New KDY ship to appear in Empire #22

President Sharky · Post by **President Sharky** » 2004-07-12 08:30pm

The preview for Empire #22 on Darkhorse's website shows us a new ship with some design similarities to the Nebulon-B frigate. I'd say that it is most definitely a KDY design, but certainly much larger than the Neb-B judging by those hangars. It's an impressive ship for the Rebel Alliance to have had in the ANH-ESB years.[/url]

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2004-07-12 08:34pm

It actually is a Nebulon B with a strengthened neck from what i can see.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2004-07-12 09:03pm

Lord Pounder wrote:It actually is a Nebulon B with a strengthened neck from what i can see.

Too big if those holes are the docking bay shown in the next frame.

Spice Runner · Post by **Spice Runner** » 2004-07-12 09:45pm

It appears to be a modified Nebulon B frigate, though the front section doesn't appear to extend downwards as far as a Nebulon B.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-07-12 10:07pm

Wow, that thing is big. Anyone care to scale based on the hanger scene?

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2004-07-12 10:20pm

I did, but had some server trouble:

Scaling it off the Millennium Falcon (in that inset), it has to be far larger than a Nebulon-B.

The Millennium Falcon is 46 pixels long in the inset. This scales neatly with its established length of 40-50 meters.

The hangar bay entrance is over 186 pixels long.

If the scaling here is linear (which it probably isn't since the Falcon is at a different angle with respect to the hangar bay, but it should be close) then that means the hangar bay itself has a ~186 meter wide opening. On a ~350-meter-long Nebulon-B, this is, simply put, impossible.

IRG CommandoJoe · Post by **IRG CommandoJoe** » 2004-07-13 12:38am

So could this be said to be the huge Nebulon B seen in RotJ?

Wild Karrde · Post by **Wild Karrde** » 2004-07-13 12:52am

What if it's what a stock Nebulon-B really looks like before the refit the rebels use to turn the Nebs into Med frigates?

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-07-13 01:09am

Wild Karrde wrote:What if it's what a stock Nebulon-B really looks like before the refit the rebels use to turn the Nebs into Med frigates?

First, not all Nebulon-Bs used by the Rebellion are turned into medical frigates. The one in ESB was just specifically a medical frigate.

Second, It can't because this is much larger than a Nebulon-B, I'd estimate about 3-4 times larger at the very least. Nebulon-Bs pretty much look the same used by either side, unless they're a variet type.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2004-07-13 04:01am

IRG CommandoJoe wrote:So could this be said to be the huge Nebulon B seen in RotJ?

Definately not: the proportions are all wrong. Whatever it is, it is most certainly not a large Neb-B.

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2004-07-13 05:50am

This is certainly not related to the Nebulon B in any way other than aesthetics. Notice that, in addition to its vastly larger size, the front end doesn't have the big long vertical part. The ship doesn't extend past that narrative box, with the exception of some greeblies.

As for scaling, the first picture can give us a lower limit based on the Y-wings flying towards the ship. Notice how small they get (the farthest Y-wing is perhaps 1/40 to 1/60 the big ship's LOA). Also, the Falcon is accompanied by X-wings in that hangar, and there appears to be multiple such hangars along the length of the ship.

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2004-07-13 05:53am

Reading the text, the time frame for this scene is set at 3 months after Yavin.

Also, can anybody read the ship's name? Kalla's Stanchion? That's kind of a weird name for a ship, but whatever.

nightmare · Post by **nightmare** » 2004-07-13 07:29am

Given that DH messed up the Xiyitar/Marauder scaling, I'd say that's a screwed up Nebulon-B. But now it's official.. the rebels had an 8? km ship shortly after Yavin.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2004-07-13 12:17pm

Alright, I'm going to try some further scaling based off what I can see. I'm not sure if the openings on the side of the forward hull are hangars, but they look closer to the hangar that the MF is in than the place where the Y-wings are flying into (out of?).

So, working off that hunch, the first of those openings is 24 pixels wide. If the inset hangar is 186 pixels wide, then there is a 465:61 scaling ratio. The entire ship is 412 pixels long, albeit somewhat skewed because of perspective -- in a side-on view, the ship would certainly be longer. But I'm not looking for a concrete figure here, I just want an estimate.

Now, multiplying the fudged length of the ship by 465:61, I get a figure of 3,140 meters.

Does that mean this thing is larger than a Star Destroyer?

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2004-07-13 12:39pm

That's lower limit too; yup, bigger than an ISD.

Home One is 3800 meters, so this momma is still not the biggest, but wow, goes a long way to show that the ISD really isn't the largest dog in the pack oftentimes.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-07-13 01:48pm

Hrm, looks like a dedicated fleet carrier, maybe? All those docking bays ...

Dartzap · Post by **Dartzap** » 2004-07-13 02:35pm

to quote that site.

"starwars is avilible worldwide, except for the UK."

why are we not allowed it!?

WTF?

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2004-07-13 02:48pm

phongn wrote:Hrm, looks like a dedicated fleet carrier, maybe? All those docking bays ...

That looks like it's purpose, look at the wing of y-wings heading into its forward docking bay, it might be able to hold 10 or more wings of fighters, it certainly has enough space, not to mention I see at least 7 docking bays on the viewable side. I wouldn't be surprised if it could hold far more.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2004-07-13 05:43pm

phongn wrote:Hrm, looks like a dedicated fleet carrier, maybe? All those docking bays ...

I don't know if I'd say that, while it has many more docking bays than we often see, for its size I'd judge that it has less hanger volume than an ISD.

President Sharky · Post by **President Sharky** » 2004-07-13 07:45pm

antitrek wrote:to quote that site.

"starwars is avilible worldwide, except for the UK."

why are we not allowed it!?

WTF?

SW Republic and Empire comics are available in the UK, but they're published by a different company, which is why the Darkhorse publication is not available there. You can still find them there.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2004-07-13 08:29pm

phongn wrote:Hrm, looks like a dedicated fleet carrier, maybe? All those docking bays ...

I doubt it is a dedicated carrier for the same reasons as Howedar, not to mention the fact that the placement of the bays looks suspect and sticking them in the field of fire during engagement seems stupid.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2004-07-13 08:58pm

Illuminatus Primus wrote:
phongn wrote:Hrm, looks like a dedicated fleet carrier, maybe? All those docking bays ...
I doubt it is a dedicated carrier for the same reasons as Howedar, not to mention the fact that the placement of the bays looks suspect and sticking them in the field of fire during engagement seems stupid.

Agreed, even if the other side has (7) docking bays, its still very little of the overall volume of the ship to be a 'dedicated' fleet carrier. Thats alot of volume for something else.

Since I don't see any obvious weapons banks or weapons ports, I'd lean towards a converted transport or heavy freighter put on 'carrier' duty.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2004-07-13 10:11pm

On such a large ship the weapons would not be very noticable. We're probably talking about a ship twice as large as an ISD, remember.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2004-07-13 11:35pm

Howedar wrote:On such a large ship the weapons would not be very noticable. We're probably talking about a ship twice as large as an ISD, remember.

Sort of, I suppose. A ship that size and suppost to be a dedicated warship with only medium or light guns doesn't make much sense. You'd expect atleast one or two batteries such as the ISD, and you can see those easily enough.

I have no doubt that it is armed, just that if it was built to be a 'warship' it would probably have some heavy weapon that would be visable. If it was a converted transport, grafting on various sized weapons that wouldn't be visable at that distance, would be consistent with what we know of the Alliance and its ships.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2004-07-13 11:37pm

You know, it just occurred to me that the Nebulon-B is not the only ship with that general design. There's also the Neutron Star-type bulk cruiser, built by Rendili StarDrive, which measures 600 meters.

Could this be a larger type of Bulk Cruiser? They aren't very heavily armed for their size, and they do have a decent amount of hangar space (they are sort of armed cargo transports).