Hey all: One of the coolest alien designs of the Animated Series, IMO, was the Pirate Ship from "The Pirates of Orion". It was only ever seen in two very closely-oriented views: head-on and slightly 3/4 off-center to port. The head-on image is most commonly seen, and I always wondered what the rest of this ship really looked like. There have been numerous attempts out there in the past to turn this into a CG model in the 3D world and, while noble in intent, I always found them to be a bit boxey and not quite in proportion. Understandably so...it was clearly drawn in such a way that it only really looked good in 2 dimensions, but the 3/4 forward view provided some extra useful visual information. I wanted to try to take a stab at it by making a 3-view ortho of the ship, in an attempt to make its lines look sleek and alien. I preserved the colors, as they really are nowhere near as offensive as the pink Kzinti ship from "Slaver Weapon", and added some detailing and other greebles to make it look a little more than a 2-dimensional drawing. Unfortunately, there's really no way to make the outer wing tips not look clipped from any angle other than the front, so I'm not sure I was entirely successful there, but the rest of it I think looks pretty serviceable. I'll let you all be the judge. Enjoy!
I always thought of it looking like a Winged Defender from FASA--but that isn't really right. I also like that Enterprise, where the nacelles terminate in very large spheres. I'd like to see that one brought to life.
Very nice interpretations of the pirate ship. I am a bit confused because I thought this month's challenge was to update to 21st century standards. No offense intended, but these still look stuck in the 70s to me.
You're probably right - I did try to spruce it up a bit in places, like detailing in the lower arms & the sensor packages on either side of the forward wings. Perhaps I didn't go far enough on that one. Sadly, I won't have enough time to do any more modifications between now and the end of the month. I guess I'll just let the judges decide...