10 Legendary Star Trek Kit-Bashes

The New Orleans-class had a bit of a false start when it came into being. The early seasons of The Next Generation were light on newer designs of ships. The Enterprise-D, Enterprise-C, and the Constellation-class Stargazer were the major new designs, with the Excelsior, Reliant, and Grissom models all serving to pad out the fleet.

This gave the impression that Starfleet was comprised of mostly older ships, so Ed Miarecki was tasked with designing some new ships that would emulate Andrew Probert's Galaxy-class design. The New Orleans-class originally featured a Galaxy-class saucer, with a secondary hull borrowed from the Excelsior-class.

After receiving feedback that it was a bit too similar to the Enterprise, three marker pens were added to pad out the design. This, combined with the longer Galaxy-class nacelles (created with a bit of ingenuity and some glue) gave the USS Kyushu a distinct appearance.

Unfortunately for the Kyushu, it was called up for service only once - at Wolf 359.