Excelsior Class: Star Trek starship parts kit expansion #10

Note: Because Thingiverse has had problems in the past, especially with including all files in a single zip, I’ve also posted these files to an alternative Google drive location. You can access that location here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1q5InMEsRsjxbqX-kAU32wL8m9HJDOmbA?usp=sharing

This is the tenth expansion parts kit meant to complement my original Star Trek Constitution Class Parts Kit (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3652210), providing parts and ship models to support the Excelsior class starship as seen in the Star Trek Movies and TNG/DS9. It also contains support for the controversial - excelsior-based kitbash Centaur-type.

See my Thingiverse Profile (https://www.thingiverse.com/CaptainMojo/designs) for the full list of parts kits I’ve released so far. All parts are meant to be cross-compatible between kits.

These models are in no way perfect, but I've tried to match the shapes and component placements to all three major versions of the studio model as closely as my skills and target print size (1/2500 and below) allows. I’ve based these designs on Mark Breuer’s excellent reference plans. Marks advice from his years of studying the original studio model has drastically improved the quality of these models.

This kit supports the following variants of the Excelsior:

Mk 1 – The NX 2000 as seen in Star Trek III.

MK 2 – The NCC 2000 as seen in Star Trek VI and later productions.

MK 3 – The refit design used as the Enterprise NCC 1701-B in Star Trek Generations.

Centaur-type - Kitbash ship seen in the DS9 episode Sacrifice of Angels.

Centaur uses parts reused from my earlier Miranda class parts kit.

Note: The standard versions of the Excelsior contain several details that may make printing at small scale difficult. The saucer shield grid, ruffled neck and nacelles, and, probably most importantly, the cavernous cargo bay on the bottom of the secondary hull are likely to cause the most problems. To alleviate this issue, I’m including lower-detail versions of the ship and part files that minimize or remove some of these details. Hopefully these versions will be easier to print if you’re having problems with the standard versions.

Notes on scaling and working with Blender

My target scale for all source files and output STL files is 1:1000. Although these files have not been extensively tested through printing, they are intended to be resized to match common modelling and miniatures scales.

Target scale - Scale STL files to: - Notes
1/3900 - 0.25641026 (25.6%) - FASA miniature scale
1/3788 - 0.26399155 (26.4%) - ADB Starline 2400 scale
1/3125 - 0.32 (32%) - ADB Starline 2500 scale
1/2500 - 0.4 (40%) - The Trek modelers "Golden scale"
1/1600 - 0.625 (62.5%) - TOS 3-Ship Set scale
1/1400 - 0.714285714 (71%) - Common resin model scale
1/650 - 1.538461538 (153%) - Modelling scale
1/537 - 1.862197393 (186%) - Common scale for TMP models
1/350 - 2.857142857 (285%) - Large scale

Note: Because the Centaur type uses different scale parts from both the Miranda and Excelsior classes, there is debate over its actual intended size. If scaled to the Excelsior saucer, it should be ~380m long. If the Miranda parts, only 210m long. I have scaled the model to the larger size. If you’d like to print the smaller version, use the scaling guide above and multiply that value by 0.55.

Ex Astris Scientia discusses the issues and evidence on this debate.

Blender

Blender is free, which to be honest was the primary factor in my decision to learn it. There are many fine video and text tutorials available online if you're interested in learning more. For a basic tutorial on moving and joining objects in Blender(which should be the minimum you need to know when working with these parts), see this instructables tutorial. You can use File -> Import -> Stl (.stl) and File -> Export -> Stl (.stl) to load or save STL files in blender.

Note: These kits were built using Blender 2.8.

Post-processing STL output

Although all of the STL files included have been tested as valid watertight meshes, joining the parts together and exporting new STL files can introduce small errors that may cause issues with slicing programs. I recommend any STL files you create are checked using a program like Netfabb Basic free edition. Doing a simple "Close All Holes" repair has fixed most of the issues I've run into so far. If you do run into issues with mesh quality, please let me know.

Parts list

This parts kits includes the following files.

Parts

Part - Description
- excelsior-nacelle-port.stl - Port nacelle used in MK1 and MK2 versions.
- excelsior-nacelle-port-low-detail.stl - Lower-detail port nacelle used in MK1 and MK2 versions.
- excelsior-nacelle-starboard.stl - Starboard nacelle used in MK1 and MK2 versions.
- excelsior-nacelle-starboard-low-detail.stl - Lower-detail starboard nacelle used in MK1 and MK2 versions.
- excelsior-nacelle-center.stl - Center nacelle based on MK1 and MK2 nacelles (not used in any sample ships).
- excelsior-nacelle-center-low-detail.stl - Low detailed center nacelle based on MK1 and MK2 nacelles (not used in any sample ships).
- excelsior-nacelle-pylon-port.stl - Pylon connecting port nacelle with secondary hull (used by all versions).
- excelsior-nacelle-pylon-starboard.stl - Pylon connecting center nacelle with secondary hull (used by all versions).
- excelsior-nacelle-pylon-center.stl - Simplified vertical pylon for connecting center nacelle (not used in any sample ships).
- excelsior-neck.stl - Standard neck with ruffled surface.
- excelsior-neck-low-detail.stl - Simplified neck without ruffled details.
- excelsior-saucer-mk1.stl - Standard MK1 saucer.
- excelsior-saucer-mk1-low-detail.stl - Lower detailed standard MK1 saucer.
- excelsior-saucer-mk1-standalone.stl - MK1 saucer without the neck cutout.
- excelsior-saucer-mk1-standalone-low-detail.stl - Lower details MK1 saucer without the neck cutout.
- excelsior-saucer-mk2.stl - Standard MK2 saucer.
- excelsior-saucer-mk2-low-detail.stl - Lower detailed standard MK2 saucer.
- excelsior-saucer-mk2-standalone-low-detail.stl - MK2 saucer without the neck cutout.
- excelsior-saucer-mk2-standalone.stl - Lower details MK2 saucer without the neck cutout.
- excelsior-secondary-hull-mk1.stl - MK1 secondary hull.
- excelsior-secondary-hull-mk1-low-detail.stl - Lower detailed MK1 secondary hull with cargo bay reduced to minor indent.
- excelsior-secondary-hull-mk2.stl - MK2 secondary hull.
- excelsior-secondary-hull-mk2-low-detail.stl - Lower detailed MK2 secondary hull with cargo bay reduced to minor indent.
- excelsior-nacelle-port-mk3.stl - Port nacelle used in MK3 version.
- excelsior-nacelle-port-mk3-low-detail.stl - Lower-detail port nacelle used in MK3 version.
- excelsior-nacelle-starboard-mk3.stl - Starboard nacelle used in MK3 version.
- excelsior-nacelle-starboard-mk3-low-detail.stl - Lower-detail starboard nacelle used in MK3 version.
- excelsior-nacelle-center-mk3.stl - Center nacelle based on MK3 nacelles (not used in any sample ships).
- excelsior-nacelle-center-mk3-low-detail.stl - Low detailed center nacelle based on MK3 nacelles (not used in any sample ships).
- excelsior-saucer-mk3.stl - Standard MK3 saucer.
- excelsior-saucer-mk3-low-detail.stl - Lower detailed standard MK3 saucer.
- excelsior-saucer-mk3-standalone-low-detail.stl - MK3 saucer without the neck cutout.
- excelsior-saucer-mk3-standalone.stl - Lower details MK3 saucer without the neck cutout.
- excelsior-secondary-hull-mk3-low-detail.stl - MK3 secondary hull.
- excelsior-secondary-hull-mk3.stl - Lower detailed MK2 secondary hull with cargo bay reduced to minor indent.
- centaur-nacelle-port.stl - Centaur-type port nacelle.
- centaur-nacelle-starboard.stl - Centaur-type starboard nacelle.
- centaur-rollbar.stl - Miranda-style rollbar connecting saucer to nacelles. Includes torpedo modules.
- centaur-saucer.stl - Centaur saucer.

Combined ship STLs

These files provide sample ships generated using the parts included in this kit.

Part - Description
- ship-excelsior-mk1.stl - Standard MK1 Excelsior class model.
- ship-excelsior-mk1-low-detail.stl - Lower-detail MK1 Excelsior class model.
- ship-excelsior-mk2.stl - Standard MK2 Excelsior class model.
- ship-excelsior-mk2-low-detail.stl - Lower-detail MK2 Excelsior class model.
- ship-excelsior-mk3.stl - Standard MK3 Excelsior class model.
- ship-excelsior-mk3-low-detail.stl - Lower-detail MK3 Excelsior class model.
- ship-centaur.stl - Centaur type ship model.

Blender files

The following zip files contain a parts file, containing the STL parts arranged as used in the sample ship designs, and a parts source file, containing the raw blender objects used to create the parts:

- excelsior-Blender-files.zip

Centaur-Blender-files.zip

License

I'm releasing this under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. You're free to distribute and modify these files (even for commercial use), provided you attribute the creator and distribute your contributions under the same license.