First peek at a new project. Based initially on the McMaster blueprints, with my own adjustments based on photo evidence and a little tweaking to personal taste. The shape is more complex than it first appears. McMaster was a marvel. How did he manage to get so close all the way back in 1977? This was pre-video tape and the Internet wasn't even a twinkle in Al Gore's eye. :tongue: All we had were a few fuzzy frame blowups and fleeting glimpses when reruns of Balance of Terror were broadcast. Anyway, here it is so far:
Great work on the Bird of Prey! Looking forward to seeing more, of course. Actually, the internet existed in '77, but the World-Wide Web did not come into being until 1993. I dread the thought of using the 'net back in those days; there was nothing but dial-up and command-line operating systems. Ugh. I believe Starlog magazine published quite a few stills of various TREK eps and spacecraft back in the late '70's, so Mr. McMaster may have had some limited resources to draw on.
McMaster certainly didn't use the 1966 AMT model kit as reference, it had a straight 90° edge all the way round, with no groove. I had to do those with extra plastic. I never finished the model though. Beautiful work on the 3D version. I remember using this image (or the similar B&W one) for reference.
Ironically, I'm asking someone on TrekBBS if they have never used a BBS at all. They weren't pretty, but they were a far cry from entering DOS command lines to download files, too. Of course, the first of those didn't exist until 1978, so the question of how McMaster managed in '77 remains. Maybe he worked at a station and had access to one of their videocassette recorders? Or maybe he was relatively wealthy and had one of the early Sony or Phillips VCR units? Or maybe he was a geek like me and made his own. (Not to toot my own horn , but I made my first working VCR in '82, mostly out of two audiocassette recorders. It recorded video on one cassette and audio on the other. I was 7. )
I used "computer information services" and to a lesser extent a local bulletin board staring approximately 1979-1980 using a modem that consisted of a board inside the Apple ][ and an external box. The card that fit in the Apple ][ was not a standard serial interface and the external box only emulated rotary dial, no touch tones. There was an audible pinging sound as the relay emulated the mechanical components in a rotary dial phone. The major commercial information services charged by the minute with higher rates for what was then higher speed lines. For a while they lacked, or at least didn't publicize, any ability to exchange messages or files with subscribers to competing services. Most content could be accessed through menu systems (a list of options after which you would type the number corresponding to the desired area/function) or a typed command (mail, forums, news etc). The first I saw with a limited GUI was Apple OnLine (the initials are not a coincidence) about 1987. Some BBS systems interconnected with each other, but the exchanges between boards was periodical instead of constant. Even those connections were often made with dial up modems. A post to something like a forum might take hours or even a day or two to become visible through another BBS. Many BBS operators asked for donations to offset equipment and/or phone line expenses. Some would allow longer and/or more frequent usage periods to donors.
I had no problem building a passable (to my limited eye) Rom warbird with McMaster's plans. So I was shocked (SHOCKED I say!) at the difficulties I ran into with his Klingon plans. Very nice job, Mr. M.
I did a 3D version of it once. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BiAVyMDWT4 Nice work so far on your bird
Fantastic and very accurate job! The tail fin feathers are there, too. But can we be really sure that these openings on the exterior were all meant to be viewports? Considering the submarine analogy I'd think those portholes were some mechanical components for the cloaking device, leaving the rectangular elements to be the actual windows or viewports, enabling the Romulan Commander "to see the stars of home". According to this original footage screencap the main engine caps were not lit. Or are we looking at the warp capable ugrade version from "The Deadly Years"? One thing that always bothered me is that according to the original footage starboard view of the BoP the bottom tail section seems somewhat set back. Is that an optical illusion or is the structure near the bottom tail a little more "complicated"? Bob
Thanks for the kind comments, everyone. I have no idea. They seem a bit too plentiful for viewports. I did notice that the loop of them on the top of the main hull are rectangular, not round as McMaster draws them. The photos that Wah Chang shot before delivering the model show that the engines and ports were lit. Why the effects studio chose not to use this feature, I'm not sure. Can you be more specific? I'm not sure what you refer to. M.
That's how I feel, too. But maybe... ...Wah Chang put his heart into the Romulan ship only to find out later that the story called for the equivalent of a submarine aka stealth spaceship and therefore the lights needed to be out to convey this impression? Running silent with lights on is a little like "calling" for attention, IMHO. Out of curiosity, would it bother you to post an image with only the rectangular viewports being lit? In this original footage screencap it looks as if the bottom stern of the BoP were shaped like a concave notch. Most reproductions I've thus far seen usually present the bottom stern as "flat", but I think the screencap suggests otherwise. It almost looks like the concave notch you have on the top stern of the vessel in your first post / image should also be present at the bottom stern. Bob
^ I've always thought that section was concave. That shot shows it, but the lighting isn't great, so it's not easy to see. Again, the AMT model doesn't reflect this, but it's one of the more inaccurate kits I've ever seen.
The underside of my model at the back is a rather complex transition from concave to convex. McMaster depicts the underside as a very flat cone, with a flat pie slice toward the rear. I don't think this represents the studio model very well. the underside looks much more rounded, and that is what I wanted to depict. As a result, there is a fairly sharp transition from the rounded under-hull at the edges of the pie slice. Toward the back edge, I allowed this to become concave, much like the top surface; but I transitioned it into a soft convex surface as it comes forward. The result is a very soft blend into the forward parts of the under-hull. M.