CAPTIAN'S LOG: FINAL ENTRY [Sept/20/2286]

STARSHIP: USS LEXI. NCC-1772

CONSTITUION CLASS CARGO VESSEL [PRIVATELY OWNED FEDERATION VESSEL]

ALL NECESSARY PERMITS ON FILE AND CURRENT

There is something to be said about these older ships, they can take one hell of a beating. Klingons... don't matter if you're affiliated with Starfleet or not, any Federation ship is fair game. I thought we were in the clear with this run, but... Four. Four battle cruisers suddenly decloaking and... [sighs] I'm just glad I was able to get ahold of those newer weapon systems. She gave more than she got for sure. She may not have had that refit all her Starfleet sisters have had, but I've kept her outfitted with all the best aftermarket goodies I could install on her. Multi frequency phaser banks, secondary deflector booster dish, even totally reconfigured engines. Really proud of those engines, seems they were based off a prototype design that was put-on hold during the early days of the Romulan War and eventually abandoned. Had something happened differently back then, maybe this design and Bussard collector color would be on all Starfleet ships as well... Right now, I'm just glad we still can form a warp field. How, with the condition the engines are in I couldn't tell you, nor can my chief engineer. You want to know how to scare a Vulcan? Ask him how this ship is still holding together. Vulcans are never chatty but that long of a pause before answering a question is definitely a bad sign. Another bad sign is when any Vulcan refers to anything as "precarious" in reference to the operation of your ship. We can hold Warp 3 for a time, that will get us close to a starbase at least. Sadly, I do not believe she can be saved. Too much damage has been done, doubt we would be permitted to have her repaired anyway. Since that probe basically shut down Earth and all of Starfleet looking for whales, resources have been going elsewhere. A 37 year old ship with this much damage that hasn't seen any official refits... Not a chance. It pains me, she has served well but her time has come. I'll see what all I can get for her systems, the ones that are still functioning anyway and see about new ship. They've only recently released those Maranda Classes for civilian use, maybe one of those.

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Okay, real world story with this model. When I first opened the box, I knew something was... off. The model itself was incredibly flawed and cheaply modeled. Warps and bubbles in the plastic. Absolutely nothing fit right and had to be sanded heavily to go together. It was a hard process... until the nacelle strut snapped on its own. "Well! This model is now trash" I said. It sat in it's box a while longer until the 4th of July came around. For the hell of it a took it up and shot it with roman candles. Once I got it back in the light and saw how it looked I thought "I can actually work with this now" And so I built up as much of it as I could! Trying out a few things and playing with the decals. In the end I managed to save a broken model by breaking it even more! Also tested out a few new paints.