I haven't seen these pictures anywhere before so..... I happened to be looking at John Eaves' facebook page, and on one of his March 13th entries he posted some detail pictures of the Kronos One model. A person named Jon A. Bell replied with several pictures that he says was a study model built by Bill George as a possibility for the Klingon ambassador's ship, until it was decided just to refurbish the TMP model. Does anyone else have any clue as to how true this may be? It's an interesting looking model, regardless. Here's the pics:
Bill George told me about the study model during an interview in November 1991, but I never saw a picture of it. There's something about the front end that reminds me of the ship at the beginning of PHANTOM MENACE a teensy bit. It could be legit, I think. I really miss Eaves' website, guess i oughta check the facebook page
With Klingon design and two necks, it reminds me of a ship described in an old Trek novel (something to do with a "cosmic scramble"?) as belonging to a Klingon subject race. I'm glad they reused the D-7 instead (although I'm sure it was more about cutting costs than anything else)
George designed TUC's shuttlecraft to intentionally reflect a sensibility between TOS and TNG. I don't really see a ton of the ModernTrek klingon influence in this though, even though TNG had already introduced their new klingon starship by this point.
This would have been better (had it existed at that time: http://www.klingon-empire.org/forum/showthread.php?7015-A-couple-of-my-Klingon-Models Now the ship at the start of this thread I could see as something used by a third party in the FASA no-man's land called "The Triangle." RELS ship would have done nicely too.
^^ That is actually rather funky. Althoughough it's a challenge to rationalize two necks. Kinda neat, though.
I know Jon A. Bell. He's a friend of Bill George's and mine, so it''s likely authentic. Such study models are just to get a general idea of a proposed design and be able to see how it looks from any angle. The final results (e.g. the Excelsior) are often a lot different, but keep the general shapes.
^Awesome. I wonder if Mr. Bell might have any other photos of interesting George stuff. Two things that immediately spring to mind are the "duck" Excelsior study model and the "dumpster ship" in Spacedock that might have been a Merchantman study.
The old Excelsior study models, you mean. Here is a good artist who has freshened up that Duck design http://s149.photobucket.com/user/pauly1972_photos/library/USS%20Liberator?sort=3&page=1 http://s149.photobucket.com/user/pauly1972_photos/library/USS Azure?sort=3&page=1 http://s149.photobucket.com/user/pauly1972_photos/library/USS Atlas?sort=3&page=1 Those belong to Paul Cairnross http://www.starshipmodeler.net/talk/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=1078 Planet of the Titans and Freedom http://s149.photobucket.com/user/pauly1972_photos/library/Apollo Class USS Gage?sort=3&page=1 http://s149.photobucket.com/user/pauly1972_photos/library/Freedom Class?sort=3&page=1 The originals http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Excelsior_class_model http://www.neutralzone.de/database/Federation/Starfleet/ExcelsiorStudyModelI.htm http://www.neutralzone.de/database/Federation/Starfleet/ExcelsiorStudyModelII05.htm http://www.pinterest.com/pin/166211042470802636/
I'm rather sorry this one didn't win the prize! Hmm.. The fairly flat piece we see is quite possibly waiting for conventional warp nacelles that would go either above and below the ship (there's room for four, at the top and bottom ends of those vertical fins), or less probably astern between those "mandibles". The "doubly everything" effect would certainly establish this ship as being fit for Chancellors, and perhaps too much for the Enterprise to chew... Timo Saloniemi
Very interesting design, is there a realistic chance to learn what the artist might have had in mind regarding the function of some components "in-universe"? (or just another "look cool" thing). In my opinion this design could pass for a pre-TOS Klingon ship, where they still needed two "spines" for stability of the primary hull before the Klingons managed to just do with one. Bob
Definately looks like there should have been something on the top and bottom of the vertical struts on the 'wings'. Intended to have 4 nacelles perhaps? Possibly to make it look a lot bigger when compared to a standard Klingon battlecruiser? Maybe the old style slab-like Klingon nacelles didnt look good, and they didn't want to go with TOS E style cylindrical ones, so the ides floundered. I think it would have looked good with the right nacelles.
Given that the BOP has no nacelles it wouldn't surprise me if Bill's study model wasn't intended to have them, either.
Is it possible the two grills on either side of what I assume is the back are cowled DEFIANT style warp engines?