November 2014 Challenge -- Albertese

[Albertese]

So, I'm gonna take this challenge into a slightly different direction... I'm gonna say the alternate liveries are due to the Enterprise being operated by another government besides the Federation. And to make it one step beyond that, Im asking "what if the Enterprise was operated by a given historical nation?"

I actually have a bunch of ideas in mind for this, I've been kicking around in my brain for some time, this month's challenge seems as good as any a time to actually make them.

To begin with, what if the Roman Empire had the Enterprise?

I say 'to begin with' as I mean to do a series of these, if I find the time.

And I should add that these drawings began life as the Alan Sinclar blueprints... but I did edit them quite a bit before I started to color.

Thanks for looking!

--Alex

 

[Kaiser]

seems i got some stiff competition

hopeing to be done with mine this or next week.

 

[JES]

Am I the only one imaging the Roman Empire being more like the Romulans or Terran Empire, than the Federation?

Historically, the Romans were infamous for their brutal treatment of prisoners and slaves, or any enemies for that matter.

The fact that they justified all of what would be considered uncivilized in today's world as the will of their pantheon of gods didn't help matters.

If the Enterprise was a ship of hope, than the Inceptum would be a ship of fear and intimidation: a symbol of the Empire's might, and the futility of fighting them.

Bottom line: an interesting subject. I've pondered on occasion what might've happened had the Nazi's won the war. In The City on the Edge of Forever's altered timeline, would the Nazi's have built a fleet of ships, and become something like the Terran Empire.
If the stories of the Nazi's having found and experimented with technology from a crash-landed extra-terrestrial craft are true, than the answer would probably be yes.

 

[Albertese]

Awesome. And stay tuned... the next batch will be WWII themed.

--Alex

 

[B.J.]

Nice! "MDCCI" seems like it would almost belong on a Federation ship!

Am I the only one imaging the Roman Empire being more like the Romulans or Terran Empire, than the Federation?

Well, there's nothing saying the Roman Empire couldn't evolve through the ages. I imagine they wouldn't survive if they didn't.

 

[largo]

Am I the only one imaging the Roman Empire being more like the Romulans or Terran Empire, than the Federation?

two thousand years ago, yes.

 

[Albertese]

All right, so, here's the first one of the WWII schemes: Imperial Japan.

The name is not really Enterprise on this one. I ran that through Google Translate and just got the English word transliterated in Japanese... but I wanted it to be a real Japanese word, so this is what Google Translate gave me for Boldness. Now, I know less than a dozen or so words of Japanese, so what do I know?

Now, given that none of the powers in WWII had space programs, my liveries for these are going to be inspired by both their navies and their air corps.

Enjoy!

--Alex

 

[Kaiser]

Awesome

 

[Albertese]

So, time for America! Since the USN is largely the inspiration for how the actual E was marked, I guess this one might end up being the most familiar.

Fun to do, though. I like putting flags on starships.

--Alex

 

[Wingsley]

I took "City on the Edge of Forever" to suggest that Nazism's apparent alternative-timeline triumph to mean that humankind did not reach into space, but rather heralded another Dark Ages.

Here's an interesting question, perhaps suggested by the appearance of the Romulans and Vulcans in STAR TREK ENTERPRISE: what if the Romulan-sypathetic Vulcans had succeeded in manipulating both Earth and Vulcan, and the resulting "Empire" wasn't Terran but Romulan-Vulcan dominated? That might suggest the flagship would be a Vulcan battlecruiser.

Perhaps more interesting, what if Khan had won the wars, and founded an Earth-based Eugenics Empire?

Also: In Carl Sagan's 1980 version of COSMOS, Sagan suggested a scenario in which the fallen ancient Greek civilization might have flourished, and would already be launching starships into deep space.

 

[Albertese]

I'm just playing around with various national styles. I'm not really worried about the alternate history that could have lead up to a, say, Roman (or ....Viking?!?!?) Enterprise. You'll see my take on the WWII German version of the Enterprise soon. But I'm mainly just playing dress-up, see what the E would look like wearing markings from the Bismarck's or the Hindenberg's closet.

It's an interesting idea about Kahn's Eugenic Empire, but what would the symbology look like? I've honestly never thought about that before. Interesting direction...

And I loved COSMOS (1980). The idea of Hellenic starships fascinated me since I was a kid, with their symbol, the dodecahedron (right? I always get the 12 and the 20 confused...) Now that I think about it, the ancient Greek version of the Enterprise might be prettier than the Roman one. I'll have to think on that...

--Alex

 

[B.J.]

Love it, especially the Japanese version!

 

[Kaiser]

Cool US Navy Enterprise

 

[aalenfae]

All right, so, here's the first one of the WWII schemes: Imperial Japan.

The name is not really Enterprise on this one. I ran that through Google Translate and just got the English word transliterated in Japanese... but I wanted it to be a real Japanese word, so this is what Google Translate gave me for Boldness. Now, I know less than a dozen or so words of Japanese, so what do I know?

Now, given that none of the powers in WWII had space programs, my liveries for these are going to be inspired by both their navies and their air corps.

Enjoy!

--Alex

Very interesting! Once I saw your idea of depicting different Earth governments, I immediately thought about Imperial Japan.

Very nice inclusion of the Imperial Crest on the bow. Though I don't think the battle flag on the nacelles looks right. I'd expect just red circles with maybe a vertical red stripe towards the aft end of the nacelle. Look at the markings on a standard white zero fighter - that black nose with the red circle and band pattern is pretty standard and would work great on the nacelles. Overall, I'd shoot for "Zero-style" markings, because Japanese battleships are pretty nondescript.
I'd hate to steal your idea, but I just couldn't help but do my own spin.

Also, I'm pretty sure it was policy that no hiragana was used in naming Imperial Japanese ships. As such, you wouldn't see the "さ” character in there. I'd suggest something like ”大胆” (just the adjective "bold" without the noun-modifier "さ"), or ”企業” which literally means "enterprise," though isn't too exciting-sounding because I don't think it has the same connotations that it has in English. ”義挙” has a nice ring to it, meaning "noble undertaking".

 

[Albertese]

aalenfae, you definitely have given me some food for thought. I like your take on it. For me, my two favorite things about the Japanese ships were the large lettering on the side and the Rising Sun flag with all the rays. So I definitely want to include those elements prominently. Your comments are helping me to reconsider some of the implementation, though... I'll revisit this before all is said and done.

In other news, I did the German one. Let me be the first to admit that it's weird to see a swastika on the Enterprise, but if it's good enough for Kirk, Spock and McCoy...

And before you tell me the big red square on the bow looks stupid... I agree, but that is how they marked their battleships. (With a matching square on the aft end!)

Please keep the comments coming! I value constructive criticism.

--Alex

 

[Kaiser]

aalenfae, you definitely have given me some food for thought. I like your take on it. For me, my two favorite things about the Japanese ships were the large lettering on the side and the Rising Sun flag with all the rays. So I definitely want to include those elements prominently. Your comments are helping me to reconsider some of the implementation, though... I'll revisit this before all is said and done.

In other news, I did the German one. Let me be the first to admit that it's weird to see a swastika on the Enterprise, but if it's good enough for Kirk, Spock and McCoy...

And before you tell me the big red square on the bow looks stupid... I agree, but that is how they marked their battleships. (With a matching square on the aft end!)

Please keep the comments coming! I value constructive criticism.

--Alex

Im suprised they didnt do this as the Mirror Universe Enterprise back in the 60's

British Navy one next?

 

[Albertese]

Either British or Russian... I plan to do both but haven't decide which.

--Alex

 

[JES]

aalenfae, you definitely have given me some food for thought. I like your take on it. For me, my two favorite things about the Japanese ships were the large lettering on the side and the Rising Sun flag with all the rays. So I definitely want to include those elements prominently. Your comments are helping me to reconsider some of the implementation, though... I'll revisit this before all is said and done.

In other news, I did the German one. Let me be the first to admit that it's weird to see a swastika on the Enterprise, but if it's good enough for Kirk, Spock and McCoy...

And before you tell me the big red square on the bow looks stupid... I agree, but that is how they marked their battleships. (With a matching square on the aft end!)

Please keep the comments coming! I value constructive criticism.

--Alex

Im suprised they didnt do this as the Mirror Universe Enterprise back in the 60's

British Navy one next?

There is no way in hell that the Third Reich would allow an alien to be first officer on any of their ships, at least not with the current policy that the Nazis had.
Maybe they would've considered Vulcans to be equal enough to have high ranking positions, but without a policy change, I doubt it. In fact, once they've milked the Vulcan race for all they were worth, history shows that they would've then attempted to wipe them out.
I'm not certain that any Africans would still be alive either, such as Nyota Uhura or Travis Mayweather, as the Nazis considered their race to be inferior and worthy of extermination too.

In this way, an interstellar Third Reich might be even worse than the Terran Empire, if that is even possible to believe.

And yes, the Nazis would most certainly, proudly fly the swastika on their ships. They were damned chauvinistic, and proud of it.
That probably is close to the terrifying sight that you would see if you were to see a Third Reich Starfleet vessel.

 

[Klaus]

These are disturbingly effective.

 

[Ptrope]

All very cool! I especially like the Roman version.

The Nazi version is interesting, and probably more realistic, but given the Nazi flair for pomp and pageantry, and a thorough grasp of propaganda and the power of graphic design, I could see them decorating a starship in much grander terms, creating something that projected their power and ambition much more forcefully and emotionally. I could see much broader splashes of red, reminiscent of their massive banners, and perhaps an integration of the eagle motif along with the swastika.

The red square on the bow isn't stupid, at all - I think it is, if anything, understated . Maybe a ribbon of red that runs across the diameter of the saucer, or perhaps a ring that runs completely around it.