Tag Archives: Klingon Bird of Prey

Top 10 freighter ship designs

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Top 10 Freighter Ships

This is my choice of freighter ship designs, that I like to class as long-range mid-sized vessels that ability to transport a small crew, passengers or cargo over large distances.

1st. Millennium Falcon
Star Wars (1977)

01 Millennium Falcon

Millennium Falcon The battered freighter owned and commanded by Han Solo and his co- pilot and friend Chewbacca, plying their shady smuggling trade around the galaxy far, far away, why is it top of my list in this section.

Because it looks cool, fast and well protected and great range.

2nd. Klingon Bird of Pray

Star Trek 3 The Search for Spock (1984)

02 Klingon Bird of Pray

Klingon Bird of Pray has second place for me, a winged craft for atmospheric work with the added power of a warship, plus can cloak with ease, fantastic design and first seen in Star Trek 3 The Search for Spock.

3rd. Blockage Runner

Star Wars (1977)

03 Blockade RunnerThe Blockade Runner first seen in the opening of Star Wars before the massive bulk of the Imperial Star destroyer in hot pursuit, called Tantive IV and carried Princess Leia and 2 famous droids.
According to Star Wars folklore it was first designed to be the Millennium Falcon but George Lucas felt it was to similar to the Eagle design seen in Space 1999 and it was dropped and we got the design we all love.

If I could not have the Falcon as a private ship, this would be my second choice.

4th. Brittania II

Lensman: Secret of The Lens (1984)

04 Lensmen brittania
Brittania II from the 1980s anime based on the books by E. E. Doc Smith Lensmen, note that design is nothing like described in the novels, but I really do like the animation version a lot better. I was forced to use my image depicting the ship as I cannot find a decent still from the film

5th. The Merchantman

Star Trek 3 The Search for Spock (1984)

05 Merchantman
The Merchantman is a cool design from Star Trek 3 The Search for Spock, the first Star Trek film to introduce a number of differing ship designs for the Star Trek universe but like most science fiction films this design suffers from scale issues when compared to the Klingon bird of prey.
This for me was Star Treks answer to Star Wars Blockade Runner just not so well armed. One source suggest a measurement of 100m, I think that could work.

 6. Valkyrie

Titan A.E.  (2000)

06 Valkyrie
The Valkyrie is a cool design from Don Bluth Titan A.E. animation. There is not much know about it, but from the moment I saw it, I like the look so I included it in my top 10 freighters style ships.

 7.  Serenity

Firefly (2002)

07-Serenity
Serenity a firefly class design crewed by a mixed group of renegades each having a self serving interest in there own lives until the become a family in the end. The idea of the design is Joss Whedon answer to Star Wars Millennium Falcon.

8th. Starchaser

Starchaser: The Legend of Orin (1985)

08 StarChaser
Starchaser as was seen in the 1985 animated film called Starchaser: The Legend of Orin and is often compared and criticized over the years due to similarities to Star Wars which I feel is unfair.
Star Wars is directly based on other shows and received very little in criticism, in fact is applaud for it. Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and some Asian influences. So why cannot another show / story, draw inspiration from Star Wars.

9th. Pirate Ship

The Ice Pirates (1984)

09 Ice Pirates

Ice Pirates ships have no given name, none that I ever been able to find, I liked it while its appearance is brief, it was kind of cool. A science fiction-b tongue and cheek film that is more enjoyable each time I watch it.

Starring Robert Urich as Jason Mary Crosby as Princess Karina

10th. USS Palomino

The Black Hole (1979)

10 USS Palomino
USS Palomino the first ship seen in The Black Hole, a tin can with engines, but I like it all the more for it and pales into comparison with the USS Cygnus in design and first appearance and just makes it into my top 10 mid size ships.

The Runner up

11th. X Bomber

Star fleet (1980)

07 X-bomber
Moved from 7th position is the The X-Bomber seen in the children’s TV show called Starfleet in English, to fire one of its main weapons the ship converts by opening the neck section to show its weapons. this is a process I never cared for, but I do like the over all design.

Wikipedia info X Bomber is a marionette tokusatsu TV series. It was created by manga master Go Nagai, and produced by Cosmo Productions and Jin Productions. The show aired on Fuji TV from October 4, 1980 to March 28, 1981, with a total of 26 episodes (including the pre-series pilot episode),and was billed in Japan as being filmed in “Sūpāmariorama” a puppeteering process like Gerry Anderson’s Supermarionation works.

Next up are the shuttle craft design

Do they make your list ?

Star Trek Klingon Bird of Prey – Bridge

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Klingon Bird of Prey Bridge

I built this models for a animated film which is no longer been worked on at all. But I enjoyed building for it with my good friend Fretslayer aka Dan Baran, who helped with the textures

This is looking forward, the look of the bridge is narrow due to the camera setting to get as mush of the bridge into the frame.

Looking Aft

This was a quick build for me and the first set I ever made in lightwave for the film. It (the film story) called Star Trek: The Armageddon Clock was written by Dan Baran (Fretslayer) and I had some (minor) input for the overall story. we where working so hard on it with a few others and we ran out of steam, I designed a number of sets for it, as I said this was the first just before I joined the team fully, once I joined and we got to work on some areas of the story the plot expanded and more sets where called for.

One of my ideas for the story was the use of a little used design and to move away from the Galaxy Class or the like, a Stargazer design or a Constellation Class Star Cruiser

above.

I liked this design and I think it worked for the story, not sure if Dan felt the same way about it as I did, but more on that later. A quick note. The model we where going to use was built by evilgenius180 and can be seen in his art gallery

Gallery

To expand on the idea we though seen the Klingon battle cruiser again would be fun… in this case the K’t’inga – class was the one I wanted to see again and I would have a go at building a bridge and corridor for that.

but that is for another post