by Chuck Rhodes

WHAT IF…

The Romulan's program to develop their artificial singularity drive had failed.

In a nutshell the fleet war birds are getting old, in addition to being under powered. The Federation is about field a new line of star ships in the Excelsior Class. The lend lease Klingon D7s whose engines and weapons systems are considered excellent, but the hulls suffer structurally by not being well suited for cloaking technology. And in addition, this is being aggravated by "political" spares shortages… What’s a Preator to do?

Meanwhile elsewhere in the galaxy, the Klingons have been monitoring the Romulan situation, and do covet the their latest cloaking technology. They offer a deal where by a larger, export version, of their variable geometry B’rel is offered to the Romulans sans, of course, the newer weapons and power plants. Naturally this would be in exchange for reciprocal license of cloaking technology. With no options left, the K’vort deal is done.

However, the first thing the Romulan engineers toss out is the variable geometry equipment, along with the sales brochure that babbles on like a demented Th’rai about being able to carry 1500 fully equipped troops. The wings are pinned in a position more compatible with the newer cloaking devices, and the troop carrying capacity is abandoned in favor of increased cargo and space keeping capacity. Thus the Praetor now has a starship able to hold its own with the Federation’s Excelsior Class.

THE CONCEPT…

The Bird of Prey always struck me as being Romulan in origin, even though Paramount used it as a Klingon vessel. I however wanted to go back to the machine’s roots, as it were, and build a Romulan version of this popular craft.

REFERENCES…

The two major influnces of the design came from the real birds of prey and how they hunted in flight, and the work of author Diane Duane. (My Enemy, My Ally…et al.) From her books I got the impression that the bird of prey was slightly bigger than that represented on the silver screen, but not so big as the DS9 Tech Manual lets on. For the color scheme I, borrowed heavily from the study model done by Bill George, utilizing the pictures from the article in the December 02 issue of "Star Trek the Magazine."

THE EXECUTION…

The concept was a simple conversion; the trick as it turned out, was to keep it that way. From the closet came my AMT/ERTL BOP and one of my Klingon D7 kits, the former would provide the hull and later would provide the engines and associated details that are relative to the type of power plants use on the D7, as well as set the scale. I looked at wing/engine position first, down as in the classic BOP and the D7 Vs Up as in the original series. After deciding on wing position, the first to go was the wing tip guns which never quite seemed to fit in the Star Trek universe in my mind. Next into the spares box was the wing pivoting mechanisms, I kept their main fairings however and combined them into one unit which gave a nice line to the other wise flat back of the hull. Where the engine exhaust was housed, I created a shuttle bay door by using prescribed styrene sheet. Which left me with a roll up door kind of look that I liked. The aft end of the kit had some good detail, which I wanted to preserve and use if possible. After several attempts I arrived with the configuration that you see here. The wings were then glued in place with a slight dihedral and viola! To detail it out at first I tried to be a purist, in that all parts were to be of Star Trekish origin. After several unsuccessful attempts I caved in and brought out the spare parts box. While I expected a lot of problems, the kit(s) went together suprisingly well, and very little filler was needed. Many seams were hidden either by strips of sheet or by judicial placement of spare parts. Some seams however were left in situ as they added to the design.

THE FINISH…

The Klingon starships with a couple of exceptions appear to have a U-Boat like, almost crude, and severely utilitarian fit and finish. While the Romulans on the other hand seem take a more professional approach, and better care of their ships. Consequently the kit painting instructions were discarded. I looked at after market decals for Romulan warbirds, but rejected them, as they didn’t have the right flavor.

All paint was Testors Enamels, either spray can or brush. As a base coat I selected Navy Aggressor Gray, the prominate panels were highlighted with a wash of Gunship Gray with details picked out in Aluminum, Steel and Jet Exhaust. Standard Romulan under wing markings are in Gloss Orange and Black, as are the Squadron Banners on the upper wing surface.

The whole project went together in just over 40 hours, not including wrestling with design issues, and painting.

Image: Underneath

Image: Front view

Image: Rear view