertices to make them fit the drawing more and more closely. The pylon joints and neck joint were really challenging because they started out as separate objects. I like to stick to single meshes as much as possible just to keep things simple, but in this case I wasn't quite happy with the neck (it was more of a narrow Galaxy style that tapered awkwardly outward at the back to match the drawing, and the pylons were a tangled mess, so I deleteded all of that and joined what I'd built of the pylon directly to a clean cut in the hull. For the deflector, I started by just extruding the forward face of what I had roughed out and building some various plateaus and ridges, then I extruded the parts for the central piece. For the shuttlebays, I removed faces where I wanted the doors, then extruded and slid from one door until I met the other, and joined the vertices. As far as the surface detail, two things were key: first, I created a deck height material using the cycles wave and separate xyz nodes, which gave me a wrapped image of where each deck ended. Second, your topology has to be logically laid the way the material would actually be wrapped around the object. This may mean deleting faces and reconnecting key sets of vertices to create different angles that serve the lines they're supposed to emphasize. Hope that helps somewhat!

[@sw-gs]

AWSOME design!

[@PsychoStreak]

I like this ship overall. It's a nice design where the function leads the form in specific directions that work visually. The saucer being a supersized Defiant is an interesting idea, and nicely addresses the issue of making saucers Warp capable (no reason not to in the TNG/DS9/Voyager period, what with compact yet powerful engines available and in use. Love the wide dorsal. It's substantial without feeling either neck-less like Sovereign, or overly thick like Excelsior. Only really two things that I would tweak - the main deflector seems a bit odd, but it could just be the color. A darker blue perhaps? The other thing is just a personal preference - the nacelles are as long as Voyager. However, in this instance, I'm guessing the extra length accommodates the spare coils - side by side would likely trash the spares if the primaries failed or were destroyed, so putting them in the aft armored section makes sense. I'd like to see how beefy the life support and replicator systems are for it, as those are as much a limitation on how many it could evacuate as internal space to fit them. For a future update, perhaps the Boston could have updated nacelles, and perhaps the first prototype of the Full Armor Voyager had when she returned to Earth?

[@starsuperion]

I love this design. Great job! Great review. I love the name and it's history. But guys, when do We get the vaunted and to be quite honest it grew on me a lot over the years, but when do we get the Enterprise J? Please tell me I'm missing it somehow?

[@simonwinn8757]

If I was going to make a colony support ship, I'll go the lazier way of slapping some warp engines onto a drydock / starbase and ship it to the new star system.

[@Tallacus]

I got a ship design of my own that I created for my post Destiny Star Trek series, I would love to have a Trek yard episode talking about it with you guys

[@nomohakon6257]

I love this ship! Its awesome!

[@louferrao2044]

I like this ship design. Hopefully, it will be on STO.

[@pattonkesselring4247]

Cool ship, kinda like an escort carrier, definitely bring him back for another design.

[@waynelukovszki7796]

I really like this ship design and I would like to see more ships designed by this guy.

[@the79]

Love this ship. I would have loved to have seen saucer separation for it (Maybe a future episode?). But all around great looking design. I can't find anything I don't like about it.

[@TheMockSun]

Thanks! I'm working on a separation video which I'll be posting to the Trekyards page soon.

[@zl2dat]

I absolutely loved this ship and this episode!

[@wingsabre]

Star Trek tends not to have carriers because I think it was purely for budget. If they could, then they would. I think if it has a ton of runabout on board, It would actually make more sense if this ship was a type of mobile control center/starbase. Get to an uncharted area of space around a planet. The ship stays to survey the planet, while they launch a ton of runabout to explore other parts of the system or neighboring system that looks less interesting.

[@ogoglethorp]

Another great video .

[@dr.zippymcscoots8725]

Awesome ship!

[@OrinThomas]

(a pity though that the ships of this class didn't take the names of other cities in Australia - rather than Boston, have Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide)

[@TheMockSun]

I was thinking about doing that, but since the Boston was meant to be her sister ship, I decided at least the first vessel after would be named for one of Melbourne's sister cities. (Melbourne Sister Cities are Osaka, Japan; Tianjin, China; Thessaloniki, Greece; St. Petersburg, Russia; Milan, Italy and Boston, Massachusetts, USA.)

[@OrinThomas]

Cool - I live in Melbourne and I didn't know that ;-)

[@foxpianocovers]

I wouldn't mind a USS Hobart (just across the Bass Strait from Melbourne).

[@simgray30]

I would describe it as a force multiplier because of its runabout carrying/production capacity.

[@chi7891]

So... it’s a Battlestar.