top view
belly view
Orthos by the world famous Rob Bonchune
Wah's beauty
on the set
Enterprise Episode #29 entitled “Minefield” was one of my Favorites!!! The story called for an attack by a classic TOS favorite,,,,THE ROMULANS! the art Department was again a glee with bringing in an old adversary legend into our Version of Star Trek. immediately the consensus was to retro out Wah Chang’s original design for our episode, as with the Klingon Battle cruiser from “Unexpected”. The architecture was pulled back about a hundred years and the end result was just enough to still pay homage without creating a whole new ship. As a final gesture we put the war bird graphic on the bottom of the vessel,,,,,, and just when you think you’ve done the right thing,,,, lighting strikes,,, the graphic had to be removed… Ahhh, shuckydarn!!!! in addition to the concept art here are some images of Wahs ship and some uncredited plans from the internet. Thanks to the artist who created these images and hope you get to see your talents posted here.
Eavesdropping with Johnny 
Thanks for the insight. BTW, do you have a chart or sketch with its overall dimensions, or was that left up to the modeller? We’ve seen a size comparison chart from Rob Bonchune, but it’s only one source, and it would be good to get an independent confirmation from the designer.
http://www.merzo.net/index.html
check out this page!!! this is Jeff Russell’s ship scale page and it’s awesome!! You’ll spend hours on this page!!! As far as this ship goes we gave the vessel a rough dimension of being the same size as the saucer of the NX-01
Thanks, I know about the page (and if you want behind-the-scenes info and analysis, http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org is still the best).
The reason I’m asking is that when it comes to nailing down the specific numbers, one usually goes with the designer’s size unless it’s heavily contradicted further down the line, and I’ve seen a lot of your sketches with detailed dimensions. Rob Bonchune’s chart puts it at about 165m, while the NX-01 saucer is 136m wide, so there’s rough agreement.
Rob set the actual measurements for this one using that note of being about the size of the NX-01’s saucer as the general size. he was involved in all aspects of the the modeling and comps so his determinations would always be the best to use as an accurate guide.
Love it! Thanks for all these fine images!
It’s always interesting to see the design and style changes over decades. Today it’s smooth curves and complex shapes that blend into each other, in the 60s it was harsh edges and much simpler shapes. Just take the difference between the TOS Enterprise and the first movie Enterprise, and now the 2009 Enterprise.
I to love seeing the styles change from decade to decade. I would so love to see extravagant original Enterprise fly in today’s SCI FI world!!!
Love it. The bird graphic on the bottom is spectacular. Someone should take a crack at making a decal sheet of a bird graphic for the garage kit that is available. Once again you are an inspiration.
On a similar note, I am making on an in between Romulan BOP which bridges the ENTERPRISE version and the Classic Series version with a design theme like the Klingon BOP. Someone who goes by the handle ATOLM posted a design and I am basically using that to modify an old AMT/ERTL Romulan BOP kit.
How cool you’ll have to share… When your done send a jpeg over and we’ll post it.
I would be honored. I just started the beast,it will take some time. I could send work in progess stuff, or maybe the original artwork by “ATOLM” whoever that is.
I just found out the name of the artist who made the design I am building, Chris D Reyes. I will have to give credit to the originator of the design when I enter the model in any contest. Its a very nice design. I will post a link when I get home.
Here is a link with the design. I hope I do it justice.
Very nice John, but it say to me post TOS Romulans.
I think it down to the Nascells. But that just MHO! 😉
The nacelles always felt a bit off to me, but otherwise overall I like the design.
Why’d they take the bird graphic off the bottom though? That kills it.
We never got a clear answer except get rid of it!!! A lot of things came down thru others so the real reasons sometimes were never known!!!
Great stuff dude. Loved seein’ this birdie swoop into ENT! Why on Romulus did they nix-naa the ventral graphic BTW?
I am workin’ on an update/industrial refit of Wah Chang’s original design for my TOS.5 universe.
I would so love to see extravagant original Enterprise fly in today’s SCI FI world!!!
How’s this work for ya, eh (chose yer size to fit yer speed):
http://deg3d.biz/posts/deg3D_Teaser_320p.mov
http://deg3d.biz/posts/deg3D_Teaser_480p.mov
http://deg3d.biz/posts/deg3D_Teaser_720p.mov
As always, thanks for the posts dude!
PLL,
deg
that’s awesome!!!!!! wholly toledo!!! love the little detail on the deflector and the very sleek lighting FX in the Nacelles!!!
Dude! Loved it with the bird graphic. I could imagine seeing this ship on the big screen had they made that Romulan War movie.
I apologize if I should ever have suspected that you omitted the bird painting on purpose!
haaaaa!!!! your funny!!! I just got what you meant!
Actually, for a long time I assumed that either
1) artists working for TV had a bit more to say about what is workable and what not
2) the producers wouldn’t care that much about details such as bird depictions or nacelle shapes (something that they may not really have an idea of).
WOW! I just shared that mov file with many friends. The way many would have prefered the E to look. Bravo.
It was fun to see the old BoP shape return, although I do echo the feeling about the somewhat Dominion-y looking nacelles. I would’ve personally preferred some kind of cylinders.
Maybe these ships were the frigates/destroyers/perimeter action ships of the 2150s Romulan fleet, with vessels like the Greg Jein model as the capital ships. They’d have a fleet of small Birds of Prey and big Warbirds?
I’ve always been intrigued about the fate of the original BoP model. There seems to preciously little information on most of the things Wah Chang did 😦
the first pass of this one had rounder Nacelles and they changed to what you see in the final view as time and versions went on!
Thanks Eric! Glad you like ‘er. 🙂
Look forward to seein’ your BOP. 😉
PLL,
deg
Well, like I said, I am building a design created by Chris D Reyes aka Atolm. I suppose I should find an e-mail address for the guy and let him know I am building it, as a courtesy.
This is the design I am using as a template. Chris Reyes is the fellow who created the design.
Hey John!!!! Thanks for the nice vote of confidence on my OCD about ship sizes and related stuff. Oh and the Orth chart was me! 🙂
I should have known that beautiful work was yours!!! I updated the page and you now are the unknown artist!!! My fav piece is still that F-104 chasing the OS enterprise,,, Man oh man was that ever SWEEEEEET!!!
Thanks John! However, nothing beats all your conceptual work. I’m glad your showing the fans what could have been in many cases. You have done some great, great, GREAT stuffsss!!!!
Oh and as for the BOP drawing underneath, it was rejected for no other reason than, once again, contempt for the Trek, the fans and the Original Series by …uh.”management”…you know who they are. ;-)(Oh and it wasn’t there idea, that didn’t help…)
Thanks for the drawings and insight on the Romulan ships. Always a pleasure to watch and learn.
My fav piece is still that F-104 chasing the OS enterprise,,,
Another 104/E piece besides mine or Aurore’s SOTL 02/07 shot?
Would love to see that. esp. if it’s by Robert Bonchune! 😀
PLL,
deg
Now THAT is one cool ship. With or without the bird graphics this baby just screams “Romulans!”
“the first pass of this one had rounder Nacelles”
You wouldn’t happen to have that first pass would you?
Well, this certainly is a welcome stumble-upon for the day!
So there was to be a warbird emblem on the keel of this. I may have to repaint my kit build, just to spite the suits.
http://employees.csbsju.edu/rsorensen/modelcitizen/workbench/STrek/S5_ENT/BoP-ENT/kit_data.html