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ironcaniac · 2 years

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Review of BlueBrixx’s U.S.S. Rio Grande

The U.S.S. Rio Grande was one of the three original Danube-class runabouts assigned to Deep Space 9. It was the only runabout of the original trio to survive the full run of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series. Over the course of the series, the Rio Grande discovered the Bajoran Wormhole (“Emissary”), crossed over into the Mirror Universe (“Crossover”), carried a long-lost Klingon artifact (“The Sword of Kahless”), retrieved the Orb of the Emissary (“Shadows and Symbols”), and even singlehandedly destroyed a Jem’Hadar attack ship (“Treachery, Faith, and the Great River”)! A vessel with such an illustrious career deserves a tremendous tribute, and BlueBrixx fittingly has made sure that its Rio Grande model lives up to the distinguished runabout.

As with the Galileo shuttle, the most striking initial impression is just how closely this brick-built model resembles the onscreen Rio Grande, both in its exterior and interior. BlueBrixx has recreated just about everything that was depicted onscreen, even the rear sleeping and dining compartment (complete with a replicator!) that was only seen in one TNG episode (“Timescape”). Most impressively, the designers have also included things that were never seen onscreen, such as the specialized mission modules in the midsection and engine components in the pylons.

The build experience is best described as similar to running a marathon. Proper planning and pacing is a must. The runabout may look sleek and compact when finished, but this over-3,000-piece set is a beast and more than likely will take a couple of days to complete. I wouldn’t consider it a set for beginners, and it’s definitely not a set for kids. The build is still a very rewarding experience, especially when you finally snap on the top cover and start to hear the DS9 theme play in your ears (or maybe that’s just me).

Also, as the BlueBrixx product page shows, the set includes a rollbar that was seen on some runabouts. I’ve opted not to include this rollbar on my model because, according to Ex Astris Scientia and Memory Alpha, the Rio Grande was only equipped with this module in just 1 out of its 40 appearances.

One of the great things for me about brick sets is that you can inject your own creativity as you build. For example, I wasn’t crazy about building the toilet that BlueBrixx included in the instructions, so I used some spare LEGO bricks and custom minifig accessories to create an armory in its place. I think the armory turned out pretty well, and the LEGO bricks fit seamlessly in case anyone was wondering about compatibility.

Finally, with the Rio Grande model being in minifig scale, we naturally finish this review with obligatory photos of various LEGO minifigs checking out their new runabout:

My lasting impression of BlueBrixx now that I’ve built multiple sets of theirs: What’s becoming increasingly evident to me is that these sets are clearly a labor of love developed by devoted Star Trek fans. I’ve noticed many places where the designers could’ve opted for a simpler build but went with a more complex, intricate setup to match more closely the appearance of the onscreen ship as much as possible. For someone who’s waited a long time for Star Trek themed LEGO sets, it’s such a joy to see Star Trek building brick sets being made by people who really care about paying homage to the franchise and doing their best to recreate some of its icons. I look forward to many more BlueBrixx sets, especially more small craft in minifig scale! LLAP

#Star Trek #Star Trek DS9 #Star Trek starships #BlueBrixx #LEGO minifigures

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angille · 10 months

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Layers

I wish I could control the hyperfocus when and how it hits. I have things to do, but I can't get a thing out of my head and like... I Am Required To Finish Thinking This Process first. so. background. the other day, @fenmere and I discussed the novelty of a tabletop RPG actual play on Twitch or something, but the conceit is that it's set in the back conference area of a DS9-era Danube class runabout. (as seen, ironically not in DS9, but in s6e25 "Timescape" of TNG) the RPGs themselves would have nothing to do with Star Trek. D&D, superheroes, maybe even Star Wars. but the players would be in costume, perhaps even makeup, as intermediate characters, playing RPGs on a long trip through the Gamma quadrant. and here's where the hyperfocus hits. obviously I don't have... anything necessary to make this happen. a place for it, the time and financial budget for cosplay and set work and effects. and yet. here I am, stuck in a mental fugue. planning. researching. the windows would probably have bluescreens behind them. if it's a livestream, use something like Unreal to generate planets, nebulae, stars, space stations, etc. breaks during streams would be scripted events — like asteroid fields, ship combat, de-orbiting, etc — that you could see happen through the windows while everyone's character sheets and dice are left on the table. if a strangely large sum of money ended up in my lap... well ok first I'd make sure me and mine are taken care of. but. I'd want to convert a room into this. sliding door, LCARS terminals, the whole shebang.

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cavewithshadows · 10 months

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(Too Many) Admiral Les Buenamigo Head-Canons

1. Grew up as a family friend of Alonzo Freeman (Alonzo being named after Les’ father), where Les was something of a little brother to Alonzo.

2. Les has always been fascinated by and talented with engineering.

3. Worked as part of the Support Team for Nova Squadron at Starfleet Academy, which is where he met Carol Mariner.

4. Introduced Alonzo and Carol to each other, and was one of Alonzo’s groomsmen at the wedding.

5. Assigned to the Galaxy-class Project at Utopia Planitia right out of the Academy... and remained an Ensign for the duration of the project (which was about six years).

6. Pattern emerged where Les was assigned to various projects that would last for years, and only get promoted at the end. (Danube Runabout project, Defiant class project). Meanwhile, his friends are working their way up the ranks, with Alzono already in the Admiralty, and Carol a mid-ranking officer on the Enterprise.

7. Les dreams of making a name for himself in Starfleet, designing the Texas-class starship. Finally, he is assigned to the Prometheus-class Project as a Lieutenant Commander, where he is promised a chance to work on his own project once this is done.

8. Problem is, part of the assignment is the Prometheus’ auto-piloting during Multi-Vector Assault Mode, and while Les is a fantastic engineer, computer programming is not his skillset. But his career is saved when he notices the talents of young Samanthan Rutherford, who IS brilliant with computers.

9. Les basically trades starship parts to Samanthan (for his shuttle races) in exchange for his computer code for Prometheus. The young man gets better parts for his shuttles, Starfleet gets top-running computer code, and Les gets the credit, and, in his mind, a long overdue promotion and chance to work on his own project.

10. Les encourages Samanthan to apply to Starfleet Academy, intending to use him to complete the Texas-class, which Les has now come to envision as an automated starship, based on the Prometheus class.

11. Unfortunately, there is an “accident” (secretly the result of Samanthan’s demented and evil-prone AI code), but Les can’t let this kill, or even delay, his project. So, he gives a bogus investigative report blaming human error, wipes Samanthan’s memory upon his Cyborg conversion, and uses his connections to arrange a transfer to a different division in Starfleet (Carol’s division, but as a staff officer for some bigwig). (It is because Les covered everything up that he did not discover the AI was the cause of the “accident”, leaving the problem unaddressed for years).

12. Legitimately does good work during the Breen Attack on Earth in the Dominion War, where he jury-rigs a shield that saves a good chunk of Starfleet Command, as well as a visiting member of the Federation Council. The Admiral that Les was a staff officer for was critically injured, so Les was tapped to fill the position temporarily. With his connections to the highly-ranked Alonzo, as well as a grateful Federation Councilor, Les’ position is made permanent.

13. Prior to this, Les was the one to give Beckett Mariner her two years of horse-riding lessons (teaching her how to be a cowgirl, basically), and also tutored her for Early Admission to Starfleet Academy (a la Wesley Crusher, only it worked).

14. Les is the source of Beckett’s philosophy of ‘rules that get in the way of helping people are better off broken’, because that is how Les justifies his corner-cutting to himself.

15. Used his new rank to help protect Beckett’s career after Beckett went AWOL from her second starship to rescue General K’orin from a Klingon prison. Les’ help ensured that Beckett was not discharged, but instead transferred to Carol’s division of Starfleet (though not to the Cerritos just yet).

16. Les continues to be friendly with Alonzo and Carol, but now that he is in Carol’s division, he quietly stonewalls Carol’s idea for Operation Swing-By until his baby, the Texas-class, is ready, because he likes Carol’s idea and decided to steal it to make a name for himself and his class of starship.

17. The Texas-class is actually a masterclass in starship engineering, and would make an excellent starship, if it hadn’t been for Les’ insistence on making it automated. And if he hadn’t used Samanthan Rutherford’s AI coding (but if he’d used anyone else’s, he wouldn’t have been able to take the credit).

18. Sam Rutherford was assigned to the Cerritos so that Les could keep tabs on him, since it wouldn’t be strange for Les to keep track of his friend Carol’s ship.

19. Les was the one, along with Alonzo, to transfer Beckett to the Cerritos from the Quito, as a genuine friendly favor.

PS: Hello everyone! This is my first major post here! I had a lot of fun thinking these up, and I hope it captures the right feel for this character. Les is someone sociopathic and self-obsessed, but slick. There should be enough here to justify Beckett calling him “Uncle Les”, and for his corruption to be unthinkable to Carol. Not only that, but he has to go from Lieutenant Commander (as seen in Rutherford’s cyborg-based memory) to Vice Admiral in only a few years. Go ahead and share any thoughts or head-canons you have about him as well!

#lower decks #Star Trek #les buenamigo #beckett mariner #i spent too much time on this

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alphamecha-mkii · 7 months

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USS Rubicon (Danube Class) Cutaway by Rusted Gear Art

#Star Trek #Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #Federation #Starfleet #Danube Class #Runabout #Shuttlecraft #Cutaway #Sci-Fi #Mecha #Spaceship #Rusted Gear Art

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sshbpodcast · 2 years

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Getting Shipshape with Starfleet Ship Shapes: Part 2

By Ames

Last week, we launched into the start of a series of blogposts looking at Starfleet ship designs, and we’re continuing our trek through the different designs as the franchise progressed. Now, we’ve traveled up to warp 9.9 through the TNG movies, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise to round out the ‘90s–‘00s era of Star Trek. We’re pingponging between ships of the past and ships of the distant future; from the origins of warp to the weird, weird shit that ship designs somehow evolve into. Strap in; we’re turning into lizards today!

As usual, I’ve collected many images below to encapsulate the designs. Major props to Ex Astris Scientia for being a thorough repository of Trek knowledge. Compare and contrast the starships here and listen to us debate which is the weirdest (almost certainly the J, right?) on this week’s podcast episode (discussion starts at 1:01:40). Praise Cochrane!

[images © CBS/Paramount, Ex Astris Scientia, Eaglemoss Ltd., Star Trek Shipyards, Star Trek Timelines, probably others]

USS Enterprise-E (Sovereign class)

If you thought the Enterprise-A was shiny and new, and if you thought the Enterprise-D was freakin’ humongous, then meet their glowed-up offspring, the Enterprise-E. Despite being even longer than a Galaxy class, the Sovereign class manages to keep a really trim silhouette. It might be its lack of a precarious neck that makes it look so streamline, and we’re pretty glad of this evolutionary feature. Who needs a neck anyway when they’re such an obvious target?

Phoenix

In First Contact, we see the first warp-capable ship and it’s actually rather fascinating how it portrays the very roots of all our other favorite ships. Zephram Cochrane was very practical when he built his flyin’ machine out of a nuclear missile, so that’s a rather nice and poetic touch. But we also get to swoon over the first glimpse of the precursor of the nacelle design that is so familiar to anyone with even a passing knowledge of Star Trek or even science fiction in general. Unless you mistake it for a lightsaber, because that’s the wrong franchise.

USS Rio Grande, et al (Danube class)

The runabouts are the RVs of space, meant to simply be practical cardboard boxes with their own warp drive, registry number, and floorboards full of ration packs. We see some of that modular design that we talked about when we viewed the Miranda and Nebula classes last week, because some runabouts can have the mission-specific pod strapped on the top like a rooftop cargo box on a station wagon. Overall, we appreciate the very utilitarian design since these ships were mostly meant to be tools.

USS Defiant (Defiant class)

By season three of Deep Space Nine, we finally provide Sisko with his shiny new hotrod, the Defiant. This is the most different kind of hero ship in the franchise so far since you can’t see its nacelles, the staple of pretty much all other Trek ships. Instead, they’re baked into the ship itself, providing a significantly smaller target for enemy ships to fire on. And enemy ships sure do try! But good luck because this compact and dense-looking submarine with a dustbuster nose is built so solid that it can take a licking and keep on ticking!

Val Jean (Maquis raider)

In “Caretaker”, we briefly meet the Val Jean and we get the impression that the Maquis are as into kitbashing as the designers of Star Trek starships. It seems to be much more generic than a Federation ship since it’s something a group of rebels have kludged together, similar to what a Star Wars ship’s group of rebels would do. We’re getting definite fighter jet vibes of this one, and that was almost certainly intentional.

USS Voyager (Intrepid class)

Welcome to the Delta Quadrant! The Intrepid class makes for a stepping stone between the Galaxy and Sovereign classes. It’s still a bit on the top-heavy side, but the neck has shrunk down, which we enjoyed seeing in the Enterprise-E. The flappy nacelles are also more dynamic and quite cute! For a short-range scout ship pushed to the extreme, she’s a pretty little ship with a smiley navigational deflector that you can’t help but be happy about.

UTS Aeon (Epoch class)

We recently saw this tiny little sliver in space in “Future’s End,” and it makes us wonder a little bit if it’s practical for the time police to have a ship with only enough room for one person. No pressure, Braxton, but don’t screw this up. The design itself is a little like the historic Flying Wing stealth bomber and it definitely looks like it’s built for some kind of organization working covertly behind the scenes, whether well intentioned or not. (Probably not.)

NAR Raven (Raven class)

The Raven class is basically just a much bigger runabout. We’re going to get a much closer look at it soon in our coverage of Voyager, but for now just the look of it has us thinking space RV. Like the Danube class, it’s pretty much just a big tupperware container with nacelles attached, and it’s meant for long-range exploring without all the bells and whistles of its larger counterparts. Bon voyage, Raven! Caw!

USS Prometheus (Prometheus class)

Did you like the way that Galaxy class ships can saucer-separate into two pieces? Well what’s better than that? Three pieces! Sure, when you really think about it, multi-vector attack mode might be a little ridiculous. Overall, the look of this thing is very militaristic, with a stealthy-looking triangular shape, sharp edges, and battleship feel to it. And unlike the Constellation class, the Prometheus does make the four-nacelle look make more sense because when it comes apart into three pieces, most of them will still have warp!

USS Relativity (Wells class)

We’ve got to go back, Kathy! Back to the future ship! Somewhere along the line, the Starfleet look that we’re accustomed to goes out the airlock. Chris has a visceral reaction against this for reasons that never become clear in the podcast, but look how wild this thing is! It looks like a pearlescent flying Batmobile! Gone are the nacelles and any semblance of a saucer, but perhaps that’s just the nature of the timecops organization. It may look like much more generic science fiction, but the simultaneously green and purple color is pretty neat.

USS Equinox (Nova class)

We can’t help but squeal with delight when we see the Nova class. It’s such a tiny little baby ship that’s just so stubby and cute. It’s nice to have a little bit of variation from the normal round or oblong saucer design, as this one has a more triangular shape with a little notch in the front. There’s some variability as well with this class, since the Rhode Island comes in a more classic white with a domed cap over the bridge area and that little notch filled in. Both are equally adorable though!

NX-01 Enterprise (NX class)

Finally we come to the ships from Enterprise. They actually do a pretty good job filling in the gaps between modern day vessels and the starships that we’re accustomed to. No need for a secondary hull on this one because it’s too early in the timeline for those things! Just a bare-minimum kind of ship that did what it needed to at the time while still looking like it’d make for an excellent necklace pendant. We get the impression that the ships are getting more complex as we ask how did we get here? Well, I hear it’s been a long road…

NX-Alpha

Just another good stepping stone in the progression of ship designs. When we see the Alpha and the essentially identical Beta, we’re looking at another step backwards in time to connect more links between time periods. This one is basically the Phoenix with a little extra on the side to show how things are getting close to the ships of the other series. We also get some similar vibes to the Bell X-1, the first aircraft to break the speed of sound in level flight. History is neat!

USS Intrepid (Intrepid-type)

One more missing link in the chain of starships, this one bridging the gap between the Alpha and the NX-01. Basically, it looks like the Enterprise is only half finished, with a semicircular saucer section that isn’t quite there yet. It’s also kind of fascinating to see the nacelles overlap the saucer so much that it feels like maybe this thing ran straight into a wall and shortened itself a little bit. My sympathies to whoever’s quarters are directly under the bussard collectors.

USS Enterprise-J (Universe class)

Now a quick jump to the future for this monstrosity. This is not a starship. This is a pizza cutter on skis. I’m sorry, but I find the Enterprise-J just hideous. It’s like someone ran over an Enterprise-D with a steam roller. Plus it’s huge for no good reason, which strikes me as entirely impractical. If this is supposed to be the future of starships, then I’d like to stay in the past. Which is still the future. Just not this far.

—

Things start to get even stranger next week as we keep moving through Starfleet ships in the franchise, so keep your saucers connected until then! In the meantime, make sure you’re following along with our watch through Voyager over on SoundCloud or wherever you get your podcasts, hail us on Facebook and Twitter, and maybe don’t flatten your starship for no good reason.

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n1cks · 5 months

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Another temporal anomaly occurred. This time Kirk's #ConstitutionIIClass vessel is confronted by a 24th century Cardassian #HidekiClass ship. Gul Dukat once said: "Cardassian pursuit vessels are years ahead of this design [Danube-class Runabout]." First posted on IG StarTrekShips http://dlvr.it/Sz72cH

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dev-is-sometimes-here · 8 months

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Welcome to a new Welcome Home AU. The Terran AU. The Terran Empire is on an endless conquest through the Galaxy, scattering the cast into different destinies far before they could meet. Some have not been so lucky with the empire, meeting their end due to them. It of course includes a couple OCs, 2 of which are featured here. This isn't a full cast pic, as i haven't drawn many of the characters, and also because it would be a mile long if i did. So... Have a small bit of info in order of the image. Devoid - Had to abandon his home planet due to the resurgence of the Lines Legion as an ally to the Terran Empire - Owns a TARDIS he stole from the Lines Legion a few months back during their first takeover of his home planet, he doesn't completely understand it and most of the mods he added are hotwired together, held together with Flex Tape and hope. - The Crystal Ring is a trophy from when he killed the original king of the Lines Legion.

Wally - Lost his parents when he was 5 - Considers Barnaby the closest thing he has to family - Has a big chest scar (which was fixed up with grey felt) - Bought a Klingon Knife for self defence.

Sally Starlet - Not the only Sally in this AU - Landed in the Excelsior class USS Aurora (NCC-2005)'s shuttle bay when the crew were gathering material to repair the ship. - Is a recruited officer at the rank of Ensign.

Julie - The only survivor of the destruction of the USS Solaris. - Drinks peppermint tea to calm down in case she gets recklessly angry. - The scar near her neck was from a failed decapitation attempt by a Terran Soldier.

Empress Sally Sillington - Leader of the Rotoscope Resistance and captains the flagship, a Mk1 Miranda Class ship called the USS Rotoscope (NCC-1879) - Has a Robotic arm due to an incident before the resistance was formed when debris fell on her arm as she was about to save someone, crushing it badly. - Used to be a princess, but transitioned to Empress once the Resistance was formed to give more of a serious impression.

Barnaby - Stole the USS Ballinora (a Danube class Runabout) with Wally in 2373 (when the story is set) - Has significant engineering skill. - Hates being angry and will apologise if he lashes out at anyone. - Lost his mother and considers Wally as a brother to him.

A story is in progress for this AU... But you might see some of the characters sooner than you think ;)

#welcome home #welcome home au #terran empire #star trek #new au time

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