The Frankenstein Fleet (Star Trek) 

Umm, Frankenstein was the name of the shipbuilder, not the fleet.

“What’ll we do with all these Excelsior class part leftovers?” _“Ehh,_ we’ll just chuck ‘em in a Curry.”

That Oberth 'flying nacelle" has got to be the single most bizarre Starfleet vessel ever.

Gotta be honest, the Intrepid Saucer fits pretty well on the Ambassador Stardrive.

The Centaur is a stunning ship, though. It really looks like the essence of classic Starfleet design, as if it were an original concept.

God I always loved the idea of the Frankenstein fleet. Always had a feeling of a gritting commander welcoming new crew with a speech somewhere along the line of "This ship already gave her life for the Federation. You serve here, you better be ready to do the same."

i wanna see the actual look of the Ambassador Intrepid fusion... cause that might be the coolest looking ship thats not shown on screen

Lot of structural integrity fields running full blast at all times!

I liked the 'kit bashing' designs. Crewmen, especially engineers, could make a career of the specialty of these ships.

For a kitbash the Intrepid/Ambassador combination looks pretty damn good honestly.

Okay, does anyone else think the Contemplation design seems legitimately cool? Also, I want to meet the madlad who put the shuttle bay in front of the bridge on the Centaur. Hey, no “Raging Queen” type? The squashed Excelsior.

The Yeager class is what won the dominion war

I always assumed the Oberth with a constitution nacelle was delivering the nacelle to the mid refit enterprise which in the art piece that the Tereshkova is from the enterprise is missing both its nacelles

If you told me the Centaur type craft were just ships from the mothball fleet, just like the Miranda and Excelsior class ships we saw, I'd fully believe it. It very much looks like a Miranda for the Excelsior age, and since the Nebula Class is the same idea for the Galaxy class, it would make sense. The one thing I'd really like to have seen is an equivalent for the Ambassador class, to be the "missing link" between Centaur and Nebula.

Not going to lie that Ambassador/ Intrepid hybrid does look good

The Wolf 359 fleet from TNG, when the Enterprise comes to check how the battle went (yeah ... didn't go well), featured quite a few interesting models too. I've seen a number of really good fan kitbashes and the Centaur has some really nice angles on it. One thing I would say is I think it would look better if the nacelles were more forward.

The Centaur Is one of the few I actually like and hardly even looks kitbaashed

I especially like that STO allows you to build your own Frankenstein ship.

Yeager class seems like it was simply very cost effective to make them. It seems the hard part to make of the intrepid class is the Engineering hull and nacelles. So they just had them made ahead of time before the dominion war cause they figured they would eventually all get their proper hull sections. And if you dont need to make all that extra stuff for exploration and stuff, and its for war, you can slap in an upscale condor hull, as long as you can do warp 6-7 or so you are prob good for being a picket ship or star base patrol ship.

I guniuenly would love to actually see the USS Contemplation as a ship because on the blue prints it looks pretty cool

One of the goofiest designs was the USS Melbourne/Nebula Class prototype. Those tiny nacelles on top of the rear mission pod reminds me of the equally tiny arms of a T-Rex

The Centaur class is one of my favorite designs.

I like playing Star Trek Online especially coming up with new Starship Classes of kitbashing. My Ship was a Miranda mix with Shikahr The pylons was Miranda while the rest is Shikahr Class. I called this subclass the Cabrillo Class Light Cruiser and launched in the late 2360s a prewar Dominion War and a 24th Century equivalent to the Miranda.

USS Yeager for the win!!!!

6:38 That picture is of a Federation attack fighter, like what Cal Hudson used in DS9’s “The Maquis” and later in the Dominion War. The Frankenstein ship uses a different, larger ship like Chakotay’s ship from VOY’s “Caretaker”. It’s pretty much what Voyager would have looked like if Chakotay had rammed it instead of the Kazon carrier!

I'm pretty sure the oberth-type is a tug-ship that helped in the connie refit program. The picture is from a ships of the line calendar image that shows the enterprise being refit. I dunno where the RPG is sourcing it's info from to imply it was a full ship rather then a parts tug. The DS9 tech manual has several of the Frankenstein fleet listed, tho due to a rush job on release there's editing and graphical errors on some of them(sizes are swapped incorrectly, Centaur is missing the torpedo pod, etc). The Centaur and Yeager are in there, as is the intrepid/ambassador-type, tho they use the Connie engineering hull and upsized runabout pylons rather then ambassador. Nearly all of the designs in the tech manual are based on actual shooting models that were built for battle scenes in DS9. I'll have to do more research to see if an Ambassador-type-version model was built, or if it's an original design to the RPG source book. Notably missing from this video are the Raging-Queen and Curry-type which were always my favorite of the ship gremlins from the dominion war. They're ugly as heck and I love them to bits.

I love how we now have a successor to the Yeager, the Pathyeager

Would be cool to see them appear in Lower decks or Prodigy

The first ship is in one of the movie. The nacelle was built in another system and they needed to move it to the shipping yard.

i’d assume that the surplus of intrepid saucers was in part due to the brand new warp cores that were put in them, that program might’ve been put on hold because of the war/voyager’s incident

I just imagine serving on one of these and somewhere around the mid point of the ship the interior design suddenly changing from a sleek, modern Intrepid class to the bulky yet functional Ambassador class....

I kinda like the odd looking ships epecialy on star trek online you sort of stand out and look unique also the odd looking ones tend to be a bit worse in stats so I try to build them up as end game ships for the fun of it.

Got to say I like the intrepid/ambassador class ship think it would make a very nice line of actual ships

I think that Oberth with Connie nacelle is just carry that to be install on Connie itself, Not an actually part of the design.

Kit bashing can sometimes create surprisingly effective ships but not normally

The top of an Oberth welded to a single Constitution nacelle welded into a pair of more Oberth nacelles is RIDICULOUS and I love it. Imagine a car that's just 80% wheels.

Had to laugh at the name if the first Oberth visual in your video USS Fortunate, probably called USS Unfortunate by anyone unlucky enough to be assigned to this flying coffin 😂.

Always liked the _Centaur._ Its both cool and a bit unusual that a Kitbash-Model got that much of a spotlight in the Episode it showed up. Perhaps the Effects people themselves recognized that they might have stumbled upon a cool design and wanted this Ship to shine for a moment.

Agreed on the comments regarding the Centaur Class............ Quite fond of that class.

So no joke, I actually love the Jaeger-class, just the generally scrappy look of the ship with the harsh angles contrasting the rounded saucer just looks pleasing to my eyes

I absolutely loved the Yeager 'class' ships.

Thanks for putting emphasis on this story. THIS fleet is worthy of a series.

The kit bashing of vessels had occurred IRL during WW II. Shipyards were attempting to get new vessels out as quickly as possible, and sometimes they merged the hauls/components of 2 or more vessel classes to get them into service.

My favourite Franken Fleet ship is the unseen USS Jupp - it just seems a feasible cut down constitution. Ditching the secondary hull removes the shuttle bay and the vast cargo bays (for stocking 5 year missions). This leaves a ship more suited for working within Federation space rather than exploring beyond. It could be used as border patrol craft that has the speed and fire power of a Constitution, but fewer crew. It certainly would free up the Constitutions from dealing with border disputes.

Some of these are interesting and even seem somewhat viable but ultimately these would probably be first on the list to fall in battle, I always wondered why they never Frankensteined any constitution class since they literally led Starfleet for over 20 years and some how things like the Miranda stayed around.

When i saw this type of ship building in star trek i looked around and found an Intrepid/constitution class starship variant. its a medium cruiser with 225 crew, a power plant of one 1500 plus cochrane warp core. length of 444.39 meters and beam of 133.44. hight 87.78 meters. its mass is 1300000 metric tones. its basically the saucer of the Intrepid put on top of 2 constitution hulls. just wish i could find more info on it.

Always been a fan of the Centaur class, the TOS Archer class is also something great as well.

The one thing Starfleet has is an amazing Ingenuity Besides one of the most fun parts of STO is the Ship customization, Alto you can't mesh different class it give you enough freedom to make your own Spaceship.

I'd love to see a novel based around one of these kit-bashed monstrosities of a ship. Watching an engineering crew cup with a ship that is far from cutting edge and riddled with bugs and eccentricities would be fun.

Thanks Rick. Informitive as always.

That reminds of a scene from the Futurama Episode "Were No Fan Has Gone Before" were used Necelles from the USS Enterprise and Body from the Planet Express Ship.

Awwwwww yeah. My favourite kind of design. Smush all the leftovers together.

@ 5:24; The "Contemplation" is sweet! It bypasses the Intrepid's under endowed nacelles & @ the same time reduces the "Shocked Toilet" expression of the sensor array/ navigation disc. The kinked nacelles are still a MAJOR engineering goof. Magnetic field induction or no. Many thanx 👍👍

I've always kinda liked the Yeager class.......I also love the klingon bird of Prey and the Yeager always looked like a star Fleet redesign of a bird of prey

My own fanmade ship class is a kind of kitbash made for the dominion war, using lessons learned (And components from) the Sovereign class and early Prometheus class projects. as well as the mission pod from the Akira. The ship filled the role of a Long-range Heavy torpedo boat, Relying on 4 nacelles and a warp core taken from incomplete sovereign contracts, and armed with a truly ludicrous number of torpedo tubes. This prototype was intended to fill the rear ranks of a fleet combat formation, a Sniper of sorts. A design oversight resulted in the the ship having no shuttlebay, but at the height of the war a shuttlebay wasn't deemed "Mission Critical" for the ships intended purpose

Really liked the music with the synth bass in the middle!

What I like about the Frankenstein fleet concept is that’s it’s completely believable because it’s happened multiple times. The USA used mothball fleets and refits of multiple ships using parts from different types of ships all while also upgrading many at the start of the Korean War and again in the 1980s for Reagan’s 600 ship navy. It’s how the Missouri new jersey Iowa & Wisconsin ww2 battleships were modernized with missiles cwis and radar but it’s 16 inch & 5 inch shells and many engine components coming from other battleships and cruisers. Makes everything about the Frankenstein fleet easy to believe

Thank you for these vids, I love the aesthetic of Star Treks' ships with the exception of the Kelvin timeline's. I know it's all made up tech/ specs/ facts, but I find it all very interesting and entertaining. Your vids about the in-universe info and Junkball's vids about the behind the scenes creations of many of the ships we see in the series and movies have been keeping my love of Star Trek on life support as current trek isn't my cup of tea, Earl Grey, hot.

Anothet solid video. Thanks Rick, keep up the great content!

Rick, I love your videos! This fleet reminds me of college when our Motto when we went to the bars was “go ugly early”. 😊

This channel always put out fun and interesting videos.

I have a kit bashed Centura class I call the dog soldier class. (I've been reading alot of old west history lately.) It's a centura with ablative armor,improved phasers and shields and a Miranda style roll bar with a torpedo launcher module that can rapid fire photon torpedo like a galaxy class. It was a offshoot program to make a more combat worthy vessel that could hang in battle longer. They would use their phasers to strip the shields of the enemy then shotgun them with torpedo. Not many were built 24 in all before the project was canceled due to the end of the war. All were named after famous Indian War chiefs. None survived and all were scrapped due to them being to warshipy. (I hope to be able to make one someday to put up on the shelf.)

That Centaur looks great.

Love your channel, it's both taken serious and with a dash of dry humor always a thumbs up. I'm a modeler of a great many years, and I have two rare models, one from Germany as for whatever wisdom we in the US can't get big model just mini ones, but I have a 1:600 scale of Voyager and a 1:600 scale of the Maqui Ship, and I thought about making that ship with them, but man what a waste of such a big beautiful hard to find Voyager model. I most likely won't. Lol but I could.

These remind me a lot of the "Ugly" ships (or more often, fighters) from Star Wars funnily enough, basically in-universe kit-bashes of fighters. Examples include Tie fighter cockpits with x-wing wings or y-wing nacelles where they otherwise would have had their traditional solar panel wings. Typically these would be used by pirates and other low-lifes short on resources for proper vessels.

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Hi Cert, great video. Interesting concept.

The Intrepid "spoon" saucer on the Ambassador's engineering hill and nacelles looks so natural together, and is my favorite among all of these.

Watching this makes me want to play Star Trek Online. I never stick around more than a few days, but circle back every few months to year or two. The Oberth kitbash is going to give me nightmares, that ship was fugly from the start. I kind of like the Centaur class too. She feels like a lean but effective Starfleet beat-stick.

I think the Yaeger was more or less a 'huh... it actually works WELL!?' and thus it got an actual class-naming and designation. And it makes sense that if you keep bashing random things together, you'd eventually be lucky and get a good combination that just work out well (enough) compared to the average results elsewhere. I also really like the look of it, although it does have that very 'this is stupid... but works' look to it as well. But the overall designlook is cool.

And here I thought you were going to show us various kit bash ships by model builders from across the interweb.

I really like the Intrepid-Ambassador kitbash. I think it's actually one of my favourite Starfleet designs. You know what, it's superior to the Galaxy-class. Hands down. Fight me. It doesn't even look like a kitbash, the components just blend together so well. I love it!!!

Love the video and love seeing the Yeager

This is awesome. Thanks.

The ship in the top right of the preview picture is not a Frankenstein ship , it just transports a Warp nacelle to a constitution class

If you get a chance you should look up my all-time favorite kitbash, the Apollo class, essentially a Nebula-style take on the Ambassador-class. However you HAVE to look for the 3D model made by Eric Peterson who first originated this kitbash 20-some-odd years ago, otherwise you'll only see a myriad of lesser versions that don't look nearly as good. It's honestly one of my favorite designs in all of Star Trek.

Man I know they say it's bad but I wish the jeager class got more love, it's such a unique style for starfleet. Plus idk why but I get the feeling it would serve well as a kind of Miranda class, a ship that's lower end and cheaper to produce, usally assigned to first time captains. I just love the more industrial feel of that ship

I needed a laugh. Greatly appreciate this. But seriously, this sort of explains the customization of ships in STO.

4:50 - That Oberth variant is not two oberths with an old nacelle under them. That oberth is a work crane carrying a nacelle into place for another ship's refit.

I wonder if they had any ships that were essentially warp cores strapped to a nacelle with a pod for a pilot and some torpedo tubes... kinda like that one Peanut Hamper built but with weapons, lol

The 4 nacell ships in STO have some really amazing kitbashes :)

There is no class of starfleet vessel more worthy of the name "Venerable" than the Excelsior-class. When I play STO even today, it is one of my favorite vessels, and can pack a strong punch even compared to modern vessels. It makes sense that in times of war, a ship design and hull so sturdy and reliable like the Excelsior would be reused for war. It has survived the test of time.

🖖😎👍Very cool and very nicely well done and executed and informatively explained in every detail way shape and form on this format and subject matter provided on concerning the Frankenstein and it's various odd looking vessels and the reasons why they were stupidly designed and put together that way in the first place!, Any a job very nicely well done indeed guys and Sir!,👌.

This topic is fascinating; As far as I know, kitbashed ships aren't seen often in official media, I think the only capacity Star Wars has such ships recognised in an official capacity are the "Freemakers" non-canon stuff from the Lego toys.

Finally some Starfleet ships I actually like.

Awesome vid

A pity Eaglemoss are not still around. That Ambassador class nacelles with the Intrepid class Hull actually looks quite good.

Im not sure if its showed up anywhere in anything official, but i love the design of the Phalanx class. More of a style blend than a kitbash but i still love it. I still laugh thinking about how Janeway and Chakotay would react to the Yeager class

Not quite what I was thinking when this popped up in my YT feed LOL . Is anyone else here old enough to remember the Star Trek board game (this was long before ST:TNG hit the screen)? Some buddies and I designed a Galactica class Battlestar with warp technology (THAT'S what I was thinking for a "Frankenstein" Fleet)

I like this idea. It really fits the scrappy miracle-worker aura of the Starfleet engineer. Whenever I saw Oberths or Mirandas in the big fleet battles my assumption was that a generation of automation and tech updates let them function with a much smaller crew than they originally had. If stationed near a developed world or attached to a a more functional ship like a Galaxy they could run with even fewer support crew in the rotation.

God i wish Pathyeager was in STO

I think a more sensible in universe explanation for the abundance of Intrepid primary hulls is that, after the apparent loss of Voyager with all hands (even tho the audiences knows the ship survives, Starfleet doesnt for a few years) Starfleet may have come to the conclusion that some design flaw may be at fault, and halted construction of Intrepid class ships in whatever state they were in. Then the Dominion war kicks off, and they slap together the living space primary hull (without the complex functional components) to secondary hulls with proven systems to create ships that work out of spare parts laying around. That would also be why Admiral Ross had an Intrepid class as his transport to Romulus, its a fairly undemanding duty that doesn't take an important ship off the front lines, and its not like any Starfleet ship would survive to escape Romulus if a fight broke out. Though after Voyager's return, Starfleet would learn how survivable the Intrepid class was, by that time they had effectively moved on and designed replacements.

I'd love to learn more about that Oberth ship, five warp nacelles is pretty interesting.

A personal pet peeve on mine are depictions of the Centaur-class scaled to an Excelsior saucer and having the Excelsior bridge. the shooting model for the Centaur did the saucer from an Excelsior model kit, but the larger, differently-scaled bridge from the Reliant model kit was used. the designer added a bunch of other greebles to disguise the fact it was an Excelsior saucer. If i could revise the design i'd have used an Enterprise-B saucer as the base and put the shuttle bay where the central impulse engine is, keeping the Ent-B side impulse engines for that sporty, agile look. bolting together hull components to get more ships spaceworthy makes sense with old and surplus designs, like Mirandas and Excelsiors, but the usage of brand new Intrepid components seemed odd (in universe). a fan theory i've heard to explain the Interprid kitbashes was that early int he war the Dominion hit a shipyard where the Intrepids were being built. defenses saved the yard where the saucers were being built, but the stardrives were lost. having otherwise operational saucers they quickly fused it to whatever secondary hulls they could scrounge up to get them in the fight.

i actually really like the Pathjager despite it supppsed to be a joke ship it looks like a really cool destroyer-class ship.

One of the best non-canon Kit-bash ships I've see is in the Stellaris Mod 'Star Trek New Civilisations'. There is a very unique variant of the Miranda class called the Suffolk class which is essentially two Miranda's except one is upside down and sharing the same saucer section. Four nacelles, four fore torpedo launches and four aft torpedo launchers.

Am I the only one that thinks this interpretation of the Contemplation just genuinely looks REALLY good? Actually I legitimately think it looks better than the original Ambassador it feels more "balanced" and "faster' to me.

It’s the Yeager for me. Love it!

Worth noting is the shooting model of the Centaur is far more heavily kitbashed then the CG version here, and has a Miranda class bridge pod. Adam Buckner, the ship designer, has indicated he built the ship to be scaled around the Miranda parts (if you scale based on the excelsior saucer the miranda torpedo pod is much much too big). He wanted to imply that the saucer was not from an excelsior but was unique to this class. It's actually smaller then a miranda saucer! If scaled based on Miranda parts the ship would be about 210m. Tiny little ship! Most books and reference material has it scaled based on Excelsior sizes as it was not until relatively recently that HQ images of the shooting model became available that show off the ships added details. The smaller size seems consistent with it's depiction in the show tho as it was meant to be a similar size to the Jem'Hadar BugShip it chases in DS9(s06e01) "A Time to Stand".

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