Introduction
What do Romulans mean to most Star Trek fans? I'd say that for such a large empire, they are little-known and secretive. Their politics, likes & dislikes, aspirations and technologies are clouded in mystery. Intriguing!
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| TOS Warbird |
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| TNG D'deridex |
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Their ships are also some of the most-changed designs between The Original Series (TOS) and The Next Generation (TNG) time frames. At least the Federation and Klingon ships (ignoring the "Bird of Prey"-style vessels) show similar design features between these series, whereas the Romulan vessels are utterly different. As a once-upon-a-time player of Star Fleet Battles (SFB), I greatly prefer the TOS "warbirds" over the newer green monstrosities and it's that style which I have chosen for my Romulan fleet.
Design Philosophy
Warbirds are known for 2 main features in SFB: the cloaking device and the largest possible plasma torpedo which will fit in the hull! There are no existing designs in any of the Full Thrust fleet books that come close to this, so I've had to create my versions from scratch. Indeed, there are no rules for plasma torpedoes in Full Thrust - or at least, not as such. However, the Phalon "plasma bolt" is very close in spirit and so I've pinched this alien technology to fit into an otherwise standard design.
I have to admit to a great degree of trepidation about this fleet. I've never played a game of Full Thrust that involved ships which could cloak, so it might be quite hard to create suitable scenarios with reasonably balanced victory conditions. Truly, we're into the unknown here; this is a new and untested fleet!
The Ships
There are official ranges of old-style Romulan starships available from
Amarillo Design Bureau, but once again I decided to go my own way on this. However, unlike most of my previously-documented fleets, I couldn't find a single manufacturer who made an entire range of such models. Instead, I've chosen a mixture of the ever-reliable
Studio Bergstrom for the larger ships and various Shapeways models for the smaller ones. I'm really missing mid-range ships, though!
In The Original Series, Romulan ships had a "bird" pattern painted on the underside. I've taken the liberty of transferring these designs to the top of the ships instead, since I didn't fancy going to the effort of painting a decoration on the models which would hardly be visible!
For those who are interested, I've made the following SSDs available to
download. The file is in OpenOffice Draw format (.odg).
What a great looking fleet, I'm not a Star Trek fan don't get me wrong i'll watch it just don't shoot questions at me about them afterwards.
ReplyDeleteReally like the winged marking for them its fits the Warbirds name.
Thanks, Simon. These are definitely my "re-imagining" of a Romulan fleet; there's not much canon about them!
DeleteI wanted to make each ship unique, since I see the "bird" markings as more the captain's whim rather than a regulation pattern.
I *like* the new green monstrosities :)
ReplyDeleteAh, well - there's no accounting for taste :-) !
DeleteMy only recollection of the Romulan ships was of the painted "wings" on them and a huge plastic kit in a model shop opposite the enterprise.
ReplyDeleteGood looking paintjobs there C6.
The "wings" are what makes them distinct and interesting, I think!
DeleteHave one of the Bergstom Firebird ROM Warbirds and it is nice. More of the ROM ships are on my wish list. Thinking of using them as one of the "Bad Guy" races/factions in my game universe. After seeing the Shapeway ones you have too I may have to get some of them also.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the next set of ships you show off or the next BatRep with them.
The Shapeways models are quite rough and need a fair bit of paint to cover up the texture of the material. Still, the destroyers turned out nicely (I'm not so happy with the S'tem Vastam).
DeleteAs for the next set of ships - I don't have an infinite supply of fleets, you know! Yes, I do have a few more yet, but we're getting closer to the end :-( .
Well then I guess you will need to branch out and start some new fleets like the Full Thrust Ground Zero Games, Outer Rim Coalition, Scandinavian Federation, or the UNCS. LOL
DeleteI am thinking that for my ROMs (ROM wont be the faction/race name) I will go the older TOS style ships, but green instead of white with the "Bird" images in red, just to mess with the color blind. Hehehehe
Over all I am thinking either the ROMs or the Studio Bergstrom Card Hessian's (again Card Hessian will not be the Race/Faction name) will be a mining consortium, with the larger ships the actual mining ships and the smaller ones will be the escort ships. I do have a ADB/Mongoose Resin Romulan Condor Dreadnought and War Eagle that I am debating whether I want to paint up or if I want to put them up for Trade/Sale.
As for the Shapeway ships what material did you go with? I have heard the White Strong Flexible material can have a rough finish, while the transparent detail material has nice clean details, it doesn't take paint as well.
Ah, there are so many nice models out there. Don't tempt me!
DeleteMy Shapeways ships are all White Detail. This is really a bit rougher than I'd have liked, but seemed like a good cost/quality compromise at the time. This is supposedly better quality than White Strong Flexible, so models made in the cheaper material must be really rough!
Very cool fleet, funny but im watching star trek series blurays at the moment, im getting close to start season 2, balance of terror is one of the best shows of season one
ReplyDeleteIt's been a long time since I saw it last. As I recall, the cloaking device in the TOS episode was small enough for 1 man to carry (and detachable from the ship, as well!). That's not really how I see them working; rather I think of it as a capability that is built in to the fabric of the vessel!
DeleteYeh i think you are right about the cloak, the remasters OS has the SX replaced with CGI, now im not a big CGI fan but it seems to work and the ships look fantastic
DeleteDamn fine work Hugh (as always!). Very impressed with the bird patterns you've put on top of them ... if only I could paint spaceships like you can :( oh well, back to my self-pity wallow
ReplyDeleteThanks. I know that you won't all believe me, but I find spaceships are really easy to paint. Much simpler than people, animals or terrain...
DeleteHugh,
ReplyDeleteMore great stuff! Love your work.
Reading your post on playing cloaked Romulans in FT,I do have a set of movement tables I use for playing cloaked ships solo in FT if interested:
http://heavymetaldrake.webs.com/ftbetascenarios.htm
Again, thanks.
DeleteThat's a most interesting concept! You know, it had never even occurred to me that anyone could use cloaked ships in a solo game. Very useful.
I'm definitely more TOS on this one. I like how they painted up.
ReplyDeleteThe styles are just so different that I don't see how they can be the same fleet. So I chose the version I knew best...
DeleteHi, I'm the one that designed those ROM warbird types for Bergstrom. They were my first, and so far, only scratchbuilds I've done yet. Now that I see them painted up, I might paint mine up, and create some new ones. Thanks for the blog, great work!
ReplyDeleteI'm very glad you like what I've done with them, then! I'd certainly like to see more ships in the same range and I'd also be interested in seeing how you paint them up yourself.
DeleteRoger that. I paint so slowly anymore, so it might be a while. I'll up date my blog with them when I do.
Deletehttp://splashsdumpster.blogspot.com/
Hey, it's splash again.
DeleteMy apologies for not ever getting to these, I just never seemed to get around to it. I doubt I would have painted the originals up any different than yours, btw.
Thanks
Ah, well. If you ever do paint them then I'll be pleased to see the results.
DeleteHello. I just came across your page and wanted to tell you how much of a great job you did on my ships (Pugius destroyer is one of mine)
ReplyDeleteThanks. I really like them, but I wish that Shapeways and international postage were a bit cheaper. I'd buy a whole lot more of the range!
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