by Owen Oulton

Donor kits: Polar lights USS Enterprise; Monogram "Willy Ley" Passenger Rocket

The Federation, although a tiny fraction of the galaxy, is a very large volume of space even when travelling at high warp. Starfleet Command is tasked with patrolling and protecting this space with a finite number of ships and bases. In order to extend the range of its starships, Starfleet maintains a fleet of support vessels which carry fuel (antimatter and deuterium) and suppies to vessels in deep space. The Preserver Class is one of these support ships. It is similar in basic layout to the Constitution Class Cruiser, with which it shares a number of components, but has an extended secondary hull containing huge tanks for the fuel it carries as well as cargo holds for other supplies.

The Model

The ship takes its nacelles, saucer and shuttlebay from the Polar Lights Enterprise kit. The secondary hull is the booster stage of the Passenger Rocket, extended 12mm, reversed and inverted, with the dorsal from the Enterprise mounted forward and the shuttlebay mounted aft. The nacelles are mounted farther forward than on the Constitution Class to clear the tankage area, and lower to allow the Polar Lights pylon structure to be mounted to the lower inside hull of the Passenger Rocket, to give more structural strength. Twin sensors (the small series version) are mounted to the deflector bases from a pair of 1/1600 AMT 3-Spaceship Kit Enterprises.

Paint is a grey primer from Walmart, clearcoated with Future. Decals are a mix of the Polar Lights decals (all three versions) and custom ALPS-printed markings. The bridge dome allows one to view a printed bridge deck.

Image: Top view

Image: Underneath

Image: Bow