Errata of the Eaglemoss Shipyards Books
The Shipyards books are a series of hardcover reference guides published by Eaglemoss/Hero Collector. These books are derived from the Official Starships Collection series of die-cast models, which came with detailed magazines. Seven volumes were published until February 2022. An eighth one, Star Trek Shipyards: Alpha Quadrant and Major Species - Lysian to Romulan, was planned but never released due to the Eaglemoss insolvency in August 2022.
The Shipyards books include most canon Star Trek starship types, and several new ones in addition to the designs already known from the Official Starships Collection. Each ship is presented with detailed CG images and (for the most part) orthographic views. The text summarizes the in-universe service histories of the classes or the individual vessels and includes some behind-the-scenes information too. It is the concept of the series that each ship design is featured in only one volume, so the buyer doesn't have to pay for duplicates.
Overall, these books are well-researched. Yet, in single cases they confound ship types, show inaccurate renderings or get other facts wrong. I rate the following as mistakes: Descriptions that do not match with the depicted ship classes or variations, significant inaccuracies of the CG models such as missing parts or proportions that are off, distorted or otherwise corrupted depictions, scaling errors if they exceed a reasonable margin of error, wrong labels, other factual errors. I include simple typos for the sake of completeness. Conjecture regarding the design histories, capabilities or naming of the designs is not taken into account because it is sometimes useful to supplement otherwise scarce descriptions. I also don't rate it as an error if an interpretation or an editorial decision differs from the EAS policy on the issue.
Error List
These are the errors I found in the Shipyards books, ordered by publishing dates.
Star Trek Shipyards: Starfleet Ships 2151 - 2293
This volume encompasses the most notable Earth and Starfleet ship designs from the Botany Bay to the Enterprise-E in chronological order. Also included are the Discovery ships that were known at the beginning of season 1 (25 September 2018).
- Page 18: The vertical stabilizer of the OV-165 is cut off at the top in the side view.
- Page 67: Emmette is misspelled as "Emette".
- Page 118: The four views show the dorsal side of the Magee twice, instead of the dorsal and the ventral sides.
- Page 148: The side view of the Bozeman is extremely flattened.
- Page 156: The Excelsior CGI is significantly inferior in quality relative to the rest of the book. It looks like a work in progress and lacks details. As far as there are hull panels, they are generic and don't correspond with how they look on the actual filming miniature. Also, the labeling on the saucer is missing. The shape is overall correct. The booklet of the Official Starships Collection Issue 8 shows the same CGI (which was apparently used for the die-cast miniature too), the one of the later XL version features an improved model.
- Page 156: The call-out indicates an actually non-existing torpedo launcher between the impulse engines.
- Pages 183 & 185: There is no reason why the Miranda class (233m in the book) should not be identical in length to the Soyuz (243m) with its evidently identical structure.
Star Trek Shipyards: Starfleet Ships 2294 - the Future (2nd edition)
The second book takes care of the Starfleet ships from the early 24th century to the far future, ordered by types and by the in-universe chronology (13 November 2018). A second edition of the book comes with the then newest designs from Picard, Lower Decks and Discovery's 32nd century (24 August 2021).
- Page 53: Ro Laren's Maquis fighter from TNG: "Preemptive Strike" is called a variant with "a larger central cockpit" of the Federation fighter, when it is in fact the same design as Chakotay's raider (except for said cockpit and a few smaller changes).
- Pages 84 ff.: All CG depictions of the Nebula in the book use the parts of the Bonchune variant from DS9/VOY, also those meant to show the USS Phoenix from TNG: "The Wounded", whose studio model has different proportions.
- Page 91: The actual interior area of the Enterprise-D is not 3.5 million m2, but somewhat less than 1 million m2, as by my coarse estimation, which was confirmed in a measurement by EC Henry.
- Page 228: We may find a few reasons for the Cerritos to measure as much as 794m, but that way it looks ridiculous on the size chart. Lower Decks producer Brad Winters confirmed the ship is 535.2m long.
- Page 230: We don't have a definite size figure for the Prometheus, but 126m is way off. At EAS, I have the Prometheus at 415m.
Star Trek Shipyards: The Klingon Fleet
This book presents the Klingon fleet through the ages, including the odd designs from Discovery season 1 (14 May 2019).
- Pages 16-17: The parts labeled "Impulse engine" on the ENT-era BoP are actually the warp engines for all we know.
- Page 28: The D5 tanker, which is a distinct design, is only included as a side note in the D5 battlecruiser entry. This is not really an error, but the tanker would have made a valuable addition.
- Pages 34-35: The labels for "Impulse engine" and "Warp engine" are switched on the "Augment ship".
- Page 162: The 349.54m figure for the K't'inga is taken from the DS9TM and is evidently wrong because it is based on a wrong reference.
- Page 162: The depiction of the Jach class is extremely squished.
Star Trek Shipyards: Federation Members
This volume contains Federation non-Starfleet ships, especially those of Vulcan origin but also of other member planets (19 November 2019).
- Pages 33 ff.: The two entries for the Surak class and for the Ni'Var show the (better proportioned) original CG model, once colored red and once brown. The overview on pages 68/69, on the other hand, uses the original model for the Ni'Var and the new model (Sh'Ran) for the Surak class, both in brown. The latter can be seen in later ENT episodes and is "officially" still the same design, but on all occasions we see it (as also evidenced by screen caps in the "Surak" entry), it is appears to be bigger than 350m.
- Pages 54-55: The ventral extension with the triangular cross-section of the T'Pau should extend up to the forward end of the engine ring and be visible in the front view.
- Pages 102-103: This may nitpicky, but the CG model of the Bajoran raider has the later cockpit seen on Maquis fighters, rather the original one from DS9: "The Siege". And yes, it is well possible that the Bajorans also have raiders with this second cockpit variant.
- Page 125: The Bajoran raider is not 33.1m long because Jadzia and Nerys, who are seen boarding the crammed cockpit, are not 6 meters tall.
Star Trek Shipyards: The Borg and Delta Quadrant - Akritirian to Krenim
This is a compilation of the most significant Delta Quadrant starships, sorted alphabetically by races from A to K, with special attention to the Borg (20 April 2021).
- Page 14: The printed book is correct. The PDF curiously shows a Mondor side view in the place of another view of a Borg cube.
- Page 69: Typo in the heading: "B'omar Partrol Ship"
- Pages 88-89: The book lists both Caatati ship types that Jörg identified. However, it depicts the Type 1 also in the entry for the supposedly larger Type 2. Furthermore, the side view is not orthographic but exhibits a quite unpleasant perspective.
- Pages 206-207: The title image for the Krenim patrol ship incorrectly shows the Krenim warship.
- Page 208: The front view of the Krenim patrol ship looks monstrous because it is not orthographic.
Star Trek Shipyards: Delta Quadrant - Ledosian to Zahl
The second Delta Quadrant volume encompasses designs of civilizations from L to Z (10 August 2021).
- Pages 18-19: The double page for the Lokirrim patrol ship incorrectly shows the Lokirrim warship from pages 16/17 once more.
- Pages 40-41: The Nasari ship should be brown, not green like the Romulan science ship.
- Page 140: The title says "Tau's Freighter", which was probably supposed to be "Tau's Fighter".
- Page 140: The right wing of the fighter is missing.
- Page 147: A shaded portion of the Think Tank is transparent, probably because of an image processing oversight.
- Pages 181 ff.: All CG depictions falsely show the Merchantman configuration of the model without the Vidiian modifications. The correct CG model was used in the previously released Klingon book (p. 140). It would fit here as well (without the Klingon writing, of course, which may never have been on the model anyway).
- Pages 196-197: The CG model of the Voth city ship is inaccurate. The underside is too flat and the "secondary city control" on top near the front tip is missing.
- Page 211: How in the world could the alleged depiction of the Zahl ship make it into the book? The coarse CG model is not similar to the actual design by any stretch of imagination.
Star Trek Shipyards: Alpha Quadrant and Major Species - Acamarian to Ktarian
The seventh and so far final book is about the starships of Alpha Quadrant races from A to K. It also includes quite a few Gamma Quadrant designs, such as notably the Dominion ships (5 February 2022).
- Pages 44-45 & 48-49: The Galor class never had a blue deflector dish as seen on the CG depictions. In all fairness, it was wrong as soon as on publicity shots of the miniature that were depicted in the Star Trek Fact Files, for instance, some 25 years earlier.
- Page 121: The underside of the Ferengi Marauder is very badly rendered. Just as already the CGI in the booklet of Official Starships Collection Issue 16, it looks like a flat semi-transparent surface devoid of details, with the dorsal side shining through. The die-cast model fortunately includes the ventral details.
- Pages 186 ff.: The Karemma ship CGI (which was also used for the die-cast model, Official Starships Collection Issue 165) is not the design as it actually appeared in DS9: "Starship Down". It is the later non-Karemma knock-off that went on to appear as a Bajoran ship until it got transferred to the Delta Quadrant. The proportions are different, but most notably the original Karemma ship had a forked bow instead of the three fins on the CG version.
- Pages 208-209: In the size chart, the Jem'Hadar battlecruiser is shown 20% too small relative to the rest.
Star Trek Shipyards: Alpha Quadrant and Major Species - Lysian to Romulan
This book was announced but not released. 😢
Conclusion
Summarizing, there are a couple of mistakes in the Shipyards books. Some date back as far as to publications such as the DS9TM or the Fact Files. Others originate in the Official Starships Collection of the same publisher and were passed on. A few more came to pass because the book series is more comprehensive than previous publications and strives to cover ship types, of which CG models may not have been available or were confounded with similar designs. Only the totally messed up "Zahl ship" remains a mystery.
With the exception of the above problems, the Shipyards books are great, both in their factual accuracy and presentation. I clearly recommend them and I hope the missing volume is still going to be released somehow.
Most of the released Eaglemoss books are currently available for download at Wixiban.
See Also
Starship Gallery - including most orthographic views published by Eaglemoss
Starship Database - the most accurate and complete reference on Star Trek's ships
Credits
Some data from Wixiban. Special thanks to Pundus for the kind support!
