TAS made real....

[Maurice]

Yeah, but we see the Starfleet pennant on the nacelle onscreen so it sorta belongs. I could simplify it by removing the yellow boomerang usually associated with the red pennant although the boomerang is present on the TAS version.

The TAS Enterprise ship is missing the boomerang in this shot (link)

But all the line drawings of the robot ships from Filmation indicates boomerangs were intended to be present. Seems the ink & paint dept. ignored them.

Note: we tend to think of TOS’ miniatures (excluding the Enterprise and Galileo) as static unlighted models, but the original Romulan Warbird from “Balance Of Terror” purportedly did have working lights. If we use that as a precedent for other (sadly never built) miniatures then including lights on some of these TAS designs is not out of bounds.

The nacelle caps lit up IIRC.

Envisioning other purposes for the ship, the large "windows" on the square hull structure suggests the vessel can be (is) configured for personnel transport as well as cargo freighter. Possible passenger accommodations and recreation lounges could be around the outer rim of the square to take advantage on the picture windows. This ship-type could also be the AstraI Queen from TCOTK.

Or, those are not windows but cargo hatches, then, never mind.

I don't think those long white rectangles on the robot ships are "windows", because why would they be several decks tall on a robot ship? And why does a robot ship need windows? I think details can be white without being windows.

 

[uniderth]

Since the cargo vessel is not a ship of war, then it should not get the pendant on the hull. Its name should be on it someplace; perhaps on the flat top surface between to tower features and the bow. A script name on the tower side a la the Galileo would be cool. Blinking lights are tight! This view shows white lighted windows and the two rear curved things are white. Red stripes on bottom and top break up the dull grey nicely. The I.D. number is NCC-61465 (or is it G1465); more than enough numbers for high volume ships. The dish looks mounted to the primary hull; lower center location.

I'd almost be tempted to say that's NCC-G14-65

 

[Warped9]

I'd almost be tempted to say that's NCC-G14-65

Yep. It’s not the easiest to decipher. In the end I went with a new number, NCC-61523

 

[trynda1701]

I kind of liked the G prefix to the NCC numerals. Keeps it separate from five digit numbers we know come later on mainline ships after the movies going towards the TNG period.

For a few subtle details, what about the little number markers that are on the 11 foot Enterprise? Plus, a couple of small yellow or grey panels lined in red(?) like those on the underside of the ship? Could they be elsewhere on the robot ships?

 

[Warped9]

Y'all keep coming up with dese details!

 

[BK613]

Re: the hull number: It's clear in the behind-the-scene diagram that @Maurice posted here that it was intended to be a "G." And the Huron sported an "F" in the same location.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Please don't tell me that the "G" stood for grain.

 

[Henoch]

Please don't tell me that the "G" stood for grain.

"G" probably for carGo. "C" is too common a letter to define the type of ship. "F" for freighter. "?" for survey vessel, again, "S" may be too common, so, it could be "V". Etc.

 

[Maurice]

Yeah, it's a G not a 6.

That gap tweet the twin "tails" looks like the perfect place to slot in a cargo module for towing.

 

[BK613]

Please don't tell me that the "G" stood for grain.

Well...

Captain's log, stardate 5392.4. The Enterprise has been assigned to escort two robot grain ships to Sherman's Planet,​

and

KIRK: Yes. Status report on the damaged grain ship, Scotty?​

and

SPOCK: The Klingon seems to be veering off. My mistake, Captain. They were not veering off. They were attacking the grain ship.​

 

[137th Gebirg]

I’ve always thought they were referring to “General Use”.

 

[Warped9]

Not sure what else to add. I've tried to use one of the greys used on the 11 footer Enterprise as the overall colour with some of the accent greys also used. I tried to match the copper colour of the deflector as well as the dark redish colour of the nacelle domes for 1st and 2nd pilot versions of the TOS E. On the nacelle support pylons I also tried a similar cyan blue as the dorsal of the 1st pilot Enterprise. Finally I added port and starboard running lights as well as a white bow light.

 

[Maurice]

Not sure what else to add. I've tried to use one of the greys used on the 11 footer Enterprise as the overall colour with some of the accent greys also used. I tried to match the copper colour of the deflector as well as the dark redish colour of the nacelle domes for 1st and 2nd pilot versions of the TOS E. On the nacelle support pylons I also tried a similar cyan blue as the dorsal of the 1st pilot Enterprise. Finally I added port and starboard running lights as well as a white bow light.

Looks good!

I'm a tad surprised you made the nacelles closer to those on the Enterprise than the animated original, since those make them feel more kitbashed than the slightly different nacelles on the Filmation drawings.

Still, good stuff!

 

[Warped9]

Except for the Enterprise the TAS illustrators drew the nacelles on the freighters and the shuttlecraft basically all the same way. I saw how they did part of the nacelles on the TOS-R version--it's not bad and it didn't occur to me to try it that way. At this point I'm not sure I'm iclined to go back and change them.

 

[Warped9]

Looking ahead I might have missed a ship: Carter Winston's ship from "The Survivor."

There is really very little to see of this design. I believe we get only one view of it in the episode. Yet it does resemble an odd shuttlecraft design seen parked in the Enterprise's hangar when Harry Mudd is trying to make his escape (at the end of the parked row of shuttlecraft).



Given the pressure to reuse miniatures and stock footage whenever possible to save money it's likely a previous miniature could have been reused for Carter Winton's ship (such as Cyrano's scoutship). But if we, again, accept the conceit of idealized conditions then maybe they could have worked something up. Mind you, like the derelict pod ship, Winston's damaged small craft could easily be a static miniature without lights. And perhaps a sort of kitbash (did they do that sort of thing back in the '60s?) would have sufficed rather than working up something from scratch.

Curiously there is a drawing in the Official Guide To The Animated Series of Winston’s ship, but it sports only a single nacelle.

 

[trynda1701]

Since the cargo vessel is not a ship of war, then it should not get the pendant on the hull. Its name should be on it someplace; perhaps on the flat top surface between to tower features and the bow. A script name on the tower side a la the Galileo would be cool. Blinking lights are tight! This view shows white lighted windows and the two rear curved things are white. Red stripes on bottom and top break up the dull grey nicely. The I.D. number is NCC-61465 (or is it G1465); more than enough numbers for high volume ships. The dish looks mounted to the primary hull; lower center location.

Is this an actual shot from the episode? I like the red stripes here, except for the ones at the aft of the nacelle.

The ship name, in slightly smaller script than the NCC number, might look good just aft of that single long white detail, between it and the navigation light?

 

[Warped9]

In TOS the automated freighter was called Woden. Spock's reference indicates it was an old style freighter converted to automation. Now we we will never know what the Woden might have looked like if Matt jeffereies had worked up something, but so many of us are assuming it could have been the same or similar to what we saw in TAS.

But in TAS they are referred to as robot cargo ships. The implication is that these have perhaps always been robot ships rather than formally crewed vsessels since converted to robotic control. As such perhaps these vessels wouldn't even have been given a name, but just a registry number. They would effectively be drones remotely shepherded by an accompanying vessel--in this instance the Enterprise--although almost any manned could serve as a control ship for perhaps a good number of these robotic ships in a sort of convoy.

In "The Ultimate Computer" the implication was the Woden was fully automated in that it could follow a generally designated flight path yet make course corrections as needed and perhaps even broadcast a distress call if faced with a situation its programming could not handle. In the episode it's not referenced that it broadcast any distress call even as the Enterprise was approaching possibly because it was programmed to recognize a Federation starship as a friendly and non threatening contact.

 

[Henoch]

In "The Ultimate Computer" the implication was the Woden was fully automated in that it could follow a generally designated flight path yet make course corrections as needed and perhaps even broadcast a distress call if faced with a situation its programming could not handle. In the episode it's not referenced that it broadcast any distress call even as the Enterprise was approaching possibly because it was programmed to recognize a Federation starship as a friendly and non threatening contact.

Don't forget the "the ore ships" that visit the Delta Vega Lithium Cracking Station only once every twenty years from WNMHGB. Good chance that these ore ships might be automated freighters, too. Maybe the Woden was on route to Delta Vega to get a load of dilithium...
At least we know that the SS Huron is a larger freighter, and in TOS fashion, shares similar features with the smaller cargo vessel, too:

 

[137th Gebirg]

Always liked that quirky little ship. So implausible, but still cool to look at. I'm assuming the "F" in the registry implies "freighter".

 

[Warped9]

I thought the F meant freaky.