Romulan Warbird

[Bill Morris]

The furniture in that figure is small in relation to the door. I measured the door on the illustration from Ex Astris Scientia, and it was 22% smaller. I corrected the figure above to reflect that, making the chairs about 40% as tall as the doorway, as they should be. The ceilings are still higher than in a Starfleet runabout, though, but maybe Romulans like it that way. High ceilings are nice.

That update and the changes in disruptor locations on the Warbird we discussed can be seen here, along with a new dropdown shuttle for the Ferengi Marauder (42 Trek schematics all together). And, of course, this link will be good for any other additions or changes.

http://lcars24.com/starfleet.html

For the real-space gallery, I just added three new items:

http://lcars24.com/nasagal.html

 

[Bill Morris]

Okay, here's the Romulan shuttle with rescaling of the interior (ceiling: 8.5'):

 

[Maurice]

Andy was nice enough to reply to my questions, but his answers raised a few additional questions which I am tossing back to him.

While I get those matters clarified, I can tell you that the two rows of details along the spine are lifeboat covers (duplicated on the shuttle because no one asked Andy what the details were for). He confirmed that the large triangular feature on the nose is indeed the nav deflector, and the indented feature above the bird logo is in fact the location of the bridge.

The main warp engine room is "in the dorsal 'hump' just aft of the twin disrupter mount, and you can see an indication of the energy conduit shielding running down to the warp engine in my calendar painting." I would postulate that the quantum singularity would therefore be generated there.

 

[Maurice]

Excuse my posting twice in a row. I didn't want to mess with editing my previous post while others might be replying to it.

Anyway, Andy Probert got back to me and here's what he said the features were intended to be.

The cyclopean eyeball above the bird logo was left off the studio model, it it's where the bridge was designed to go, as below...

Shuttle bay: Look on the plastic model and see the indented area on the top of the aft end,... that is the landing bay door. [Looks small because size was reduced somewhat on model]

Impulse engine: Omitted by a tight schedule, yes, but it would have been recessed into a vertical slot starting just below that landing bay and ending symmetrically below. The reason there are few (if any) side windows at the back area of the ship is because that's where that engine & power plant would have been.

Wing spacing: The wings were to have had a LOT more substance to them (as seen in my drawing) but was reduced [on] the model. They are separated to allow the engines to 'see' each other and generate a warp field. As previously noted on the board, I did not design the subsequent ships that ignore my attempt at requirements-for-warp-drive continuity.

Main warp engine room: Is in the dorsal 'hump' just aft of the twin disrupter mount and you can see an indication of the energy conduit shielding running down to the warp engine in my calendar painting.

Life boat covers: Yes, they were duplicated on Drexler's beautiful little shuttle (warp engine rule aside), for visual continuity.

Nav Deflector: Again, it isn't a weapon, just a deflector...

Disruptors: Yes, I did mirror the two top aft weapons on the bottom.

Cargo Bays: At the leading edge of the lower 'wing'? Yes. They've always been cargo doors and my original design included large central areas to house cargo & other departments but was truncated, for some reason, when Greg built the model.

Note the built-up detail on the lower wing behind the cargo bays, as mentioned above, and the much more prominent "hunch" in which the engine room was designed to go. You can also see the bridge detail on this sketch.

 

[Horizon]

Nice. Thank you, DS9Sega, for relaying the information from Mr. Probert.

 

[Bill Morris]

Thanks, DS9Sega and Andy Probert. I'll remove the disruptor cannon and change the impulse engine. Maybe I should remove the reference to separation and the impulse engine in the head, too, although those really do look like separation planes to me.

 

[EmperorTiberius]

Thanks, DS9Sega and Andy Probert. I'll remove the disruptor cannon and change the impulse engine. Maybe I should remove the reference to separation and the impulse engine in the head, too, although those really do look like separation planes to me.

Why would you remove it when it was seen on screen? Mr. Probert intended her one way, it came out slightly different. You can include his specifications as long as they don't interfere with canon.

 

[Bill Morris]

Right. I'll leave it. I forgot momentarily. I even posted a screencap in this thread of the thing firing. Thanks for reminding me.

 

[EmperorTiberius]

Right. I'll leave it. I forgot momentarily. I even posted a screencap in this thread of the thing firing. Thanks for reminding me.

lol you need to take a break man, go read a book.

 

[Bill Morris]

I keep thinking the art work is all done for the next release of my software, and more details keep cropping up. And I was just looking at my source code to see why the LCARS screenshot function wasn't working. It was. I had just forgotten I had added code weeks ago to output .png instead of .bmp.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Wow, I've known for a while the Warbird was a fair bit bigger than the Ent-D, but that elevation drawing just kicks it up to a whol new notch that nobody even bothered visiting onscreen. >_>

 

[Timo]

Fascinating detail from The Man himself...

Regarding the most prominently seen disruptor in the middle of the supposed deflector, we might remember that this is how the Cardassians have arranged their main weapons as well. The Galor model sports numerous disruptor turrets all around the hull, much like the D'deridex, although they are small pyramids instead of domes. Yet the main beam fires from the middle of the deflector, from the centermost of three features therein (although perhaps all three are disruptors and fire alternately?).

We learn in the DS9 episode "Dax" that Romulans and Cardassians were in technological cahoots at some point during the Occupation. Or perhaps they just stole each other's tech solutions. Either way, this commonality would make sense.

Deflectors are supposedly powerful projectors of subspace fields that allow a tractor beam to go FTL and sweep the space clear of debris for several lightminutes ahead of the ship. Such a projector would probably be very practical in boosting sensors and weapons to greater speeds and ranges, too - which is why Fed designs place the former in the dish area, while Romulan and Cardassian ones place the latter.

There's also the powerful bow beam weapon of the Klingon Vor'Cha, as seen in action in "Redemption". That, too, seems to emanate from the middle of a deflector dish. So even if the designer's intentions have been trampled upon in case of the Romulan ship, we still have pretty good tech continuity here...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Maurice]

Then again, we've seen the Enterprise fire phasers from places she doesn't have phasers. At some point you have to decide what's a VFX glitch and what's a consistent design change.

 

[Timo]

I'd say the Warbird indeed has a main gun in the middle of the bow roundel "for real", considering how prominently this weapon has been portrayed in multiple episodes of two shows.

Whether the actual Probert guns are what they were designed to be is a hairier issue. When do we see the Warbird fire her "secondary" weapons? In "The Defector", perhaps? At least the Galor sometimes uses her pyramid guns in addition to the bow main weapon...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Saquist]

I keep thinking the art work is all done for the next release of my software, and more details keep cropping up. And I was just looking at my source code to see why the LCARS screenshot function wasn't working. It was. I had just forgotten I had added code weeks ago to output .png instead of .bmp.

I agree with, 24.
Canon overrides Design Intent.

With all due respect to Mr. Probert of course, I think keeping the Deflector the deflector is less confusing but the VFX guys really did what they wanted to it appears.

 

[Timo]

As for the odd twin-hull design, the "nacelles must see each other" rule is another thing where canon seems to trump design intent. Of the four ship designs that had nacelles in TOS, two obeyed this rule and two did not - the space yacht Aurora had the bulk of her hull in there between the engines, and the Romulan ship's engines had their broad pylons blocking the way. Of the nacelled ships introduced in the TOS movies, two agreed, one (the Oberth class) did not. Shuttles never agreed. And so forth.

However, one might well argue that the Romulans created a hollow ship for the purpose of being insanely stealthy. All warp engines are known to create emissions that can be observed at a distance - but perhaps those are easier to mask with a cloaking field if they are directed inward? Perhaps a ship with lots of bulk between the warp coils must stretch the field outward, leading to greater leakage of power to distance?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Bill Morris]

I did notice that the warp-field grilles light up only on the inner sides in the case of the Romulan Warbird.

Another thing that has come up: It seems the Wells class is not 335 meters in overall length as generally suspected but more like 195 meters, making room for a maximum of nine decks. Fitting a bridge 60' transporter wall to far opposite wall below the bubble seems to confirm that assessment.

 

[Saquist]

As for the odd twin-hull design, the "nacelles must see each other" rule is another thing where canon seems to trump design intent. Of the four ship designs that had nacelles in TOS, two obeyed this rule and two did not - the space yacht Aurora had the bulk of her hull in there between the engines, and the Romulan ship's engines had their broad pylons blocking the way. Of the nacelled ships introduced in the TOS movies, two agreed, one (the Oberth class) did not. Shuttles never agreed. And so forth.

However, one might well argue that the Romulans created a hollow ship for the purpose of being insanely stealthy. All warp engines are known to create emissions that can be observed at a distance - but perhaps those are easier to mask with a cloaking field if they are directed inward? Perhaps a ship with lots of bulk between the warp coils must stretch the field outward, leading to greater leakage of power to distance?

Timo Saloniemi

That's mostly correct but the nacelles on the shuttles were mostly superflous, posing as boosters.

 

[Maurice]

...Of the four ship designs that had nacelles in TOS, two obeyed this rule and two did not
- the space yacht Aurora had the bulk of her hull in there between the engines, and the Romulan ship's engines had their broad pylons blocking the way...

Four ships?
1. Enterprise (and sisters)
2. Klingon Battlecruiser
3. Romulan Bird of Prey
4. Aurora
5. Shuttlecraft

...and the Romulan ship's engines had their broad pylons blocking the way...

I don't believe that's correct. The Romulan ship's nacelles appear to have had clear line of sight, as the support pylons plug into the lower side of the nacelles, not the centers, and they appear high enough to peek over the superstructure.

 

[SonicRanger]

...and the Romulan ship's engines had their broad pylons blocking the way...

I don't believe that's correct. The Romulan ship's nacelles appear to have had clear line of sight, as the support pylons plug into the lower side of the nacelles, not the centers, and they appear high enough to peek over the superstructure.

DS9Sega is correct:

http://www.cloudster.com/sets&vehicles/STromulanBirdOfPrey/TOS_Romulan_BOP_02.jpg

And the shuttlecraft's nacelles have fairly clear line-of-sight too:

http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints/galileo-shuttlecraft-plans-sheet-1.jpg