Prepare to have this place livened up a bit in the starship department.
As you all might know, I seem to have a knack of finding obscure email addresses of people who once worked for Star Trek's Art/VFX departments, and bugging them for pics of rarely seen ship models. Well, do I have a treat for you guys. I may be getting photos of not just one, but possibly four (!) models we haven't seen before. Once I get the pics, you guys will see the pics. Starting tonight.
In a nutshell, here's the rundown for this model. I've been in back-and-forth email contact with Adam Buckner (the guy who built the Centaur model) for almost two years now. He had built another kitbash besides the Centaur and the "Jupp" (the Constitution saucer with two nacelles kitbash), which according to him sat on Peter Lauritson's desk. It's a Miranda cargo variant he named the "Bradford" (although there's no name or registry on the model). It took me this long to get the photo because the models were basically sitting in a box in his garage all this time, and when he finally got them out they were in pieces. I didn't want to say anything here until I got a photo. But Adam is a really nice guy and really wanted to have the model look good before sending me a pic of it, so he glued it back together and snapped a photo:
"Wires everywhere. LEDs falling out. Mount points broken. Aged glue from a repair showing thru...
And the lens and DoF on the camera is all wrong...
Makes me cringe.
As you can see, it's a cargo variant for carrying substantial loads. I always imagined the rest of the main hull being converted to traditional cargo bays as well. Large doors and transporter arrays for loading cargo. Not much on the personnel side.
Main parts are new Enterprise, Reliant, and two Apollo Saturn 5's.
Once I get something other than a portrait lens (like a sliver of a Depth of Field) and a better backdrop than my couch, I'll try to get some more details. Originally I wanted to have at least one detachable cargo pod, but as a mid- to BG- ship there'd never be the chance to see it picking up cargo, so in the end, both pods were hard wired.
I'm missing some mount point covers and some other tiny bits... sigh."
I told him that I was just happy to see the picture
Besides the Reliant and the Saturn V rockets, it also looks like the nacelle pylons are actually Intrepid pylons taken from a Voyager model. The other thing that I find amazing is that the model is a dead ringer for the Kobayashi Maru seen in the new Star Trek movie (although this model was built a decade before that). Oh, and that the cargo pods are slightly phallic...
-------------------- "A film made in 2008 isn't going to look like a TV series from 1966 if it wants to make any money. As long as the characters act the same way, and the spirit of the story remains the same then it's "real" Star Trek. Everything else is window dressing." -StCoop
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
Nice to see the Prime Universe still has some gifts for us. I seem to recall Buckner talking about how he made a bunch of misc. ships for use in scenes involving starbases, to get the sense that these bases were areas of high activity/traffic, and in the end, only a few were ever used (the Centaur and the Frankenstein fleet in A Time to Stand). So did it ever appear on screen?
Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
The only ships I know he built for a fact was the Centaur, the Jupp, and this one. If he built any more I don't know about them. I got the impression that it wasn't filmed because Lauritson liked it so much he kept it on his desk.
Although there's an interesting story with the Centaur. Buckner was originally going to build a different model for it, but a young boy asked if he could build a model for him. So Buckner gave the boy the model that he was working on, and then built the Centaur as a replacement.
-------------------- "A film made in 2008 isn't going to look like a TV series from 1966 if it wants to make any money. As long as the characters act the same way, and the spirit of the story remains the same then it's "real" Star Trek. Everything else is window dressing." -StCoop
Registered: Jun 2000
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Teh PW
Self Impossed Exile (This Space for rent)
Member # 1203
posted
and the Centaur is in STO... interesting design, and yes the nu-Trek's KM is very simular in placement. with CGI, there's no reason you couldnt kitbash that design for TV or the movies... please show more?
posted
Awesome! It's an original configuration Reliant but with huge cargo pods instead of the phaser cannons. Looks kinda like my old USS Gao Yao design from waaay back:
A much better design than that shitty Tug thing made from computer clamps and whatnot. As to the design, I figure the crew compliment is minimal- with a workbee for everyone when it arrives at starbase to unload it's cargo...or possibly to unload emergency parts and supplies at mobile repair or defense stations- hell, with that cargo capacity, these ships could even bring a new warpcore to ships that jettison theirs to seal a subsapce rift...not that I'm pointing any fingers at anyone named Riker or anything.
quote:Originally posted by Dukhat: Although there's an interesting story with the Centaur. Buckner was originally going to build a different model for it, but a young boy asked if he could build a model for him. So Buckner gave the boy the model that he was working on, and then built the Centaur as a replacement.
That's a very cool guy to do that for a kid- Can you ask him what the model's configuration was? I wonder what that kid did with the model?
Great work in getting us this info and the pic, Dukhat! You sir, rock.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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quote:I'm amazed that FlareUpload seems to be working again.
Well, all I did was type the upload site's URL and entered my username/password, and it took me right to my uploaded files.
quote:That's a very cool guy to do that for a kid- Can you ask him what the model's configuration was? I wonder what that kid did with the model?
I got the impression that the original model was a similar configuration, just not as detailed. I'll check my old emails to find what he actually wrote about it. There's also some newer pics of the Centaur on his webpage, which I've forgotten the URL of but I have it somewhere in an old email.
quote:Great work in getting us this info and the pic, Dukhat! You sir, rock.
Wait until you see what else I'll be getting. I'm also in email contact with Dan Curry in order to get photos of his U.S.S. Curry model (but he's just moved and the model is in a shipping box somewhere waiting to be unearthed. He told me that once he finds it he'll take pics for me). And somebody else has two more models which sound very intriguing...
-------------------- "A film made in 2008 isn't going to look like a TV series from 1966 if it wants to make any money. As long as the characters act the same way, and the spirit of the story remains the same then it's "real" Star Trek. Everything else is window dressing." -StCoop
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
Someone call him up and saay you're that kid's dad and you just clumsily broke his kid's Trek model and could he please maybe send the Centaur model as a replacement, only he moved and now lives in Fort Lauderdale and is now called Jason because that's the thing now and no, he wont sell it or anything. Really, I think that could work- and Nim can say he's in Congress, so unless he wants a big hearing into SFX leading to "Muslim extremism", he better pony over the model as proof of good faith from the hollywood community- none of the Charlie Sheen crazy backtalk either.
Hey, did you know I've been awake over thirty hours now?
*dies*
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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Yep, that's the link. Click on the "USS Buckner" link and you'll see the Centaur pics and the story about the kid.
-------------------- "A film made in 2008 isn't going to look like a TV series from 1966 if it wants to make any money. As long as the characters act the same way, and the spirit of the story remains the same then it's "real" Star Trek. Everything else is window dressing." -StCoop
Registered: Jun 2000
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It's amazing that after all these years there are still models we've yet to see, or even know exist. Makes me wonder if some other things will ever come to light, like the alternate version of the Emissary Borg battle that's rumoured to have been filmed in part, or at least had models built for it. Good going managing to unearth more information, Dukhat!
And am I seeing things, or are the connecting struts for those cargo pods part of the stands for the ERTL Excelsior model? Very nice use of spare parts, if so.
posted
I...think you're right! Those do look to be Excelsior stands!
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
The resourcefulness put into making these kitbashes never ceases to amaze me. I'm still not fond of some of the designs where the different components are still recognizable (the Yeager and the one with the F-14 body come to mind), but the creativity used to make these pieces fit together still blows my mind.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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