The Boilerplate class USS Crabbe, NCC-210, was commissioned in the early 23rd century to forever be in the wake of its larger, more powerful Starfleet bretheren. Once the vast First Contact ships had left outwards again for fame and glory, the smaller patrol craft like the Crabbe moved in to the keep the peace. Designed during the excitement and optimism of an expansionist heyday, the Boilerplate design was allowed a certain amount of flair, with secondary sensing and communications equipment mounted in a large dorsal fin. Another rarity for the time was a lack of a deflector dish. The Boilerplate class was given what was heralded as a 'breakthrough' in deflector technology: a superconductive band running along the front of the craft like the lateral lines on a shark. The band was to clear a path in front of the craft using only 40 per cent of the energy of then-current deflector technology, but like other sensationalized 'breakthroughs' of that optimistic time, the deflector band was not adequately tested, and failed to deliver as promised. It suffered from poor performance and high maintenance, and was quietly abandoned after appearing in a few classes of smaller ships.

The Crabbe has a single shuttlebay, located under the hull. Shuttles had to be held in position by tractor beam until the large doors swung closed and locked. There was also a rail-mounted crane to catch and hold craft if necessary. Boilerplate captains were famous for clenched jaws and white knuckles any time a shuttle was docking, though few major accidents are recorded. This shuttlebay was another design 'feature' not to be seen again. Armed with a single powerful phaser with a small firing radius, the Crabbe was a poor fighter one-on-one against an equally advanced opponent, and rarely ordered into large battles, though a formation of them could be formidable.

To compensate, forward shielding and plating were increased, and a late design change had the usual transparent bridge dome replaced with a heavy opaque material with an ablative covering. Starfleet grudgingly came to accept the seemingly spontaneous personalization of a number of these craft, recognizing the boost it gave to crew morale in an otherwise thankless and often boring assignment.

The USS Crabbe was named after the actor Larry "Buster" Crabbe. The name was chosen, as was the Boilerplate class designation, based on the design similarity to classic sci-fi designs of the old black and white serials. The Crabbe, known as "Crabby" to her crew, served an uneventful career, and was retired to Starfleet Academy as a training vessel.

The Crabbe's hull started life as a MacAlly Macintosh mouse. The button was epoxied in place, and all seams were roughend with a dremel, then filled in with Bondo. There was much priming and sanding. The warp nacelles are highlighter pens, and made from a soft plastic that paint refuses to stick to. Several attempts with laquer and automotive primer and Mr. Surfacer finally gave a base for the Tamiya base coat to stick to. The front nacelle domes are from the Polar Lights TOS kit, as are the intercoolers, or whatever those thingies are. The bridge is a failed vacu-form of the PL Enterprise bridge, and is now more bondo than styrene. The dome is from an old McDonalds coffee spoon.

Most of you will recognize the phaser as being from the AMT/Ertl Reliant kit. I filed the back of the part with a round file until it would fit flush against the front of the mouse. The deflector bands on either side of the phaser are evergreen styrene, as is the dorsal fin and nacelle supports. To attach the nacelles, I glued several horizontal tabs to the main strut, and filled between them with Bondo. I pressed the nacelles into the bondo and held them in place until it set. Once cured, the nacelles were pulled off, leaving a perfect countoured surface they could be epoxied onto once painted. I also used bondo to fill in around the impulse engines, which are made from the cover from a plastic razor.

The base coat is Tamiya light grey mixed with white. I applied panel lines with a technical pencil and low-tack tape as a guide, and made the round lines with a compass. All lines were then misted with the base coat. A bit of yellow was added to paint the bridge dome and then thinned to create the rust ring. Blue areas are a Tamiya blue-gray mix. The nacelle cap insides were brush-painted silver, then the outsides were airbrushed with a mix of Future and Tamiya clear red (which turns orange when mixed with Future for some reason).

After a coat of Future, the inkjet-printed decals were applied. Some decal yellowing has occurred, likely from the sealing coat I applied to the decal sheet after printing, which was a rustoleum clear enamel-base. Anything else I had on hand made the colours run. The crab logo is 'Crabby' from the Mutts comic strip, the UFP logo was found online, and the Federation star was drawn in Photoshop. All other decals were created in Quark Xpress, including the windows, portholes and warning stripes which were made from three-point dotted lines.

The windows ended up being larger than those on the PL Enterprise, so while I originally intended the model to be 1/1000, I've had to change it to about 1/500, unless the ship designer had a thing for very large windows.

Image: Ventral view

Image: Construction 1

Image: Putty city!

Image: Construction 2