This was just a topic of discussion on one of the threads, so here are a couple of nice shots of the runabout miniature with “roll bar” in place. Most of you know that the roll bar was added so that viewers could more easily differentiate between two runabouts.
Very starfleet-esque, i´m obviously thinking of the Nebula-class discussion we´ve had, but also of the various Miranda-variants, the Reliant-type, the Saratoga-variant and the Lantree-variant. Would be a nice post on your blog…
Btw, do you have pics of lcars-panels depicting the ships, because that would make a great post as well…
Wow, making a wish-list to our own Santa Claus when you´ve made us all so happy, I hope you don´t think I´m pertinent?
Thanks for the pics, Doug! Never noticed that the hull colour of the Runabout and the colour of the rollbar were different.
Gere’s an article about everything rollbar
http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/rollbar.htm
For some reason, the color difference is much more noticeable in these photos than in real life.
Cool to see the runabout!
How big is the model? It looks smaller than I might have thought – almost the size of the kit.
And is that a nacelle of another one peeking in the lower picture?
Looks like the other one might be a different scale. Maybe the kit, or a toy used in a background shot or to get blown up?
Take a look at the Ertl BOP to the left, for those of us that know the size that kit the runabout is a much bigger and a good sized filming miniature.
Thanks for the info Mike! It’s funny how all of us manage to notice every single detail and analyze the photographs to death
It’s fun! It’s a puzzle. It’s a mystery decoded by the power of observation. It’s archeology. The more we resolve it, the more meaningful personal it becomes.
I see the Rio Grande got a roll bar. It is nice to see these pix. Thanks for sharing them.
The runabout model was a little under 20″ long. Rick designed the removable “roll bar” for an early episode in which we had a chase sequence with two runabouts. The roll bar was used so you could more easily tell them apart.
That’s beauty. Did you and/or Mike do any detailing on the Runabout?
That Rick is quite the sly boots.
Here’s a question to help the tech geeks among us. What is the purpose of the rollbar, within the Trek universe? I know a lot of people think its a weapons pod, but I’ve always thought it was a sensor attachment of some kind, and I thought there was some canonical evidence to back that up, but I can’t recall exactly.
Any thoughts?
I had also noticed the colour difference Mike referred to. Must be something subtle, like the lustre of the paint. The light from the flash is, after all, hitting straight on.
The BOP in the background appears to be approximately the right size for the AMT kit.
More interestingly, there is what appears to be a smaller runabout nacelle in the background.
Runabouts are probably the neatest Starfleet design in all of Trek.
Very cool getting to see this model.
thanks for sharing.
I’ve seen Season 1 episodes several times, yet the rollbar has never jumped out at me as a distinguishing feature, even after I learned from the Encyclopedia that it was added. I would have to look for it specifically in order to see it.
Therefore, I don’t think it works as intended, mainly because the episodes don’t make a big deal out of installing it and pointing it out to the viewer; it just appears on one runabout and not on the other. Of course, impressions of other viewers may vary.
Johnatan Burke: the runabout miniature is 19 inches long according to Gary Hutzel in “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion”, and 19.5″ according to the Star Trek auction, so the available sources are fairly consistent. In addition, Rick Sternbach’s miniature blueprints are shown in the book “The Making of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, and they give a scale of 1/4″ = 1′. This is consistent with Rick’s 23.1m from the DS9TM.
I concur with Pat Suwalski somewhat, in that I think the Runabout is by far the coolest non-capital ship design in all of Trek. Some other smaller vessels look better, but in terms of overall design and supporting rationale, the Runabout is number one.
This was a great design and a great idea for a ship. I always liked the little fella.
The indestructible Rio Grande! My favorite runabout episode must be “One Little Ship”, it was such a romp! Is this when the runabout miniature was relabeled from Rio Grande to Rubicon, as seen on the auction pictures? Was there also a runabout CGI built at some point?
Going through my screenshots, it seems the first episode featuring the CG Runabout was “Change of heart”. It prominently features in “Treachery, Faith and the Great River” and “Penumbra”.
Thanks Jörg! So the CG runabout appeared as the Shenandoah in “Change of Heart”… I can’t tell if it was relabeled for the other episodes you mention. Possibly the unnamed NCC-73918 from “Tacking Into The Wind” was CG as well?
Actually, VisionArt built a CG model for a Mekong warp jump in “Heart of Stone”, according to this archived page by Carl Hooper, one of the modellers:
http://web.archive.org/web/20000816032634/www.visionart.com/~carl/va/
P.S. I’m not sure if the Lightwave CG model is brand new, or whether they somehow managed to import the one from VisionArt.
Here’s a better link:
http://web.archive.org/web/20010429214617/www.visionart.com/~carl/va/ds9.html
At first i tought this is the AMT model kit but then i saw the details like the phaser and the transpoter emitter this here shows i think the real colors http://www.st-bilder.de/datein/bilder/Modelle/Danube/V2/gallery/B_MODELL_DANHQ_001.jpg
It seems the shot of the warping Mekong never made it into the actual episode (Heart of stone). The sequence doesn’t appear in the episode.
My guess is that a completely new Runabout model was created in late Season 6.
Did you research stock footage of runabouts jumping into warp? Perhaps it made it into another episode.
Thanks Boris! In Bernd’s article mentioned above (http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/rollbar.htm), he mentions that the (newer) CG was created for “One Little Ship”. This would be around the same time as “Change Of Heart”. If true then both CG and miniature shots would have been used for the Rubicon in “One Little Ship”?
I think I got that wrong when writing the rollbar article. According to the DS9 Companion, another smaller miniature was built for “One little ship” and no CG ship was used in the episode. While going through the episode a few minutes ago, I also couldn’t find evidence of a CG model. The CG model (of the USS Shenandoah) was apparently created for “Change of heart”, especially for the scenes set in the asteroid field close to Soukara.
Thanks for clearing this up Jörg! And I should have written ‘Jörg and Bernd’s article’, I didn’t read the credits carefully, sorry!
Bridger: yes, that looks like the 19″ model indeed. I wonder if it only got Rio Grande and Rubicon labels during its active life.
Great pictures!
I’ve always loved the runabout design.
I read that in the middle there was supposed to be a interchangable multipourpose cargo section, much like in the Thunderbird 2, of the Gerry Anderson’s serial of the sixties.
Too bad it hasn’t been seen on creen.
I’d always wondered what purpose the rollbar served myself. My first thought was Nebula/Miranda style torpedo pod, but the standard runner can fire microtorpedoes anyway, so it must be a sensor or communications pod of some kind. Maybe a more powerful deflector for high-warp speeds?
The rollbar was supposed to be some kind of super narrow angle sensor package, like a big AWACS radar thingie. At least that the tech explanation. The producers really wanted something to distinguish runabouts from each other, as folks have mentioned. It wasn’t necessary for TOP GUN or BATTLE OF BRITAIN; why here?
Anyhow, the design went through a lot of crazy evolution, starting with the ILM executive shuttle but really becoming its own little ship. While the interior set and its windows were locked down, the exterior morphed and morphed until Jim Martin thought of busting it into a bunch of snap-together modules, and I refined the parts until it was “done.” Jim also contributed some bits of positive/negative surface detailing, I finished up the blueprints, and Meininger and Co. built the thing. Gorgeous little model; it was within an 1/8″ of the drawings. *That’s* what I like to see!
Thanks for the post Doug.
I have to agree with others in their enthusiasm for the Runabout, it’s my favourite non-capital ship in Trek and one of my favourite Starfleet starships…period.
No wonder I have so many models of it in 2 diffferent scales.
That mix of utility, functionality and sleek angles, to me a great example of the somewhat Socialist, 23rd Century Starfleet (government)engineers at work….fascinating!
Seriously though, Rick, you and Jim Martin (and co) outdid yourselves on the design of the Runabout.
Starfleet’s all-purpose jeep not only helped distinguish DS9 from other Trek, it expanded the Trek-verse greatly and was a cool new vessel to present confined, dramatic stories on.
Thanks for giving us tech geeks something lasting to drool over.
Cheers Mark
Thanks for the info Rick, much appreciated!
“Seriously though, Rick, you and Jim Martin (and co) outdid yourselves on the design of the Runabout.”
I could not agree more. I have been absolutely in love with this little ship from the moment I saw her. Actually, (and I think I have mentioned this here before) I have always wanted to build a full scale mock-up for my own personal amusement. That is how much I love this design!
I’ve been tempted to take a razor saw to one of my Ertl kits and swap the cargo module out for some other kind of scratchbuilt section, and cut a drop-down hatch into the aft compartment. Just to mix it up a bit. Also tempted to stretch the nose out a little more. Lots of ways to update it.
The swappable modules on the runabout always reminded me of the Eagles from Space: 1999, which I believe could also accomodate different mission-specific modules.
I also always thought the Eagles were pretty cool. So who’s for a Runabout vs. Eagle throwdown?
Wow, I have to admit that for awhile I had thought that was some sort of weapons pod, but only because so many fandom illustrations seemed to assume that it was a torpedo launcher. I get the idea that even if it had been a photon launcher, it wouldn’t have room to hold very many. The sensor package makes a lot more sense. Actually Rick, I was just thinking to myself recently about what an updated Runabout would look like. I could see the longer nose you were talking about, making it sleeker like the Type 12 shuttle. Perhaps a new set of bussard collectors to match… but either way, it’s awesome to see the model in this configuration. The Runabout was one of the ships that really felt realistic to me, like I could see myself inside there looking out the windows. It’s the ideal interstellar recreational vehicle!
OK…how many phasers are on the runabout? The DS9 Tech Manual says there are six (two on nacelles, two forward, two aft on crew compartment) but in that shot from the auction Bridger posted, I see another pair on the nacelle pylons. Sometimes that detail seems to get colored as a phaser array, and sometimes it doesn’t. Hmm…
Different sub-classes or production batches?
Always loved the Runabout, a lot. I have the kit, and IIRC, it came with the roll-bar variation as well.
Thanks for the great shots of ‘er Doug!
LLP,
deg
I’ve been tempted to take a razor saw to one of my Ertl kits and swap the cargo module out for some other kind of scratchbuilt section, and cut a drop-down hatch into the aft compartment.
Rick, I’ve had that idea too for a look time! Kind of a great feeling having the same idea like one of the Star Trek masterminds. This blog is really pure gold!
Back to the runabout, enough worshiping (for the moment
)
A friend of mine actually made the cargo module on his ERTL kit removeable and as far as I know, it was a pretty easy affair.
Now that dropdown hatch would have been cool during the Dominion War story arc, maybe to deploy Starfleet marines in an aircav type situation. Or even to parachute down into the fight. As far as I know, they once parachuted in an original BSG epise.
One of these days, I will do some modifications to one of my runabout kits, but only if finally someone comes up with a resin cockpit set including consoles, seats, transporter pad etc. I do wonder why no one hasn’t made one yet with all those scale model conversion and update sets available for Trek kits. Or maybe some downloadable cardboard kit.
Cheers
Thorsten
In fact, In the Ron D Moore BSG, Kara Thrace ejected from her Viper in a planet’s atmosphere, and parachuted to the surface. Great television.
Thorsten – Now that’s the kind of discussion that needs its own forum.
Actually, some stuff like this happens over at Starship Modeler and a couple other places. I don’t know why there wasn’t some entrepreneurial garage kit maker out there who went more ga-ga over the Runabout. It screams for aftermarket parts with figures, it really does. Dioramas with bases; crashdowns, planetary explorations, finding orb boxes. Maybe if the kit was reissued, we might see it. However, I don’t believe that we’ll see much of a resurgence in Trek kits, even with the new movie, so we better hope there will be a decent supply of kits on eBay. I’m going to slog past the bicycles in the garage and see where mine are.
Rick-
Funnily enough, I just saw the reissued TOS 1701 and ST:E NX-01 Polar Lights kits at Toys R Us yesterday. But I would agree that we probably won’t see much of anything that isn’t named “Enterprise” or a big baddie reissued, but you never know…
@Some Dude
after coming back into scale modeling in 1999, I have come to realise one thing – every kit, every mold gets re-issued sometime. Even the oldest Airfix or Monogram (Lindberg, FROG, you name it) kit can be found. Sometimes because of historical reasons (40 years Apollo 11), company reasons (50 years Revell) or mere financial reasons (e.g. eBay prices for some kits).
Nonetheless – whenever I come across an old AMT kit, I buy it. And there are still some kits that are really scare, e.g. the Vulcan shuttle from TMP, the Romulan Bird of Prey from TOS. But even the old Interplanetary U.F.O. from AMT gets re-issued this year, so there is still hope.
@Rick (or Doug or Mike or John)
Do you know if there are any scale plans / set construction plans available from the Runabout cockpit, especially the rear wall, the front console and the transporter arch?
Maybe they could be reduced in scale to make something out of cardboard. Okay, I admit that one could try and extrapolate the shapes from the wonderful graphics in the DS9 Technical Manual, but maybe there is an easier and more accurate way.
Just a thought.
Cheers
Thorsten