By the mid 2280's Starfleet Command saw that the remaining Ptolemy class starship's that had been refitted at the beginning of the 2270's where now nearing the end of their operational life spans. To this end the Starfleet Corps of Engineers where asked to come up with a new design for a transport vessel that would not only fill the gap left by the retiring Ptolemy class, but would exceed that class' speed, manoeuvring capabilities, towing capacity and defences. After sixteen months of design R+D Starfleet unveiled the new Atlantis class. At maximum load capacity the Ptolemy class could reach speeds of warp 5.92 whereas the new Atlantis class starship's could comfortably reach speeds of warp 8.2 and above with nearly double the freight load. In the past the Ptolemy had always needed an escort (usually undertaken by the Saladin class starships) when travelling between ports, but now the Atlantis could hold her own in a fight thanks to her six phaser banks and the addition of forward and aft torpedo launchers. After trial runs the Atlantis was put into service and the class went into full production, with six starship's being built per year at the Utopia Planitia fleet yards.

I came up with the idea of building this model after seeing an interview with the production designers on Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan. Originally the design for the USS Reliant was meant to have the engines above the saucer and the weapons pod hanging underneath. Somehow there was a communications error with the people at ILM, who after seeing the drawings of the ship from the wrong angle believed that the engines where meant to be hanging from the underside with the weapons pod on top. This mistake was not noticed until after ILM had begun to build the model and the budget for the film was too tight to allow for a re build. I had a Starcraft's refit Constitution model kit gathering dust on my desk so I thought I'd use it to build some sort of starship that took into account the original design of the Reliant. I used styrene to build up at the rear of the saucer so that it would look similar to the Miranda class ships, although I left the centre section clear so that the impulse engine could be seen without me having to move it. The engine pylons for the ship where designed to look similar to the ones on the Reliant and where glued on to the top of the model. It was only now that I decided to build the ship as a transport vessel.

Rather than adding aReliant's Roll bar (at least similar from the forward view) I then placed a strip of ribbed plastic on to the towing bar to give it some detail. As a final touch I added two small squares to the rear of the ship, which were painted metallic grey, the idea being that they could be tractor beam emitters used for towing large objects such as other starship's that were two heavy or cumbersome for the pad to contend with. The model was then primed and painted in the usual matt white with the engines done in matt black. Grey/blue, yellow and silver where also used to highlight certain details.

Image: Port side view

Image: Bow on

Image: Stern view

Image: Ventral view