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Description
First of all, before I begin to go into more detail, I should put up my usual disclaimer. The starship U.S.S. Farrington (NX-2010) and much of her backstory don’t belong to me. Instead, they are the intellectual (and, in the case of the Farrington model, physical) property of a very gifted model builder named April “Kitbasher Girl” Welles. I am borrowing her intellectual property with her kindly given written permission, although the earlier drawings from this set technically predate the awarding of that permission.

With this put aside, what I’m about to upload tonight is actually a very interesting piece. To put it in a better frame of reference, please note that this submission is meant to go together with these other submissions (in order from top to bottom) as part of a “set” as they are all design prints for the same version of the U.S.S. Farrington (NX-2010) at a particular stage in her development process. The other drawings all date back to about midsummer 2009.

1.) Freehanded Early Sketches: fav.me/d2397ff
2.) Portside Elevation View: fav.me/d23inag
3.) Portside & Fore Elevation Views: fav.me/d24bw80

The last submission I linked to above also lists the starship’s unique statistics and design characteristics in the notes that I’ve left. This particular submission is meant to “complete” the set of drawings for the “2009 version” of my Alternate Reality/Delta-Universe redesign of the prototype Excelsior-class starship U.S.S. Farrington (NX-2010) by providing three remaining views:

1.) Dorsal Plan View
2.) Ventral Plan View
3.) Aft Elevation View

The drawing itself was completed on August 5th, 2013. At the time, my summer semester, consisting of 2 rounds of rotations plus three summer classes and development of a research proposal, was finally coming to an end and it was time for an onslaught of final exams. By this point, I’d been putting myself through a very unusual and strenuous personal routine that often involved getting up at 6AM, leaving for work at 7AM to catch breakfast, working from 8AM to 4:30PM, rushing home to clean off, answering messages (I was acting as costume consultant for some friends who were trying to put “Star Trek” cosplays together and working on my own TWOK-era Captain’s uniform set, and this required a lot of communication), going to sleep at anywhere from 7 to 9PM, usually waking up at 4 or 5 AM to do homework and repeating the cycle again. So by this point, I probably should have gone back to study ahead for the most critical of my final exams, but I was too burned out and wanted to funnel my frustration and impatience into something else.

Whereas most people my age would play video games, watch sports (or, perhaps, anime), or go out on the town (though there’s not much to do here in Augusta if you don’t like golf), for me, that “something else” is designing starships. And I had something on the back of my mind that I was itching to work on. You see, after I realized that my “Delta-Universe” was going to be based on the J.J. Abrams version of the “Star Trek” timeline – it diverges just after “Into Darkness” and extends into the “Wrath of Khan” era from the 2270’s through the 2290’s – I realized that I was going to need to redesign Ms. Welles’ original Starship Farrington to fit into my emerging personal interpretation of Treknology. Furthermore, I felt that I wished to respect Ms. Welles’ own creativity by borrowing as little from her as I could and distancing my interpretation of the concept of the Starship Farrington from what she did – I felt, at that time, that though homage was certainly appropriate, it was disrespectful to copy too much. So, way back (has it really been four years now?) in 2009 shortly after I left U.C. Berkeley, I took it upon myself to redesign the ship from scratch.

However, at that time, I had no confidence in my ability to draw anything but a portside elevation view when designing vessels. I barely managed to do a very badly done bow elevation view, but I left it at that, claiming that maybe someday, I’d come back and revisit the design to complete it – a promise I admittedly didn’t plan to keep. However, just three years later in April 2012, I suddenly got the urge to redesign the Starship Farrington again – and, this time, to finish what I started. And at that point, I had also gotten a better grip on the aesthetic principles that Ryan Church employed when designing the Starfleet spacecraft of the Alternate Reality and now believed that the “first pass” (2009 version) of the U.S.S. Farrington (NX-2010) no longer represented the real look of what I wanted for the ship. It was time to start over from scratch, I told myself – and do it better.

The 2009 drawings, which I barely remembered musing about completing, were now rejected as “insufficient,” and abandoned as little more than a footnote. I kept the very basic overall configuration of the vessel that I’d worked out (particularly the half-ring shape for the Quantum Singularity Generator/Wormhole Drive System that is the hallmark of this ship), but nothing else. I didn’t even look at the 2009 drawings for inspiration. The result was a radically different take on the Starship Farrington – and this time, I *did* do all five views. It was actually the first time I ever attempted to do all 5 basic views of a ship (a “complete” design), and this 2012 version wound up becoming the finalized version of the ship. This version can be seen here:

1.) Portside Elevation View: fav.me/d4szy6k
2.) Portside & Bow Elevation Views: fav.me/d4t7464
3.) Rough Freehand Sketches: fav.me/d4tmzco
4.) Portside, Bow & Stern Elevation Views: fav.me/d4v93pc
5.) Dorsal & Ventral Plan Views: fav.me/d4v95d7

However, as time went on, I couldn’t help but continue to look back at the abandoned 2009 sketches and wonder. Even if the design was rejected and deemed unsatisfactory, it didn’t seem fair to just leave it sitting incomplete like that. But designing starships takes time, energy, and a great deal of focus. I almost have to be in a certain mood to do it, and I always need to have plenty of time to spare, and these conditions aren’t always met even when I’ve got some free time on my hands. So I’d dig up the 2009 version of the Farrington, suggest to myself that I should go back and finish it – but then never actually get down to business. I’m glad to say that this is no longer the case, and that the original 2009 version of the Starship Farrington is now “complete,” capable of standing on her own beside the much different “finished” version.

I suppose I’ll leave it up to you guys to determine which version you like better: the rejected original 2009 concept or the finalized 2012 version. At this point, a rejected early concept is all that the 2009 version is going to be, even though part of me is still very fond of it. I’m not sure if I’ll work it into my personal canon as a rejected early design, but it’s an interesting idea – provided I can come up with a good reason for the design to be rejected and a radical new direction taken when planning the starship’s hull configuration.

Description
First of all, before I begin to go into more detail, I should put up my usual disclaimer. The starship U.S.S. Farrington (NX-2010) and much of her backstory don’t belong to me. Instead, they are the intellectual (and, in the case of the Farrington model, physical) property of a very gifted model builder named April “Kitbasher Girl” Welles. I am borrowing her intellectual property with her kindly given written permission, although the earlier drawings from this set technically predate the awarding of that permission.

With this put aside, what I’m about to upload tonight is actually a very interesting piece. To put it in a better frame of reference, please note that this submission is meant to go together with these other submissions (in order from top to bottom) as part of a “set” as they are all design prints for the same version of the U.S.S. Farrington (NX-2010) at a particular stage in her development process. The other drawings all date back to about midsummer 2009.

1.) Freehanded Early Sketches: fav.me/d2397ff
2.) Portside Elevation View: fav.me/d23inag
3.) Portside & Fore Elevation Views: fav.me/d24bw80

The last submission I linked to above also lists the starship’s unique statistics and design characteristics in the notes that I’ve left. This particular submission is meant to “complete” the set of drawings for the “2009 version” of my Alternate Reality/Delta-Universe redesign of the prototype Excelsior-class starship U.S.S. Farrington (NX-2010) by providing three remaining views:

1.) Dorsal Plan View
2.) Ventral Plan View
3.) Aft Elevation View

The drawing itself was completed on August 5th, 2013. At the time, my summer semester, consisting of 2 rounds of rotations plus three summer classes and development of a research proposal, was finally coming to an end and it was time for an onslaught of final exams. By this point, I’d been putting myself through a very unusual and strenuous personal routine that often involved getting up at 6AM, leaving for work at 7AM to catch breakfast, working from 8AM to 4:30PM, rushing home to clean off, answering messages (I was acting as costume consultant for some friends who were trying to put “Star Trek” cosplays together and working on my own TWOK-era Captain’s uniform set, and this required a lot of communication), going to sleep at anywhere from 7 to 9PM, usually waking up at 4 or 5 AM to do homework and repeating the cycle again. So by this point, I probably should have gone back to study ahead for the most critical of my final exams, but I was too burned out and wanted to funnel my frustration and impatience into something else.

Whereas most people my age would play video games, watch sports (or, perhaps, anime), or go out on the town (though there’s not much to do here in Augusta if you don’t like golf), for me, that “something else” is designing starships. And I had something on the back of my mind that I was itching to work on. You see, after I realized that my “Delta-Universe” was going to be based on the J.J. Abrams version of the “Star Trek” timeline – it diverges just after “Into Darkness” and extends into the “Wrath of Khan” era from the 2270’s through the 2290’s – I realized that I was going to need to redesign Ms. Welles’ original Starship Farrington to fit into my emerging personal interpretation of Treknology. Furthermore, I felt that I wished to respect Ms. Welles’ own creativity by borrowing as little from her as I could and distancing my interpretation of the concept of the Starship Farrington from what she did – I felt, at that time, that though homage was certainly appropriate, it was disrespectful to copy too much. So, way back (has it really been four years now?) in 2009 shortly after I left U.C. Berkeley, I took it upon myself to redesign the ship from scratch.

However, at that time, I had no confidence in my ability to draw anything but a portside elevation view when designing vessels. I barely managed to do a very badly done bow elevation view, but I left it at that, claiming that maybe someday, I’d come back and revisit the design to complete it – a promise I admittedly didn’t plan to keep. However, just three years later in April 2012, I suddenly got the urge to redesign the Starship Farrington again – and, this time, to finish what I started. And at that point, I had also gotten a better grip on the aesthetic principles that Ryan Church employed when designing the Starfleet spacecraft of the Alternate Reality and now believed that the “first pass” (2009 version) of the U.S.S. Farrington (NX-2010) no longer represented the real look of what I wanted for the ship. It was time to start over from scratch, I told myself – and do it better.

The 2009 drawings, which I barely remembered musing about completing, were now rejected as “insufficient,” and abandoned as little more than a footnote. I kept the very basic overall configuration of the vessel that I’d worked out (particularly the half-ring shape for the Quantum Singularity Generator/Wormhole Drive System that is the hallmark of this ship), but nothing else. I didn’t even look at the 2009 drawings for inspiration. The result was a radically different take on the Starship Farrington – and this time, I *did* do all five views. It was actually the first time I ever attempted to do all 5 basic views of a ship (a “complete” design), and this 2012 version wound up becoming the finalized version of the ship. This version can be seen here:

1.) Portside Elevation View: fav.me/d4szy6k
2.) Portside & Bow Elevation Views: fav.me/d4t7464
3.) Rough Freehand Sketches: fav.me/d4tmzco
4.) Portside, Bow & Stern Elevation Views: fav.me/d4v93pc
5.) Dorsal & Ventral Plan Views: fav.me/d4v95d7

However, as time went on, I couldn’t help but continue to look back at the abandoned 2009 sketches and wonder. Even if the design was rejected and deemed unsatisfactory, it didn’t seem fair to just leave it sitting incomplete like that. But designing starships takes time, energy, and a great deal of focus. I almost have to be in a certain mood to do it, and I always need to have plenty of time to spare, and these conditions aren’t always met even when I’ve got some free time on my hands. So I’d dig up the 2009 version of the Farrington, suggest to myself that I should go back and finish it – but then never actually get down to business. I’m glad to say that this is no longer the case, and that the original 2009 version of the Starship Farrington is now “complete,” capable of standing on her own beside the much different “finished” version.

I suppose I’ll leave it up to you guys to determine which version you like better: the rejected original 2009 concept or the finalized 2012 version. At this point, a rejected early concept is all that the 2009 version is going to be, even though part of me is still very fond of it. I’m not sure if I’ll work it into my personal canon as a rejected early design, but it’s an interesting idea – provided I can come up with a good reason for the design to be rejected and a radical new direction taken when planning the starship’s hull configuration.