Here are two pix of the full size Reman fighter, “the Scorpion.” The ST Nemesis art Department windows looked out across the Marathon Mill, and we could watch this beauty come together from the beginning to the end as she almost is in pic # 1. Sadly this little ship got very little screen time while the CG version stole must of the show. What you see here is the final paint scheme. Weeks earlier, the ship was a high gloss purple and was quite stunning…an executive decision was made that the ship was too colorful and shiny so the whole vehicle got textured and painted black. In addition is a pic of the 1/12th scale miniature and one of the concept sketches.
I’ll post more shots once I’m in Wyoming and all the pix and art are unpacked…everything has been boxed for the move for about a year now so the big Trek art posts have been thin due to not having access. OK then, enjoy the pix and have a great Thursday.
Eavesdropping with Johnny 
Recaro seats! The Romulans were stylin’!
those seats were so cool and oh so comfortable
I love this thing. It’s literally one of the best things about Nemesis. I’m glad you posted it and I’m looking forward to more pics. It’s a shame they ditched the purple, I think that would have made it even cooler. 🙂
Yeah that purple was something else!!!! Hope to get those pix up sooner than later
Brings back some memories of taking a break from stage 17 and walking over to the mill to talk with Gene Rizzardi and seeing this there, big as life. I don’t think it was quite finished at the time, but I liked how a real full size prop was used. I still think Nemesis was underrated by the fans.
Yeah!!!! big Gene was working on the CLEAR Enterprise-E model!!!
Maybe I am thinking I saw Gene on some other movie over there – Who was in charge of building the “crash” Enterprise E? Was it Gene or Alan Faucher? (wow I am getting old and cannot remember – but I do remember sweating bullets waiting to push the motion control button that sent the E into the Scimitar front end. 3 times!)
yeah, Alan and Kenny Swenson were in charge of the Big E crash
I always enjoy this movie if for no other reason that watching these great ships and vehicles in action, Chris! The blog header needs to be updated, but I used the E and Scimitar on there cause they rock!
Makes me want to finally assemble the model kit I have of this little beauty!
I agree with chrisdawson Nemesis was underrated.
I just watched the Star Trek Summit, which was a DVD extra and featured Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. In it, Patrick descibes being unable to deliver the final emotional lines in the Ready Room scene, which reminded me of watching the film for the first time, and really feeling like it was the end to a very epic and very special era for Science Fiction and for Star Trek The Next Generation’s crew.
Nemesis was ending with out an appropriate end,, It wasn’t to be until the end of filming orders were coming down to destroy the sets instead of taking them to storage,, we all started to realize that the end of something very special was coming to and end forever!!!!! I did wish the film that hit the screen would have been more along the full story that Logan had originally written… Good memories for sure,,,, on Another note the model you have came from the one pictured above… The picture of the above Scorpion model was the master for the kit Polar Lights put out!!!
HI John
Did you make the master Scorpion model above?
Looking forward to some more updates of props and ships when you get back to your archive. I e-mailed you about the Phase Pistol pre-cursor weapon, if you have 5 minutes and could give me some more details on e-mail that would be fantastic.
Thanks and have a great weekend everyone.
Yes, polar lights let me make the master and it was quite fun,,,, I Just went n checked my email and found your note,,, That was the only views drawn of that particular phaser but if you want more I can make them for you.
John- if you are traveling through Boise to Wyoming, Stop by and I’ll buy you lunch.
Hi Jared,, I don’t think I go through Boise but If I do lets def get some lunch..
I wish they’d done more than the corridor chase scene with the Scorpion; I remember seeing some of the concepts with its ‘wings’ extended, it’s a shame that so much work was put into something that was only on screen for all of two minutes.
Great job as always, John! 😀
-Jade
that happens a lot,, many times great extravagance and expense will go into a set piece or prop and they never get into the final film,,,,, It happens more so than anyone realizes.
For the Star trek TV shows this was true on every episode of every show,,, Tom Arp, and his construction crew as well as the shows designers would create and build complete sets and environments well suitable for the big screen…. TV direction in most instances pan left and right and zoom in and out a lot, rarely will you see look up or down and because of that most of the work and grandeur is missed.
That really is a huge shame~ since I’m a game artist, I know how much hard effort goes into just creating entirely digital environments; I can imagine the work must be tenfold in order to build actual sets, and be a great disappointment to have them go unused after putting all that work in.
The other side of that coin too, is that we’re seeing fewer and fewer live action sets anymore, with everything being replaced by CGI which really hasn’t managed to properly catch that ‘spark’ of life that real sets have. Just look at a lot of the heavily effects-filled scenes from the Star Wars prequels compared to the vibrant and lifelike sets of the original trilogy to see how true that can be.
While we have had some great advances in VFX and set extension capabilities, when I don my VFX Supervisor or consultant hat I tell directors try to get a real set on camera. It helps the actors when they know their world and react to it. You tend to question alot when anything is virtual, as to what reality is. But you can’t always do that and we’ve had some form of set extensions since the beginning, with front/rear projections, matte paintings hanging miniatures etc. And those are all still viable today. But in the early stages of design, it is nice when a director knows what they want and what they want to see and to have all departments knowing what needs to be seen and build accordingly.
YEA!!! One of my fav things…my other car is a Scorpionnnnn!! Well in my dreams anyway. 😀
Gorgeous vehicle, gorgeous design. I need a copy of this poster for my collection. I’ve got the big signed one of Enterprise E and Scimitar framed, and I LOVE IT!!! But this little guy is shown so small at the bottom, so I’ll have to get it printed. 😀 Just really like this little ship loads and it deserves lots of love and attention. Very cool lines; it just MOOOOVES while it’s sitting there. 🙂
I ordered you on from Lou Grubb Chevrolet but looks like he took the money and closed down the lot
I really love this ship, shame it got so little screen time.
Would have been fun to see a squad of these going up agesnt the Big-E and those two Romulan ships in the final battle.
it sure would have,,,, they sure had a lot of them in the hanger decks
The Scorpion has always reminded me of something that Batman would have. 🙂
Was the full-scale prop actually destroyed, or spirited away in the night?
I think it would have been cool to have mounted it onto a hovercraft chassis and have some back-lot fun. 🙂
The full sized ship is actually on tour,,, the original purple color of the ship made her fit more into the Star Trek universe, but when it went Black the look did cross over into the Batman world.
Loved the scorpion, one of the best ships designed John great work. Just an off topic question here for another one of you brilliant pieces, It was mentioned that at the end of nemesis we would have been treated to a new Enterprise E at the end of the movie right, My question is, is there any chance of this making an apperance as a model, poster or in sto etc?
I have this Christmas Tree ornament! Ha! She’s a fun little ship and definitely a speedy looking thing. She’s found life in Star Trek Online…pesky Remans launching the dang things out at you!
You say that Logan had a much different story than the one that we saw on screen? Oh man…I’d love to get my eyes on that. There is much that I like about Nemesis and then there are things I wish they hadn’t done. Data’s death felt too much like Spock’s without the shock and emotional factor. Well, it did envoke some feelings of not happy. Ha!
In any case, another fabulous design from that genius brain of yours!
I was going to say that the good news is that fans can see the fullsize prop on the roadshows, but it looks like you’re already aware. I remember seeing it a couple of years after the movie came out, when a tour came to London, and I just didn’t want to leave the room that had this in the center. So lifelike, you half expected it to lift off and make an escape through a wall. 😀