Star Trek: Starships Model/Magazine Subscription

I'll welcome the addition of the A design simply because it nurtures my ODC over this collection. I can't stand the design by itself, personally. I always thought the JJPrise variants were a bit ugly. YMMV.

In other news, the Designing Starships Vol.3 arrived today and it's a great little book. I love the detailed information on the background SF ships and I was fascinated by the fact that literally ALL the concept pics of the JJPrise had orange-red bussards. At least, all the ones where the bussards were exposed and "ignited". Not a single one had blue bussards, which tells me it was a last-minute design change during post production. Some of the concepts I think would have looked better on screen, IMO, but water under the bridge now. Great book - highly recommended for all fans of the Kelvin-verse, even if you're not all about the ships.

Also got the Phoenix today too. It's a nice model, but it's clear that they used the Bonchune mesh as a foundation and simply changed the pod. This is a bit disappointing to me, as the secondary hull for the Phoenix was a bit different than the one used on the E-D. The Bonchune could be considered a viable Nebula variant because it did appear on screen, but there was only one Phoenix and it definitely looked different. I understand why they did it to save money in the production though. Just a little nitpick on my part. An excellent model otherwise.

 

i was just reading about this in "the art of star trek: the kelvin timeline". apparently the ship was designed with orange bussards, but at some point ILM was doing tests and inverted the colors on the model. they loved the look of the deep purple nacelle caps and went with it.

funny thing is, some merchandise from 2009 showed the ship with the orange bussards, like the burger king cups:

so, yeah, it must've been real late when they made that change.

 

I really dislike what they did to the pylons and warp nacelles in Beyond.

 

i actually quite like this version of the ship, though i'm on the fence about which version i prefer. i do appreciate that the redesign brings it even closer to the prime universe version and i think she looks great from all the angles they filmed her at in the film. that being said (and speaking of the book i mentioned above), "the art of star trek: the kelvin timeline" has orthographic views of the revised design which really demonstrate what an odd silhouette she has. it's clear the ship was designed to look good from those angles we saw her from and not from the top or side.

i'll be very curious how this model looks in person.

edit: in fact, i might as well show you what i mean:

 

Ick.

IMO.

 

I'd read somewhere that the redesign was necessary to make what happened to the ship more dramatic. In her original configuration, the nacelles & their support pylons were too close to the saucer section (and would be partially obscured by it) and they needed to thicken the neck for more effect.

 

They also need to make the pylons thinner and narrower to make them appear more vulnerable, as the 2009 version actually had quite chunky nacelle pylons.

The Beyond version is my favourite incarnation of that ship, I think it's got more grace than the first version. It doesn't look great in orthographic views, but neither did the 2009 Enterprise.

 

The ring ship arrived today and all
I can say is wow. It is gorgeous. I never thought that this ship would ever be produced in any format but thanks to this fantastic collection it has. It’s got pride of place next to the k7. I’ve got to say that these larger models are fantastic and there hasn’t been a poor one yet (maybe the altamid vessel). As for the Tellarite cruiser and challenger class that came today as well, both are ok. I’m not a fan of the wolf 359 kitbash ships although I did change my mind with some of the more recent ones however this one I don’t care for. The nacelles above and below just don’t seem to work for me. It just looks odd and some how not cannon (which obviously I know it is as it appeared on screen). I also like the Kelvin which has the nacelles above and below Maybe I’m just weird! The Tellarite cruiser is nice and a good addition to the enterprise era ships although I hadn’t realised it was a redress of another ship.

 

I also got the third Designing Starships book... after ordering the second one. Not a problem as I was going to get the third at some point down the line, so it has just swapped places with 2. But it was a briefly confusing moment!

 

They're orange in the shot where Pike's shuttle approaches the Narada in the '09 movie.

While it looks weird from a couple of angles (like the orthos), I quite like it in action. It's like the ship went from being a steroid monster to being slender.

Or, to put it in Superman terms, it went from Henry Cavill to Christopher Reeve.

 

It looks emaciated.

I always thought the only adjustment the ship really needed was for the nacelles to be spaced farther apart from each other.

 

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the Beyond Enterprise (which is why I'm passing on it). I don't think it's an ugly ship at all, but I do prefer the original '09 configuration more. I may be biased because I think the redesign is basically cannon fodder and the most recent addition to the growing line of destroyed Enterprises...

 

That's exactly the problem I've honestly always had with every Kelvinverse Enterprise - each one has at least one angle where it just looks out of proportion, misconfigured or downright bad. I never had those feelings about the TOS-E or refit, the latter clearly being the direct inspiration for all versions of the Abramsprise. The two original Prime Enterprises were pictures of perfect architecture that looked good at literally any angle. For some reason, these new ships, while having all the same components and similar design aesthetics, seem to have been oddly changed just enough to be a bit...off. I really wished Jefferies was alive (he died in 2003) when they made the 2009 E. Maybe he could have helped tweak a few things to make it a more balanced design.

 

ILM has said the same thing about the enterprise-D... that it only had a few heroic angles and that it looked too top-heavy. this isn’t a new problem with interpolating the original design for future generations. (though to be fair, i’m not sure ILM has much love for star trek style ships, based on interviews i’ve read over the years, they prefer the heavily-greebled star wars look.)

honestly i feel the same way about voyager and the enterprise-E. voyager looks quite graceful and sleek from several angles and like a frog from others. same with the E, she’s simultaneously elegant and squat.

 

^^^ Agreed w/ everything you said re. E-D & Voyager, although I do like the Enterprise E. It's like they took the Excelsior and stretched it out to make it more graceful. Of all the 24th century vessels, I think that one looks the nicest, although not quite as aesthetically pleasing and balanced as the refit & TOS-E, IMO. Also have a soft spot for the Defiant "armored turtle" .

 

Hell, I'm still waiting for the XL NX-01. I probably won't see Voyager until February at this rate.

 

Nope, still waiting for voyager but I’m not surprised all the ships are sent out 2nd class in the UK. Hope to get it within the week though