Federation Commander

I'm starting work on a Fed fleet, and I'm trying to figure out which classes should have the double red stripe on the upper surface of the saucer. It seems to me that most pure warships (BB, NCLs, DWs) should have it, but general purpose ships do not. So here's my list. Not all ships are in FC yet, but I'm going to list them, generally in order of decreasing size class.

Has stripe - BB, SCS, CVA, DN variants except DN, NCL, DWH, DW, FFB

No stripe - DN, CVS, CA, CF, CL, DD, FF, Tug (essentially, the old FJ designs)

Unclear - BC, NCA, CS. I don't know if these are meant to be pure warships.

I know, we should just paint what we like, but I'm trying to come up with a consistant pattern. Any thoughts?

Your list looks pretty close to what I was thinking.

My understanding was that "General War" classes and major variants get the stripe. Pre-war classes don't.

Actually, I don't think there is a true inclusion or exclusion list for the saucer stripe.

Back when he started, before health problems and such forced him to severely cut back on his internet activity, Ted Geibel was fairly accessible. I asked him to make the NCL (and to eventually give it the plus refit phasers). That was when the double stripe first appeared. He thought it was a cool touch, and I agreed.

Since then, it has become a common feature on many of his Federation models.

So, the baseline determinant of whether a ship class has the double stripe is if Ted has done a model of the it with the stripe. Amazingly, other artists have since adopted the double stripe since then. What was originally just a "cool feature" is now a part of SFU canon!

I can't be sure, but I thought I saw some offhand remark by SVC that retconned the red stripes into the SFU as a war-time thing (kind of like the D-Day invasion stripes on airplanes in WW2). I could be remembering wrong though.

No matter what, they look darn spiffy on some ships (the NCL hulls in particular look really good in them).

And of course, we could let the Jamaicans decide.