quote:Does anyone have a screenshot of the BoP behind/above the Merchantman? Knowing the size of that BoP, we should be able to calculate the size of the Merchantman. If it's smaller than a shuttlepod - then no shots can be trusted for 'canon' scale purposes.
The Merchantman's not quite smaller than a shuttlepod if the BoP is about a hundred meters long (one of the guesstimates that might work with STIII/IV shots), but it comes close. No bigger than a runabout, at any rate.
Then again, nothing wrong with that. The same design was shown as a very small patrol type in "The Host", and in a similar role at ambiguous scale in "The Outrageous Okona". And the interiors in STIII showed nothing larger than a runabout cabin, with cargo tied down in a haphazard manner. The type could really be a runabout of sorts, rather than a bulk freighter.
(The same model later appears as a decidedly larger freighter type in "The Maquis", but that's about the only episode to give such a scale to the model.)
quote:Besides, what possible use would a larger version of the BoP be? Why would it look exactly ther same? Occam's Razor.
If the BoP shape is the way to make starships capable of atmospheric operations, it would be smart to build several sizes. Landing craft were built for amphibious warfare in WWII using essentially the same basic shape but vastly different size!
And ships, being only partially immersed in a medium, aren't even the best possible argument for sticking to one shape. If function dictates form for atmospheric starships, a smart engineer might choose a single shape for which the aerodynamic characteristics are known, and scale that up and down as far as the laws of aerodynamics allow. Small for scouting, medium for inserting platoons and giving a bit of fire support, large for inserting batallions and leveling cities...
posted
I'm not sure if the aerodynamic argument holds much water, given that the wings have a square cross-section and as such generates about as much lift as a brick. To my mind the existence of two (or more) identically scaled designs is more about Klingon lack of original thinking, combined with a proportionally small number of ship designers. I think it was simpler for them to use existing hull frame blueprints and rescale than to design a ship from scratch.
Another possible (though not mutually exclusive) explanation is that since the Empire is a feudal society, most of the ship yards are operated by different Houses and day to day operations are not under the direct control of the High Council. So some Houses make their own decisions on how they interpret the Bird of Prey blueprints, which results in dozens of variations.
quote:Originally posted by Peregrinus: And I've taken a Generations boxing of the BoP model kit, which at 1:1400, would approximate the ~330m K'Vort, filled in the existing windows, added more appropriately-scaled windows in the habitable areas, and completely resculpted the torpedo launcher and shroud to fit a dual-launcher array, with a docking port between them a deck up. --Jonah
I demand to see said model!
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
...We did get a size comparison in the aquarium with the bathrobed Spock before any transporter magic was performed. (I trust the whale-head there was a mock-up and not a live specimen?)
Basically, as Bernd's pages show, it's just barely plausible to have two relatively normal-sized humpback whales inside a BoP that matches the scale of the "landed on Vulcan, people disembarking" matte painting. It would be a breeze to get them inside the BoP if she were as big as when shown relative to the whaling boat, though. And there'd basically be no way to get them in if one uses the half-sunken command pod prop as the yardstick (the BoP would be less than fifty meters long, then).
Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
Temporal compression. See, you travel near the speed of light, and time dilates. You travel through TIME near the speed of light...and SPACE compresses. I'll take my Nobel Prize now.
Edit: That was thoroughly tongue in cheek of course...
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
There's no point trying to justify any of this as there's inconsistencies all over the place. For one, the cargo bay/holding tank set is WAY too small, the cargo bay door exterior mock-up doesn't correspond to any exterior detail on the BoP miniature, which is presumably the same door that Sulu lowered the transparent aluminium through, which makes that impossible too. In fact that whole movie, is ironically the least reliable for scale reference. Point of interest, how wide is golden gate park?
It looks pretty big, but I guess you're limited to the cleared areas. Of course, I have no idea if this is even close to how the park looked in 1986.
Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
It rivals New York's Central Part for size. There are many, many different places Sulu could tuck a 110-metre BoP without interfering with anything.
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
Actually, I just had a snoop round the place on Google Earth using the ruler and the only open space I can find that's big enough for the 110m BoP is that open area in the NW quarter, right next to JFK Drive. Not that it probably matters much, but is there anyway of knowing which part they filmed in? I understand we have at least on Frisco native on the board.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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