Latest Starships Collection previews and info

The Official Starships Collection's project manager has been discussing the series with Facebook fans, and shared some more photos of future ships. Below is the not-final Jem'Hadar cruiser. The molded details are done, but they're still working on the paint job. Ben Robinson commented:

One of the reasons it's not quite finished is that I'm trying to see if there's a way of introducing a hint of purple to it because that's how I think of hem in the show. It has to be very subtle - it's actually reflected light from the engines. As you can see, the first attempt (in the back) is a little too much...

In this second photo we can see a too-purple version, in comparison to the not-as-purple-as-desired foreground model:

Robinson also answered a few questions about forthcoming ships, including confirming the running order for some issues, which is slightly different to that currently listed on the Collection's website. Issues twenty-nine to thirty-one will be the Jem'Hadar fight, Nausisan raider, and the Valdore.

He also explained the conspicuous absence of any TV-era TOS designs in the first thirty or so issues. They are coming eventually, but for now they're focusing on the more intricate designs of the later series:

The TOS ships are very plain and for a lot of people they aren't going to make sufficiently exciting models. For long term fans we will get to them. There is nothing I want to do more than the Fesarius! In the meantime we're doing more 'modern' interpretations of them - the TMP Klingon battle cruiser and Enterprise versions of the Tholian web spinner and the Romulan B-o-P are all on the way.

He also spoke about some of the major alien ships, noting that he plans to do all the Klingon designs we've seen (and highlighting that includes quite a few introduced in Enterprise). He also hinted at plans to do the Romulan science vessel from The Next Phase, and had this to say about the Borg:

Borg ships are tricky to model - the sphere caused me more grief than any other ship and I don't think the factory have forgiven me yet. I'm reckoning to do the sphere, ideally the FC cube, maybe the tactical one, Queen's ship and rogue Borg ship from Descent. And, yes, I know that they aren't all on the list of 70 that's floating around.

Further expanding on possibility of drift from the early list of 70 ships that's been in circulation, he suggested the following ships are also likey to show up in the series (responding to a long wish-list of ships):

...some of those are very much on my radar and will almost certainly be in the first 70. Specifically, I'll be surprised if we don't get: Antares, D'Kyr, J'h battleship, Negh'var, Botany Bay, Rhode Island, and armoured Voyager. From the JJverse I'm expecting the Vengeance and then a Klingon ship...

He also spoke the possibilities of mirror universe ships:

At the moment I'm not planning to do anything that reuses the same tooling (apart from the A, which is a special case) but I understand there is an interest in the mirror universe ships so it's tricky. If/when we reuse the tooling that'll be the first thing we do.

Elsewhere, Entertainment Earth and Big Bad Toy Store have updated their listings, with issues nine to twelve (USS Defiant, Borg Sphere, USS Reliant, and USS Thunderchild), as well as the first special (Deep Space 9), available for pre-order. That also means the first look at some of the covers and official model photos:

For full coverage of the entire Starships Collection, check out my index page.