BABYLON 5 CRAFT COMPARISON STUDY Cont'd..
At this stage I think it would be a good idea to compare all the mainstream cruisers and the like, together at the sourced lengths:
Now at this point I will state that there is no way I am going to accept the stated size of the Vorlon Dreadnought! No way is this behemoth smaller in length than a Hyperion cruiser! - I personally reckon it's got to be longer than an OCD and so I going to stick my neck out and state that it's 2000m in length. Also the problem with the Primus is evident here when compared to the G'Quan for instance. I can accept the Whitestar at that figure and the Drakh looks right when compared to the episode when Delenn's group went up against them -"Lines of communication" . That Sunhawk at 350m looks right too when compared to the Drakh Raiders from the same season. When the Pakmarah piloting a Sunhawk got totalled by a few of them.
Now I'm gonna tackle that Primus - and what can I compare it against - well a Narn G'Quan seems a good bet - I can accept this ship at it's stated size - so I'll compare the Primus to it:
I think you will agree that is too damned small! - You know what - I'm going to discard the tail and the front poles and try and bring the body of the cruiser in line with the G'Quan to make it more realistic:
Now that seems much better - the revised length is now 1,670m - accounting for the tail and the poles of course! But I now am of the opinion that the G'Quan should d be a bit longer -- at least the length of the old Hyperion class of the Earth Alliance - so I'm gonna make it a respectable 1200m - so there! With the
revised length for the Primus - how does it compare now to a Vorchan?
Hmmm.... now some of you will still think that this is *too* large - and maybe the Primus could stand to be a little larger again - but remember these cruisers are getting on a bit now but are still in service - the Vorchan is the modern day replacement for these babies and pack plenty of firepower - they can total a Narn cruiser with a few shots for example - In The Beginning proved that to us - so for me this is acceptable.
Another point to bear in mind is that the Vorchan has those lovely horizontal and vertical wings - this makes the damn thing look huge from the side and top and is probably meant to do this on purpose to seem ominous and imposing to their enemies - the Primus tended to concentrate on the larger horizontal aspect profile.
But like I said earlier - I am introducing a new class - the Interceptor/Escort gunboat at approx half the size of the destroyer - now - what do we have with this?
There - that satisfies me - I can accept the larger cruiser and I can also accept the smaller one - heck if Trek can do it so can we!!!
More importantly - If Netter can do it - well I can too!
Oh and before I forget that 608m one - well it ties in nicely with how big they seemed to be when 2-3 three of them crippled Delenn's Whitestar in hyperspace...
Now Battlecrabs and other Shadow craft:
Are these figures believable? Hell yes - and here's why I think so...
When the Vorlons first engaged the Shadows at Sheridan's bequest - we saw a Vorlon transport take out a Crab on it's own - the crab equated roughly to a 1000m length one IMO. Bear in mind these lengths look huge - but take a look at the actual central mass of the ship - not that big - big ominous scary LOOONG legs were the order of the day for these ships and this must be taken into account.
As for the largest 2000m one? Well we also saw a VSD prepare to splat one of these in the same episode - with the revised 2000m length for the VSD - the 2000m length for the largest crab seems entirely plausible. And for good measure there was probably a medium class crab too - I personally reckon that a Medium and Small class Crab were the two that merged when the mass of the Narn fleet was wiped out --- if not a Medium and a Large Crab at that!
The Crabs that surrounded B5 at the end of season 3 were probably Medium and Small class variations and we should also come to terms with the fact that these ships were organic and could probably be grown to order to any damned size their masters wanted!
Oh & the Scout compares favourably to a Whitestar from the episode where they both went at each other head on.
Now ---- let's tackle the VSD and the planet killer - Using the same methods and the revised length of the VSD and within modeller I came to a conclusion that a good length for the Planet Killer would be 22,000m or 22 Km - and this could probably be even a lot bigger than that!
Earth Alliance Ships:
I personally have no trouble with these figures - they compare favourably to the station - as seen from earlier and the Fury's and Thunderbolts compare favourably to them also. And for that matter so does a Whitestar broadside across a OCD hangar!
I also have no problems with these - the Avioki I have come to be satisfied with from earlier reasoning and the Sunhawk also - the Vree compares to them favourably.
Again - I'm happy with these figures too- the Flyer fits in nicely with the episode when Delenn launches from the front of a Sharlin and the Nial was sorted out earlier
These figures too are acceptable to me
Now - the Drakh Carrier - well this figure is way out of proportion - 2000m ? - I don't think so! Here's why From theepisode when Delenn met the Drakh Emissary we saw and got a good idea on how large the carrier was - we saw a few Raiders even; underneath the ship. Now thestated figures compare like this:
Well this obviously doesn't fit at all with what we actually have seen - this is a bit better I think
Now what does this corrected size equate to I here you ask? Well it's 14,000m - yes that's right 14Km - now let's put that into perspective shall we...
Hmmm. Bit big isn't it??? - but that's what it works out at - like it or not!! - You know this is almost as big lengthways as a Vorlon Planet Killer? - And if this is correct then.. Well that monster we saw in Crusade carrying these ships would be a approximately 135 Km long!! Sorry - it just didn't look that damned big and I don't think that even a VCD could do total damage to a ship of that size! -
I think it would be best to assume that the Drakh actually took a leaf out of their masters books - and made their ships in varying sizes - lets say that the one out of "Lines of communication" was actually 14Km long - let us also assume that there are others - identical in appearance at 2Km in length - this would make the monster from Crusade a more respectable 21-25 KM in length - now doesn't that sound a lot more believable - I can handle a VCD whipping a ship that size!!
But you know there is another way to tackle the Drakh ship problem - and that is by dealing with the..Whitestar! Now Netterdecided to bump up the figure for the Whitestar to accommodate a hangar and the like later on in the series - well was this necessary? I don't think so - take a look at the following:
That's a Whitestar about to collide with an OCD at the Netter altered length! - Blimey - been feeding it steroids have they?! Far morerealistic to keep to the 268 figure that was quoted way back - but will this figure accommodate - the crew on the bridge and two Nials in a hangar? Let's have a look see....
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Well as you can see - at 268 metres there's more than enough room for a crew on the bridge and for that matter enough room for 4-5 people to walk through the neck! | ||
 | And here - we can see that there's plenty of room for two Nials in a hangar section too now that they have been revised to a respectable 16m in length. | |
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With the Whitestar at a now respectable length we can ascertain the following - a good figure for that Drakh ship would be a credible 7000 metres..
And not only that - but this looks a bit better too doesn't it?
Finally lets look at a comparison with the revised lengths Note that I have revised the lengths of the Drakh Raider and the Shadow scout to bring them into line with the revised Whitestar length
I'm sure that you'll agree that these figures and ships look much better now - the Primus looks better and the VSD looks more believable now than it did before.
Well - the vast majority of these figures I am happy with and I am going to stick to -
Babylon 5 | 5 Miles | Whitestar | 268 m | |||||
Hyperion | 1,188 m | Omega CD | 1,717 m | |||||
Nova | 1.455 m | Olympus | 445 m | |||||
Starfury | 9.56 m | Thunderbolt | 15.54 m | |||||
Drazi Sunhawk | 350 m | Drazi Sky Serpent | 15.3 m | |||||
Narn G'Quan | 1,200 m | Narn Frazi | 22 m | |||||
Narn T'Loth | 950 m | Narn Freighter | 30 m | |||||
Minbari Sharlin | 1,600 m | Minbari Nial | 16 m | |||||
Centauri Vorchan Class 1 | 608 m | Centauri Primus | 1,670 m | |||||
304 m | ||||||||
Centauri Shuttle | 36 m | Centauri Transport | 60 m | |||||
Centauri Sentri Fighter | 15.45 m | Brakhiri Avioki | 1,000 m | |||||
Vorlon Transport | 100 m | Drakh raider | 200 m | |||||
Vorlon fighter | 36 m | Shadow Fighter | 40 m | |||||
Shadow Scout | 200 m | Shadow Battlecrab | 1,000 m | |||||
1,500 m | ||||||||
2,000 m | ||||||||