Monday, February 22, 2016

The Romulan Invasion (Romulan Ship Variants)

Editor's Update:  This article is seriously outdated.  Most of the models mentioned below have their own articles now.

NOTE:  You can click on most pictures to get a larger view of them.

Having just finished doing the Eaglemoss vs. The World article for my 23rd Century Romulan Bird Of Prey, I realized that I actually have quite a fleet of ships that I've never shared with my readers.


By now you have most likely read the following Eaglemoss vs. The World articles that I've written.  If not, please feel free to check them out.

EMvTW 39: Romulan (Holo) Drone
EMvTW 27 - Romulan Bird Of Prey (22nd Century)
EMvTW 57: Romulan Bird of Prey (23rd century)
EMvTW 05 - Romulan D'Deridex Class (B-Type Warbird)
EMvTW 31 - Romulan Warbird Valdore

But wait... there's more!!!

I am a big fan of the garage kit makers as they provide for us, model kits of ships that the big manufacturers will probably never do.  Over the years, I've collected a few of these resin kits as well as made a few kitbashes of my own.

I'll apologize right now if there is a lack of information on some of the following ships.  The truth is, the source material that I had available for them was severely lacking so I will try to be as descriptive as Romulanly possible.  See what I did there?



U-4 Cerebus Class
1:2500 Scale Cozmo Heavy Industries Kitbash

 
 
 
 

According to the Federation Spaceflight Chronology books, this is the earliest known Romulan ship to have been encountered by the Federation.

This ship is a slightly modified U-13 Cacus Class from the Cozmo Heavy Industries 1:2500 Pre-TOS Adversary Set.  When I was reviewing that set, I had talked to Jay (the owner and operator of C.H.I.) for a bit about it and between the two of us, we were able to identify the Romulan ship in that set.  The Romulan ship took some time for me to research as Jay only remembered ever seeing one picture of the ship and building his model from that picture.  Luckily, a friend of mine introduced me to this series of books called the "Federation Spaceflight Chronology".  One of the books was dedicated strictly to the Romulans.


During that research, I saw that there was a similar looking, but older style vessel.


I had ended up purchasing two of the Pre-TOS Adversary Sets and ended up doing a kitbash of this older vessel.

As I was researching material for this article, I found that the Vintage Starships II website did a really nice write-up on these ships.  You can read more about them at THIS LINK.

U-10 Cestus Class
1:2500 (?) AMT Kitbash

 
 
 
 

While reading through the Federation Spaceflight Chronology books, I stumbled across this ship.  They only had one picture of it.



This ship was one of the Romulans very early Pre-TOS ships and I figured I could probably replicate it in some way using an existing AMT Romulan Bird Of Prey kit.

Editor's Note: I eventually needed to write up a more informative article about this ship, which included a lot of historical data as well as my build process of the model.  You can read that article at THIS LINK.

U-13 Cacus Class Death Flyer 
1:2500 Scale Cozmo Heavy Industries Kit

 
 
 
 

This tiny ship is part of the Three Ship Pre-TOS Adversary Set produced by Cozmo Heavy Industries. When I asked Jay about this ship, he admitted to not having much information on it. He built it based off a single picture he had found and didn't have the picture available anymore. I did some research via the Federation Spaceflight Chronology books, and the closest match I could find to the C.H.I. ship was the U-13 Cacus Class Death Flyer.


The Vintage Starships II website did a really nice write-up on these ships.  You can read more about them at THIS LINK.

After I had built the entire Adversary Set, I wrote a review up on it.  You can read that review HERE.

I ended up building both the U-4 and the U-13 at the same time and put them on the same display stand to show the slight evolution of the ship.


Bird Of Prey Class (TOS Prototype)
1:2500 Scale AMT Kitbash

 
 
 
 

I saw someone on Star Trek Modelers Group build a Romulan Bird Of Prey with the wings in a downward swept position. I had an extra 1:2500 kit so I decided to give it a go. This really was a quick down and dirty little build. I probably had it done in a day or two.  I opted for darker colors since she was a prototype and would probably be more plainly done up so as to not to attract too much attention.

Kestrel Class
Cargo Vessel
1:2500 Scale Cozmo Heavy Industries Kit

 
 
 
 

This was a pretty straight forward and easy ship to build as it required no gluing. Actually, it would normally require glue but I wanted the container to be removable. 


 There were some really nice decals that come with the kit, but I don't do them very well. The stand was interesting as I thought it was representative of the Romulan emblem, as this is something Jay at Cozmo Heavy Industries likes to do. 


However, my first Google search didn't show anything like it. After some scrolling, I finally stumbled across it. Back in the TOS days, there was no emblem for the Romulan Empire. This logo did appear on a ship that appeared in the TV series.

I eventually got around and wrote a review up on it.  You can read that review HERE.

Mindy's Delight 
Tramp Trader
1:2500 Scale AMT Kitbash

 
 
 
 

Although she is built from an old scrapped Romulan Bird Of Prey, she is actually owned and operated by a group of Terrans.

Mindy's Delight is a tramp cargo runner that is capable of planetary landings. She was welded together from various parts that her current captain could get his hands on. She has a large cargo door on her top side as well as a retractable walkway in her belly.

This thing had a little bit of everything thrown on her. She is called Mindy's Delight after my ex-girlfriend as well as a homage to a ship called Ginny's Delight that was highlighted in an old Dragon Magazine article written for the Star Trek RPG and FASA games.


She was thrown together in about a day and a half and yes, she looks rough. she's a beat up tramp ship, she's supposed to look that way.

Condor Class
Cargo Vessel
1:2500 Scale Cozmo Heavy Industries Kit

 
 
 
 

This is a 1:2500 scale ship that was designed by Cozmo Heavy Industries. I built mine so that the cargo containers were removable. 

 

This allows me some freedom in how I will display the ship. 

 Although I don't normally collect and build cargo ships, this one was pretty unique and filled in a space in my Romulan fleet. 

I found it to be a very nice kit at a good price.   It actually is a very nice kit.  I eventually got around and wrote a review up on it.  You can read that review HERE.




I think that is it for all my non-cannon ships that I've built.

As always, I hope you found this article useful and informative.  If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to comment.

So for now, "Live long and prosper!!!"

Additional Links To Photos Of My Collection:
U-4 Cerebus Class (Model     WIP)
U-10 Cestus Class (Model     WIP)
U-13 Cacus Class (Review     Model     WIP)
Bird Of Prey Class (TOS Prototype) (Model)
Kestrel Class (Review     Model     WIP)
Mindy's Delight Tramp Trader (Model     WIP)
Condor Class (Review     Model     WIP)

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for some more conversion ideas. I still haven't picked up my own models for gaming/conversion but I did bust out my old FASA ship combat books for ideas. I don't know if you're into trek fan films but a new Enterprise era one with Romulans came out this weekend called "Star Trek Horizon" if you're interested on youtube. No new ships but nice to see them on some screen again.

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    1. Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed them. I do like kitbashing and seeing other non-canon ships. I know about the new film but haven't had a chance to check it out yet.

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  2. Late to the game, but nice write-up! Also, nice mention of Vintage Starships! Steve is co-moderator with me at Morena Shipyards Yahoo! Group devoted to FASA Star Trek and my personal favorite Spaceflight Chronology!

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  3. Thanks and welcome to the blog!

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