Romulan Bird of Prey Question

[CuttingEdge100]

The Romulan BoP is officially like ~130 meters like?

Is the size listed an accurate size figure? I mean the rim is two decks thick and looks to be a lot bigger than that...


CuttingEdge100

 

[Timo]

"Accurate" would depend on the context. The lifesize prop used in ST4:TVH would indicate a very small vessel, perhaps just 50 meters in length. Comparisons of the photographic model against other photographic models give sizes ranging from 80 meters to several hundreds of meters. Comparisons of the photographic model against real backgrounds, theoretically available from ST4, are inconclusive, but the rough 130 m length is suggested in the matte work of that movie, and of ST3; the prop, only properly seen in the final sinking scene, might have to be disregarded.

Also, the comparisons in space shots might be taken to indicate the existence of two different sizes of craft, plus an optical illusion that is perhaps related to the presence of a cloaking device aboard these ships. Perhaps the cloak comes with a "cat in a corner" mode, and regularly makes the ships look slightly larger than they really are? Or perhaps this is a common involuntary side effect or malfunction in the cloak?

If we drop the cloak theory, we probably have to believe that Klingons build at least a dozen differently sized but identically shaped variants of the design...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[GodThingFormerly]

^ I'm under the (possibly mistaken) impression that the OP was asking about Wah Chang's Romulan BoP miniature as featured in the TOS episodes Balance of Terror and The Deadly Years.

TGT

 

[Timo]

Ah, it pays to read more than 20% of message content. Sorry!

Rim windows might not be the best possible way to judge starship sizes when one considers the case of the Enterprise... But we don't really have any other means of judging the size. None of the exterior windows were seen from the inside, and there were no comparisons against objects of known size.

That is, until the re-effecting of "The Enterprise Incident". There, the formation shot establishes the native Romulan vessel as having the same width as the Klingon-style cruisers, albeit with a big fudge factor. Perhaps 130 meters is still within tolerances, but something slightly larger would better fit the bill.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[CuttingEdge100]

Timo,

The rim-windows could roughly infer deck size, which determines the thickness of the rim. With that determined you could then determine the size of the rest of the ship.


CuttingEdge100

 

[Timo]

But in that case, Kirk's TOS ship should be 1,500 feet long, not 1,000.

Which may of course be true. But in that case, some of the scaling choices in TMP are invalidated. Unless the refit shrunk the ship by a third...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[CuttingEdge100]

Timo,

Are you serious? A 20 foot rim thickness would produce a 1,500 foot long vessel?

 

[Timo]

Well, the assumption that each of the two window rows represents one deck would mean that the rim of Kirk's ship in fact has three decks if not four, considering the placement of those windows and the amount of empty wall above and below. Which gives the extra one-third or more to the size.

The Romulan TOS ship looks more like it could have just two decks, both of which would have a row of windows. But the ENT version again seems to have two window rows but three decks there.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[CuttingEdge100]

Timo,

Each window isn't a whole deck high -- if you look at the windows in most houses, they're not the full floor-height.

If you're talking about the positioning of the windows -- I think this would be more a matter of incorrect window-placement on the model. The TMP model also has small surface-detail errors of that sort... (dock-hatch size, size of the O-lounge windows)


CuttingEdge100