Would you consider something closer to rockets for the Earth ships, something that I know Jefferies was avoiding, but would be that utilitarian idea? As for Romulans, maybe something that is like a shark, more predatory but with that bird painted on it?
^^ If you’ve seen my Valiant design upthread then you might have some ides where I might go with an Earth design. My Valiant design extrapolates from a rocket design without really looking overtly like a conventional rocket. We have to remember in 1966 all of TOS prehistory was a blank slate. They had net yet even established Zefram Cochance developing the space warp 150 years prior. And certainly whatever pre TOS backstory developed over the forthcoming decades in series does not yet exist. I think the Earth combat ships would most likely be more rudimentary than what the Enterprise represents. And for war you have to build a lot of these ships relatively quickly. I think they would likely be more utilitarian looking than what a general purpose exploratory starship might look like a century before the Enterprise. The Romulan ship as depicted in “Balance Of Terror” doesn’t come across as advanced as the Enterprise after all is said and done. It suggests the Romulans have not managed to advance as much as Earth and the Federation. Perhaps the technological levels are more equal a century earlier? That could partly explain the conflict dragging on for several years.
Its what I'd assume, I can hardly wait to see what you've planned. The war probably was started because of Earth and Vulcan's union; this concerned the Romulans since they believed Vulcan belonged to them and would die trying to get it back.
I'd like to see you start your own thread for those designs too, @aridas sofia . Also looking forward to more of your speculation for this thread, @Warped9 .
Very nice! Other than the wings, it looks almost submarine-like It would even fit right in with John Byrne's "old" Romulan "Dreadnaught-class" from the comic Star Trek Alien Spotlight: Romulans. See here: Story generalization: https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Alien_Spotlight:_Romulans_(2008)
Without some kind of wing like structure then painting a vessel “like a giant bird of prey” would amount to putting an illustration of the bird on the hull. It’s interesting the Romulans feel compelled to be that elaborate for vessels that could easily be destroyed in large numbers—seems like a lot of pointless work for something that wouldn’t be seen easily except up close. Perhaps these ships, not being overly large, are also capable of atmospheric flight. In that event then the elaborate paint scheme would be be more visible to admirers, and victims, on the ground.
Sweating some elemental details before sharing what I've modelled so far. It is very much the essential concept I sketched out upthread, but I'm trying to finesse some of the shapes. It has to look more "primitive" and somewhat rudimentary to convey the idea of a design dating a century prior to the BoP we see in "Balance Of Terror." It also should look more its own thing with its own integrity rather than just devolving a 23rd century BoP as seen onscreen. It should also suggest something of "alien" origin. 5 The James Blish adaptation suggests the notion the contemporary BoP's design could have been influenced by spies within the Federation. But that notion didn' make it to the actual episode (and I don’t know if that was ever in any earlier drafts of the story). Furthermore you'd think Romulan spies could have ferreted out some more advanced tech than what we saw onscreen. Except for the plasma weapon and invisibility screen the BoP is destinctly inferior to the Enterprise. It certainly won’t look like anything seen in ENT which looked more advanced than the TOS BoP. The ENT design looked like a TMP era ship.
A snapshot of how this is proceeding. Although I wanted some avian like attributes from it I can't help but get an aquatic sense from it.
Looking sweet! The main reason for you believing it has an aquatic feel is that the vessel is long and thin atm...I'm sure with the added wings and nacelles the vessel will have a more avian feel.