This was a wild episode to work on and the show called for a Vulcan cargo ship that was broad at the hip and narrow at the nose! A very fun departure from the sleeker side of the ships called for in the previous episodes, this one was to be a frumpy, gritty cargo ship that you would not want to fly into the vacuum of space with. The ship went through about 6 to 8 variations and here are the final 4 plus some great CG modeling by Eden’s Pierre!!! Enjoy the bumpy ride and be sure to buckle your safety belts!!
the desert turtle shell version
the fat grasshopper version
we love it, now go change the cockpit!
pen and pencil only for the final, no time for a splash of color!
Pierre #1 lots of engines for that smoky reentry.
where can I pick up a CB radio to go for this crazy space truck!
the dish acts just like a doorless microwave so you can enjoy a nuked bean and weenie steaming hot combo platter by just waving the plate in front of the deflector for .005 secs
lots of nooks and crannys for hobos to hitch a ride!
Thanks for those great shots, John! For those (few) that don’t also follow Doug’s blog, here’s a re-use (with slight modification) of that ship as a Klingon transport vessel in “Judgement”:
http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/klingon-transport-2/
OWWW-WAHH I haven’t had time to visit my brother Drex’s page in about a week and I’ve missed a lot,,, How coincidental these two ships are both up today!!! that Jolly Roger Doug,,, how does he get the time to post and keep u with the comments! He must not have 5 daughters!
Just me or does #2 have alot of Conestoga influence? Looks more like an Earth ship than a Vulcan ship.
not intentionally but I do see what you see!!!
I was thinking the cockpits all look vaguely like the Phoenix’s. Nice to see this ship after the mentions of it in Doug’s Klingon transport article. I don’t remember seeing it in this configuration before.
the PHX shaped cockpit was imposed onto this ship because we were going to use that interior set again, Good eye their MR.!!
Ah, I thought it might be because of that.
But I noticed on the Klingon revamped version the windows were much smaller and less distinctive, so I guess there were no interior cockpit shots for that.
The Phoenix cockpit was reused for the interior cockpit set seen in the episode, that is why they exterior was made to look like the interior set, I guess.
Was the cockpit a reuse of the Phoenix/Inspecition-Pod-cockpit? I don’t remember. Having this in mind looks like a modified inspection pod with cargo-containers. Like the workbe with cargo from the movies. Well my fantasy is acting up.
yes it was,,, that little set was used several times during the coarse of the show
Here’s a screenshot of the cockpit:
http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l142/gaghyogi49/May%202009/MenosshipcockpitTheseventh.jpg
Thanks Jorg!!!! You are the MAN!!!
Your the next recipient of the evesdropper award, do you have anything special you want to request, or do you just want to see what comes about???
Jorg certainly deserves the award, he is the screenshot king
John, he obviously needs a surveilence ship of some type bristling with visual sensors, something fairly large as well for his huge archive of screengrabs!
With some ornate lamps, a breadmaker and a Romulan Warbird’s warp nacelle hidden away somewhere in honour of his tracking down of prop reuses in Trek.
Jörg! Jörg! Jörg! You da man! All those bleary-eyed hours in front of the screen cataloguing every bit of minutae and you finally reap your reward!!
Thanks John, this is a big honor! And also thanks to the others for the nice words! This makes my week
I have six weeks of summer holiday in front of me, which I intend to spend on doing lots and lots of Star Trek research, so I’m going to have a blast 
Mhh, I think, a science vessel would be great, I’m not the warship kind of guy, give me a medium Federation science vessel any day. I’m really looking forward to what you come up with!
Jorg: Well done on the award and thanks for all the great screencaps!
I dig the “desert turtle” version, it would be quite a departure from other designs seen in the Trek universe.
More freight haulin goodness. cargo ships are the best, Jerry, the best!
I really like the grasshopper, I’m not sure what it is abotu ti, btu it looks really really familiar to me.
I thought you musta seen Doug’s when I first saw the post…you guys are scary!!
I like the grasshopper just because it looks like it means business.
The last one looks like a juicy caterpillar.
I like how the cockpit is from the Phoenix, though not because I care about the set getting reused…I just like anything called Phoenix. Besides, it was a cool ship!
The grasshopper one also has cute legs like Serenity! Only her legs are cuter. Now I want to put my Serenity Gravatar back up!
Liking the grasshopper..
One of the coolest lookin’ ships ever Mr. Eaves. Just great.
Nice! I like the grasshopper design as well! It seems very appropriately Vulcan for some reason.
I like the no-nonsense industrial functionality of this ship.
I love version B. Looks like it could take a beating and just keep going.
Maybe a cargo ship that go places other cargo ship can’t.
I like both of the earlier concepts just as well as what got used. They’d make cool designs for alternate freighters. And I love Pierre’s CG model. That man is a master. On a trivial note, I’ve seen that navigational deflector before on some of his other models (the Klingon small freighter you designed, for example.) I know he was just saving time by reusing the same part but it opens up possible theories that there’s a Starport on Rigel (or somewhere) that sells these parts and you can go pick up a new nav deflector when yours breaks.