Post by CaptainPierce on Feb 23, 2005 23:28:56 GMT -5
Going to split this off from the discussion in the thread about Atra's D7's, because it really has nothing to do with his D7's... 
But, in that thread, Aridas posted this picture of a D7 model someone did:
which got me to thinking about the whole idea of the Romulan "bird of prey" that's painted on their ships.
The idea of the "bird of prey" pattern goes all the way back to the Romulans' first appearance in "Balance of Terror." Lieutenant Stiles (who seems not to be the same character as Captain Styles of the Excelsior in STIII ) mentions that they'll be able to tell if the intruder ship is Romulan from the "bird of prey" painted on their ships. This one little line has caused endless speculation, from calling the Romulan ship from that episode a "Bird of Prey" to using the exact same "bird of prey" emblem on any number of Romulan ships of any era. Personally, I have opinions on both of those topics: first, I think that "Bird of Prey" has become more associated with the Klingons, and I far prefer the term "Warbird" for Romulan ships; and secondly, I think endlessly copy-and-pasting the bird pattern from the "Balance of Terror" Warbird onto other ships is damned annoying.
The one Aridas posted is actually a good example of how I think Romulan ships should be done: take that pattern as an example, and tweak it to fit the ship you're doing. Obviously, that ship is inspired by the TOS Warbird, but it's not a direct copy. As an example of how I would prefer not to see it done, I would offer into evidence the Romulan ships from the Starfleet Museum. What you've got there is that exact bird from the TOS Warbird, copied onto any number of ships with no regard for their shape. (IMO, your mileage may vary. )
Basically, the reason I started this thread was to pimp a few models that I think are interesting extrapolations of the "Warbird" mentality, and to encourage others to do the same.
The first three I have are from the Trekmods.com team; the textures are by Thomas The Cat, who IMO has done an incredible job of first taking the original Warbird and tweaking it a bit to make it look a bit more "modern:"
From there, he went on to do a Romulan retexture of StressPuppy's D7:
and an even more "out there" texture on a FASA V-6 "Gallant Wing" model"
The thing I like most about his D7 and V-6 textures is that the birds on them look so, well, alien.
Another thing I want to show is this take by a friend of mine, CommanderJones, on the SFC Romulan Condor. This was originally designed to take the place of the Condor in StressPuppy's TOS mod for Homeworld, and CJ is currently in the process of remodelling and retexturing the ship for SFC and other games:
Hope you've enjoyed these, and I'd love to see some other images posted here of other interesting "Warbird" patterns...
But, in that thread, Aridas posted this picture of a D7 model someone did:which got me to thinking about the whole idea of the Romulan "bird of prey" that's painted on their ships.
The idea of the "bird of prey" pattern goes all the way back to the Romulans' first appearance in "Balance of Terror." Lieutenant Stiles (who seems not to be the same character as Captain Styles of the Excelsior in STIII
) mentions that they'll be able to tell if the intruder ship is Romulan from the "bird of prey" painted on their ships. This one little line has caused endless speculation, from calling the Romulan ship from that episode a "Bird of Prey" to using the exact same "bird of prey" emblem on any number of Romulan ships of any era. Personally, I have opinions on both of those topics: first, I think that "Bird of Prey" has become more associated with the Klingons, and I far prefer the term "Warbird" for Romulan ships; and secondly, I think endlessly copy-and-pasting the bird pattern from the "Balance of Terror" Warbird onto other ships is damned annoying.The one Aridas posted is actually a good example of how I think Romulan ships should be done: take that pattern as an example, and tweak it to fit the ship you're doing. Obviously, that ship is inspired by the TOS Warbird, but it's not a direct copy. As an example of how I would prefer not to see it done, I would offer into evidence the Romulan ships from the Starfleet Museum. What you've got there is that exact bird from the TOS Warbird, copied onto any number of ships with no regard for their shape. (IMO, your mileage may vary.
)Basically, the reason I started this thread was to pimp a few models that I think are interesting extrapolations of the "Warbird" mentality, and to encourage others to do the same.
The first three I have are from the Trekmods.com team; the textures are by Thomas The Cat, who IMO has done an incredible job of first taking the original Warbird and tweaking it a bit to make it look a bit more "modern:"
From there, he went on to do a Romulan retexture of StressPuppy's D7:
and an even more "out there" texture on a FASA V-6 "Gallant Wing" model"
The thing I like most about his D7 and V-6 textures is that the birds on them look so, well, alien.
Another thing I want to show is this take by a friend of mine, CommanderJones, on the SFC Romulan Condor. This was originally designed to take the place of the Condor in StressPuppy's TOS mod for Homeworld, and CJ is currently in the process of remodelling and retexturing the ship for SFC and other games:
Hope you've enjoyed these, and I'd love to see some other images posted here of other interesting "Warbird" patterns...
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