Latest updates from The Official Starships Collection

The website of The Official Starship Collection has been updated with two new preview images, for the forthcoming eighth and ninth issues, the USS Excelsior and USS Defiant. Both are shown with new covers (although the K't'inga class issue also has a new cover on the website, but an older cover design was the one that actually got used in the end), the USS Defiant also shows the ship from a different angle than previously seen:

The Collection's Twitter also released an updated cover for the Deep Space Nine special issue:

Promo image for the K't'inga, not quite the final look

There has been a little bit of a storm of comments from subscribers on the collection's Facebook page after receiving the K't'inga class, which has come without the red highlights shown on the promo images for the model. This has prompted a reply from the collection's editor, Ben Robinson to explain the discrepancy:

This is an interesting one, and it's something that's going to come again with other ships. There are two distinct paint schemes for the K'Tinga class. The original studio model, which appeared in STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE uses slightly different shades of silver or gunmetal grey. Years later, when the ship was recreated as a CG model for DEEP SPACE NINE, the VFX team took the decision to make it more colourful, giving it a green, brown colour scheme which was more in keeping with the Klingon Bird-of-Prey, which was first introduced in STAR TREK III. We seriously considered both colour schemes, but after we talked to CBS we agreed that the TMP colour scheme was the classic one so that's what we decided to go with. The picture above from the opening of TMP shows what we were trying to replicate.

There are only a limited number of pictures of the K'Tinga class and we always make extensive use of the CG model. So some of the pictures show the ship with the new DS9 paint scheme, while others use the classic paint scheme. We're just working on the Vor'cha class and there are similar issues: the original TNG version has a radically different paint scheme to the CG version. At this point, our intention is not to repeat a class of ship with different paint schemes unless there are physical differences, but we're open to persuasion…

Finally, StarTrek.com has done a preview of a couple of forthcoming issues: The USS Reliant (issue eleven) and USS Thunderchild (issue twelve). They've posted previously released images, but these appear to have been colour corrected now, so they don't look nearly as blue as they've appeared before. They also detailed what to expect from each magazine:

The Reliant is based on the original studio model built by ILM and the CG version of the Miranda class that was built for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The accompanying magazine reveals how the Reliant started life the other way up and includes the original construction drawings and rare model photography.

The Akira class is the first-ever officially licensed model of this incredibly popular little ship. It is taken directly from the CG model made by ILM and the accompanying magazine includes designer Alex Jaeger’s original concept drawings and his insights into the ship’s layout.

For full coverage of the collection, including an issue list and links to all my previews and reviews, see my index page.