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Thursday, November 7, 2013

Ferengi Marauder And Klingon Bird Of Prey


Here are some images of AMT/Round 2 Models Star Trek two Piece Adversary set. Featuring the Klingon Bird of Prey and the Ferengi Marauder (scales unknown).

From Wikipedia'
The Bird of Prey is one of the most common Klingon ships seen in the Star Trek franchise. Introduced in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, the Bird of Prey has featured in five of the films and frequently appears in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Industrial Light & Magic designed and built the Bird of Prey for Star Trek III, assisted by the film's director, Leonard Nimoy. In early drafts of the script, the Bird of Prey was to be a Romulan vessel; although this idea was later dropped, the Bird of Prey maintained its cloaking device as a plot point in the film and the Romulan bird feather patterns on its wings were kept. The Bird of Prey is the first Klingon vessel depicted with a cloaking device; all classes chronologically later in the series would also use a cloaking device. The wings of the Bird of Prey are able to move, lowering to attack, maintaining just above horizontal in flight mode and raising high when the ship lands. However, as the studio model's mechanism for moving the wings broke, in later Star Trek series' episodes the wings are usually fixed in either flight mode or attack mode. This was not rectified until the creation of a CGI model for the vessel. The studio models for the Bird of Prey were sold in the 2006 Christie's auction; the original model sold for US$307,200, while an enlarged wing, used for close-up shots in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, was sold for US$8,400.
Although several variants are seen throughout the franchise, design notes state that the Bird of Prey has two main classes: the B'rel-class and the K'Vort-class. Both classes used the same studio model, with unofficial sources claiming they differ in sizes in proportion to other starships depending on variant. The B'rel-class is a scout vessel, used for espionage, skirmishes and raids, while the K'Vort-class is a light cruiser. Both classes are armed with disruptor cannons mounted on the tips of the wings and a forward torpedo launcher. Likewise, both classes are equipped with cloaking devices and are capable of impulse and warp speeds. Non-canonical sources claim that with a crew of only 12 and a length of 160 meters, the B'rel-class is far smaller than the K'Vort-class, which measures 320 meters and possesses a crew of 300+. No canonical source has however claimed two different sizes, and the ship generally appears to be around 160-190m in relation to other vessels, meaning the two models may be variants of the same ship. The interior of the Bird of Prey is similar to that of Douglas Trumbull's submarine-like designs for the K't'inga-class; some Birds of Prey are even shown with periscopes to allow the captain to personally target weapons. Despite relatively light armaments, Birds of Prey are shown to be effective craft; both the USS Enterprise and USS Enterprise-D are destroyed in part due to the activity of a Bird of Prey. Normally a Bird of Prey can only fire its weapons when it's not cloaked, but in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country the Klingons built a special Bird of Prey that can fire its weapons while cloaked.
The Boeing Bird of Prey developed by McDonnell Douglas's Phantom Works division was named after the Klingon Bird of Prey.


Andrew Probert and Greg Jein created a horseshoe-crab-inspired starship for the Ferengi, the D'Kora-class "Marauder". Though mainly used as a tradeship, the D'Kora-class is capable in battle, carrying photon torpedoes and disruptors. Tactically it is about as powerful as a Galaxy-class starship, but only has half as many crew.
Constructed by one of the Ferengi ship conglomerates, the Marauder has proven to be one of the most cost-effective vessels available. They are generally owned by the most powerful businessmen and the Ferengi Commerce Authority. They can be customized to suit the owner's needs, including customized weapon and defensive systems. A crew can even be included during a purchase, for a price.
Though the vessels are mostly used for conventional trade (legal and illegal) around the Alpha and Gamma quadrants, some of the more powerful companies in the Ferengi Alliance use them to attack colonies or other ships, stealing technology or supplies which they can resell.
Famous D'Kora-class ships include the Krayton and the Kreetchta. It was a D'Kora-class starship that Jean-Luc Picard defeated at the Battle of Maxia in 2355, while captain of the USS Stargazer (NCC-2893), using a new tactic known as the "Picard maneuver".
In the non-canon game Star Trek: The Next Generation: Birth of the Federation, the Ferengi are seen using a number of new starships similar to the D'Kora-class. Examples include the Tokorn-class heavy raider and the Glantor-class troop transport.
The D'Kora class starship was included as a part of Decipher, Inc.'s Star Trek Customizable Card Game in the Rules of Acquisition Expansion to the First Edition, and in the game Star Trek: Bridge Commander.

3 comments:

Manchu said...

Ferengi light up ???

-Warren Zoell said...

Yes I used a couple of small pieces of LED track lighting.

Manchu said...

Cool :)