This is topic DS9 weapon locations? in forum Starships & Technology at Flare Sci-Fi Forums.


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Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
 
OKay, so I'm trying to find where exactly the retractable weapons emplacments on DS9 are and I'm a bit stumped.
Obviously there are the defense sails....
I'm having difficulty accurately placing the phaser bars (those shoebox looking things) on either the habitat or docking ring....

Any screencaps would be extremely useful- I plan on converting the ERTL kit so all the weapons are in ass-kickin'-mode.
 

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Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
 
There are a few online sources to ST:Magazine articles that show the artists' intentions and the final results. Try www.starshipdatalink.net and go first to "concept art", then to "arming DS9"...

The text in that article isn't completely unambiguous, so we'll have to sort things out ourselves. IMHO, the final weapon locations seem to be:

-Multitorpedo launchers on the main docking pylons, behind sliding hatches (one at the base of each upper pylon, supposedly with symmetrical units on lower pylons even though these were not seen in action). Originally, these were supposed to be big phaser guns, but they are also seen firing boltlike things that could be small torps.

-Big phaser blocks on habitat ring, rising from near the runabout pads (six in all).

-Rotating drums that spit out phaser beams and possible torpedoes, on weapon sail midpoints (three times two on the dorsal sails, with possible symmetrical units below).

-Phaser blocks on ends of docking pylons (six in all); I'm not sure if these were really seen in the episode.

-In addition, the station must have retained the original weapons, including torpedo launchers within the weapon sails, and phaser strips at the edges of the sails. However, the phaser strips were seen firing bolts or torpedoes in "Way of the Warrior"!

Please fill in, and set right what once went wrong.

Timo Saloniemi
 

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Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
 
I have the DS9 season 1 trading cards and they have caps showing the weapons things coming off the habitat ring firing both torps and phasers from the same place! (This is in reguards to the original weapons locations).
 

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Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
 
Well...

The shoe-box launcher in the base of each docking pylon lacks the phasers from each mid-ring launcher, but the latter (confirmed to be a launcher in dialog) never actually fires any torps, just a lot of angry beams of doom, and the rotating drum on each mid-ring "spire" seems to be grouped together with the static launcher right next to it, as are the phaser strips accompanying both. And then there are the station's original weapons (OR ARE THEY?) that frighten and confuse your screencapper even more. Boo.
 

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Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
 
Thanks a lot for those pictures!

I have no major problem with most of the original and extra weapons, but the torpedoes coming out of the defense sail edge phaser strip seem like an annoying blooper to me. (Or is the dark center of a typical Starfleet phaser strip actually always a projectile launch system? That would nicely explain the "antimatter spread" of "BoBWII"!)

Also, it is a bit odd that the defense sails would feature Starfleet-style phaser strips from day one. The strips are there even in the Mirror Universe episodes and in the Terok Nor flashbacks! I'd have expected those translucent pyramids that serve as phaser emitters on Galors... But perhaps the Cardassians destroyed the pyramids when they left, and installing of phaser strips was a priority for the Starfleet team that prepped the station for Sisko prior to "Emissary".

Did we ever see the hidden weapons used again? Those Dominion war snippets don't seem to feature them.

Timo Saloniemi
 

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Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
 
I don't know if in season 1 that the phasers were of the yellow Cardassian variety. Remember the station had no defences except for the 6 or something photons that Kira got O'Brien to shoot over the Cardassian's bow. I would say that any new weaponry was Starfleet upgrade?
 

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Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
 
The DS9TM directly stated that the Cardassians stripped all the original weapons during the original evacuation at the end of the Occupation. I seriously doubt that the Cardassians would want to leave any of their weapons in the hands of the Bajorans on that station for any reason. (Also, if the Cardassians had mid-range plans to return and retake Bajor when it was convenient, having a near-defenseless station would've made it much easier.) I have no problem with the Enterprise-D quickly replicating (or transporting from some Starbase) some lower-power (say, Type-8 or whatever) phaser arrays to give the station minimal defenses, and having those installed in "Emissary".

Other equipment like the tractor beams would be less of a priority (and generally little threat), so the Cardassians might not've bothered to strip those.

Oh, and Jason: Please post pics and tips on your conversion methods... I just might do the exact same thing! (I've got a ten-year-old model of the station that probably could use some sprucing up, and that'd be a great way to do it. )
 

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Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
 
"Did we ever see the hidden weapons used again?"

The drums and inner-ring phaser blocks do get recycled in Call To Arms, as well as the launchers in the docking pylons (with stock footage, furthering my suspicion that they'd blown most of their effects budget earlier in the season), so they're all accounted for. There are just less shots of them compared to the WotW battle-scenes.
 

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Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
 
All right, one question left: do we ever see the phasers atop the docking pylons in action? (That is, can we get a screencap, pretty please?)

Timo Saloniemi
 

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Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
 
No. And no. B)
 

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Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
 
I can't get enough of people referencing my site for information. Makes it feel like it was worth it.

Cool screen caps too by the way. I've had to use the same blurry ones from the now dead STinSV for years. Even with almost every episode of ST on DVD, there aren't enough multimedia sites showing off DVD quality images. Or if there is, I haven't found any of them.
 

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Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
 
Trekpulse, Trekpulse, and, er, Trekpulse. That's your lot.
 

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Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
 
Hey, to expound on this, are there any caps of the original station weaponry in action? In "Emissary", we see the photons lauch from the top of the spire (seen used as such after the refit), and a "compression blast through the phaser array" or something from what became the combo laucher in the middle...

Mark
 

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Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
 
What's that Lee? I think you're trying to tell me something. Sounds like TrekPulse.

Thanks.
 

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Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
 
Thanks for the info and links so far guys!

Was'nt the beam fired from the defense sails in season one green though? I always thought the station had some Cardassian emplacments intact....
But they could have been (probably were) Bajoran weapons (as Starfleet is stingy on handing out weapons and their continued presense was far from assured).

quote:

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Originally posted by MinutiaeMan:

Oh, and Jason: Please post pics and tips on your conversion methods... I just might do the exact same thing! (I've got a ten-year-old model of the station that probably could use some sprucing up, and that'd be a great way to do it. )

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I will- the real pain in the butt will be making window decals for the habitat and central core- the kit is real sparce on details there.
Cutting out the rotating emplacments on the defense sails will not be easy either...I may have to get those cast in resin after I built one master.
Probably the best way to do all thw weapons: make one and cast the rest.
If it turns out really well, I'll see if someone wants to offer it as a kit.


Cartman, if you could cap some clear shots of the station's windows (as well as the lower core from the intro) that would rock.
 

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Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Cartman:
furthering my suspicion that they'd blown most of their effects budget earlier in the season...

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quote:

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Was'nt the beam fired from the defense sails in season one green though? I always thought the station had some Cardassian emplacments intact....

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Hmm... Which episode would this be? Even the tractor beams ("Dax" et al) seem to be yellowish IIRC.

Timo Saloniemi
 

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Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
 
Hmm...mabye it was yellow....I dont recall 100%.

It would've been pre-WOTW, of course...

I gotta re-watch my DVD's (though I cant find most of them from when I moved!)
I was thinking of "Dax" though.

Still, a yellow beam speaks of cardassian weaponry (to me).
Trek races (except the Federation) tend to color-coordinate their weapons with their starship colors....no idea why.
 

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Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
 
Does anyone have/know of online pics of the DS9 studio model?

I've googled, but cant find much save for some grainy scans.
I already have the pics at SSM and EAS- I'm looking for closeups of the window arrangments and the panels on the docking pylons in particular- those details are absent on the model I'm building and I plan on adding them as custom decals or paint.
 

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Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
 
A problem:

the provided screengrabs all how the defense sail with only one rotating laucher extended but the DS9TM shows both sides deployed (how they could both retract into that skinny tower elides me).

Which is correct?
Is there a shot of the defense sail with both launchers extended?
 

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Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
 
No.
 

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Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
 
It's only one turret. As noted, it would be impossible to fit two into the sail. Sternbach himself has noted that when he wrote the book, he missed out or got many details wrong, as he was working on Voyager full-time as their technical consultant.

Mark
 

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Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
 
Thanks- that makes my job of removing the caps of the extended launchers much easier.

I am going to have the dorsal sail launcher on the starboard side (as shown on the screencaps) and the ventral launcher extend from the port side (to provide total coverage).
This is as far as I've gotten. It takes about half an hour of carefully drilling (with a cylindrical paper drill so the launcher cap is not destroyed- only removed) for each hole.
I'll have to scratchbuild the tractor beam emotter on the sail's face as well- the kit only has a gaping hole there for some reason.
 

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