Latest Star Fleet Universe Art

[Nerroth]

Has ADB ever established an origin for the Orion Raider? It'd be interesting if they were actually retired hulls from one of the major governments (say early or even pre-Federation spaceships) acquired through questionable deals and refitted with new systems. One might even see one or two old CLs refitted in such a fashion.

The Orions fielded their own 'racial' ships in their planetary fleet - as did the other major member worlds (such as Earth, Vulcan, Andoria et al) - and under the byzantine deal the UFP signed to get the Orions to join (and thus turn the tide of the war against the Romulans) the latter had far more control over patrolling their home Enclave than other members had.

Indeed, the year (Y113) the planetary fleets were formally abolished (and replaced with 'National Guards' which originally inherited the racial ships, but eventually received older unified-design Star Fleet ships) sixteen Orion ships and thousands of Orion officers 'mutinied' and became the core of the first Orion pirate cartels.

However, it was only after some time that the first raider-type vessels were built (as opposed to relying on ex-Orion naval ships) - out of asteroid shipyards in isolated systems, and not at all on Orion itself, oh no, absolutely not...


The SSDs for these early Orion ships are in SFB Module Y1, and there may be more in the upcoming Y2 release, though I am not too sure.

 

[MarianLH]

not at all on Orion itself, oh no, absolutely not...

Marian

 

[RAMA]

Lyran Democratic Republic colors:

Lyran Dark Star County colors:

Orion BCH:

Orion Double Raider:

Chris Foss lives!

 

[FalTorPan]

The ship designs look great, but what makes these truly appealing is their unique color schemes and "paint jobs." I love 'em!

My only recommendation would be to remove the English text from the alien ships -- assuming the aliens don't speak English natively!

 

[therealfoxbat]

Gorgeous as always, Icy. I love the Texas the most, although I have a real fondness for the Orion ships as well. My only complaints are Steve Cole and even Matt Jefferies oriented. The torpedo tubes look ungainly and those port and starboard running lights are the size of a VW Bug. But, that's what we have to live with in Trek.

The torpedo tubes look ungainly because they WERE ungainly...

The Photon Torpedo Launchers were added during one the NUMEROUS refits the Texas class underwent during the more than one hundred years of its service life. It might have something to do with all that armor and hull reinforcement the ship was originally designed with making it a pain in the ass to mount them internally. The Constitution class (and its direct ancestor, the Republic class) had the advantage of being designed AFTER Photon Torpedoes were invented...

 

[Psion]

therealfoxbat, I wasn't speaking from a SF Universe history perspective, but rather from a design perspective. I think Cole could have done a better job. But I have that problem with a lot of the SFB ship designs ... the worst offender being the Romulan dreadnaught. As inferior as the game play was, I prefer the ship designs from Star Trek III Strategic Combat Simulator to those of Star Fleet Battles.

That didn't stop me from buying and painting dozens of ADB figures, however.

 

[cbp44189]

Fantastic work! Keep it coming!

 

[ancient]

Who's your friend? Listen bud,
He's got radioactive blood,
Look out! It's the Spider-man!

 

[therealfoxbat]

therealfoxbat, I wasn't speaking from a SF Universe history perspective, but rather from a design perspective. I think Cole could have done a better job. But I have that problem with a lot of the SFB ship designs ... the worst offender being the Romulan dreadnaught. As inferior as the game play was, I prefer the ship designs from Star Trek III Strategic Combat Simulator to those of Star Fleet Battles.

That didn't stop me from buying and painting dozens of ADB figures, however.

Maybe the SFB history perspective and the design perspective were the same thing. Cole was trying to come up with a ship that had been around for more than a century. I was suggesting perhaps he made the design ungainly on purpose. Look at naval ships from one hundred years ago compared to modern vessels. They look REAL ungainly...

If I were in that position back then, I might have made a similar choice...

One thing to consider is that most of the classic SFB designs were created in the '70s (the era of Things That Look Bad), as opposed to FASA Star Trek Combat Simulator designs which were created in the '80s. When Cole was thinking up those SFB ships, all he had to work from was Star Trek TOS, the Star Trek Animated Series and the Star Fleet Technical Manual. FASA was able to draw upon the Star Trek movies for ideas, not to mention a fan base with vastly superior means to communicate and exchange ideas with each other...

 

[shipfisher]

I always thought the "Texas" class was a sort of shonky design in past iterations, but your new take on it passes my "on screen credibility" test. To raise the bar that far took real artistic talent.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

Icy, this is excellent work!

I just wish you had better "subjects" to render, I've never been a fan of the "wedges and nacelles" ships from SFB/Prime Directive. That they look as good as they do is a testement to your skill...

 

[Icy_Penguigo]

Thanks guys! Very high praise indeed.

I agree, many of the designs in the SFU are not the most interesting or aesthetic. But I prefer to view it as a challenge to make them look as good as I can. I'm glad those efforts are not going unnoticed.