Avenger Class Design Evolution

So this is something I've felt the need to do for a while. I've mentioned to some that this design has been my baby for some years. Well, I'm not exaggerating. The Avenger has been something I've worked on for six years now.
Back when I was in seventh grade, I had this odd dream that I was on a pure white bridge with a large door in the rear. The door opened into a conduit which led directly to main engineering. It was a very vivid dream which caused me to attempt to design a ship which would have such a feature.This led to several sketches, finally culminating in the 2003 version 1.
Version 1 was designed as a small escort type vessel, not exceeding 200 meters. The engineering hull was located above the elongated saucer section. The bridge was in the front of the first deck, in front of engineering in keeping with the original muse. The design was summarily rejected and relegated to a scrap pile. Oddly enough, efforts are now being made to resurrect the design in a more modern and sleek style. We'll have to wait to see how that goes.
Version 2 came about after I began high school. I saw a few pictures of the Prometheus Class and got a new inspiration. I went with a delta shaped primary hull and a sleeker engineering hull in standard position. A secondary section was designed to separate from the dorsal saucer, but it was quickly noticed that the design would preclude any such shapes. I leave it to you to figure out what I'm talking about.
For the next two years, I was occupied by versions 3 and 3.5. These designs were the front runners for some time. I came up with them one day as I sat in Statistics bored out of my mind. It was initially meant to be a medium sized cruiser with variable geometry nacelle pylons. An attempt to convert the design to a larger scale proved troublesome and eventually failed completely, leaving a horribly elongated ship with no aesthetic positives to it.
During summer 2007, I spent five weeks at Penn State and looked over some older designs. Two caught my attention: the version 2 Avenger and the fin-nacelled Arcadia Class. With the help from several friends, I was able to come up with a finalized design, based on the shape of the version 2 and the engines of the Arcadia.
Construction of the 3d model began in late 2007 and was finally completed in early 2008. The current version - 4.5 - has finally been accepted as the definitive design, the longest to date at 580 meters and the most advanced.

Side note: you have no idea how painful it was to look through these images. Those ones from when I was younger sucked so bad it hurts. Just goes to show that I've improved...I hope...