DS9 studio models
Chronological list of studio models appearing in .

DS9 Season 1

Miranda-type escape pod 

 See Miranda-type escape pod

Deep Space 9

Designed by Herman Zimmerman, Rick Sternbach and other members of the art department. The original, six-foot in diameter model, was built by Tony Meininger. It was in the very last scene in the very last episode of the series replaced by a CGI model.
 Deep Space 9 in 
 Empok Nor in

Danube-class runabout

The , and later , runabout was designed by Joseph Hodges, Rick Sternbach, and Jim Martin. The miniature, which was approximately eighteen inches long, was built by Tony Meininger.

Interior cockpit set was designed by Joseph Hodges, and the aft compartment was designed by Richard James, all under the direction of Herman Zimmerman. 
 , et al.

Bajoran vessel

Jaheel's ship 

 See main article: Jaheel's ship

Embryonic lifeform 

 See main article: Embryonic lifeform

Wadi ship 

 Original footage of the Wadi ship, which first appeared in , was also reused to represent Bajoran transports in  and , as well as a  in . 
 The ship model was later flipped over and reused as the Xepolite Free Trader for the episode . 
 New footage of the model, re-flipped, was used in  to represent Razka Karn's starship.

The studio model (measuring 24" × 15") was listed in the 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection auction with an estimated sale price of US$3,000 to $5,000; it sold for US$3,200 ($3,840 with premium).

External link

Miradorn raider 

The Miradorn raider, also identified as a , was designed by Ricardo Delgado. () Delgado's concept art, labeled with the dates  and , described the "alien ship concept" with the name "raptor". (The Making of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, p. 58)

The Miradorn ship model (measuring 20" × 21") was listed in the 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection auction with an estimated sale price of US$3,000 to $5,000; it sold for US$3,800 ($4,560 with premium).  A foam camera test model of this design, measuring approximately 12½" × 11" × 2" was sold in the It's A Wrap! sale and auction. The model was inscribed with various notes, including: "1/4 length of Enterprise", "Eat at Joes", "No step", and "For a good time call...".

DS9 Season 2

Bajoran raider

The Bajoran raider or Bajoran fighter as it is sometimes referred to, was the first spaceship design by Jim Martin after his promotion to senior illustrator on . As he recalls, "I did a Bajoran fighter that Kira and Dax crash. There were a few ships in that episode; there was a Bajoran transport and a small Bajoran fighter. I remember something really ridiculous about that ship. We intended to re-use these old windows that we had found for the set of the interior, so the windows I designed for the exterior needed to match. I kept trying to come up with a way to incorporate the window frames into the ship design. Then we ended up not using them, but they are still on the miniature!" () Martin, however, was partly in error in his recollections; a custom built cockpit set, that both matched his cockpit design and the cockpit windows on the model, was constructed for, and featured in the Deep Space Nine episode , but he was right for the model's subsequent appearance. 

The design was converted into a physical studio model at Tony Meininger's model shop Brazil-Fabrication & Design, making its debut in "The Siege". The model subsequently appeared as a Maquis ship in the  episode  where its cockpit canopy was slightly modified during the production in order to have it match with the canopy of the slightly redressed Type 6 shuttlecraft interior cockpit set. 

As part of one of the last batches of existing studio models being translated into CGI models, a CGI version was built at Digital Muse for , where it appeared in the background. It was later used, unmodified, as an unknown alien ship in the  episode . The CGI model was reconfigured to appear as various ships belonging to several species ( and Human, respectively) in , and . 

Constructed out of styrene and resin, the physical model, measuring 18 × 15&frac; inches and known as , part of the 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection auction and estimated at US$3,000-$5,000, was eventually sold on 6 October 2006 with a winning bid of US$4,800 ($5,760 including buyer's premium). The model came with a small bag of additional parts, including a removable front landing gear pad.

Bajoran interceptor

 See main article: Bajoran interceptor

Hideki-class

 See main article: Hideki class

Federation attack fighter

The Federation attack fighter was a Jim Martin design and as a small fighter design betrayed his Star Wars influences, giving "excess stomach acid" according to Doug Drexler.  The model was eventually built as a physical studio model at Tony Meininger's Brazil-Fabrication & Design model shop. Introduced as a Federation ship used by the Maquis in  and later in the penultimate  episode . () It was not until  that the design was revealed to be specifically the Federation attack fighter design, implying that the ships used by the Maquis were commandeered vessels.

In preparation of the upcoming episode  the model was converted into a CGI version. Bruce Branit of Digital Muse recalled, "There was also the Federation Fighter, which is a smaller one or two man ship that was mixed in with everything else. They've been established in a few other episodes. Toward the end of last season they started showing it in a couple of scenes. That one was built from scratch, as a first edition CG model, off of the real model." (Cinefantastique, Vol.30, No. 9/10, pp. 64-65) Premiering in that episode, the CGI model was later modified at Foundation Imaging to represent the  in  and as a  in .

The physical model, constructed out of glass fiber and resin and measuring 24 × 27 inches, and known as  in the 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection auction, in which it was estimated at US$3,000-$5,000, was eventually sold on 6 October 2006 with a winning bid of US$9,000 (US$10,800 including buyer's premium).

Jem'Hadar fighter

 See main article: Jem'Hadar fighter

DS9 Season 3

Defiant-class

 See main article: Defiant-class

Type 18 shuttlepod

 See main article: Type 18 shuttlepod

Flaxian ship

DS9 Season 4

Alien freighter 

 See main article: Alien freighter

Karemma ship

The Karemma ship was designed by John Eaves, who completed it on . According to his final sketches, this ship was described as a "cargo ship". It first appeared as both a physical model and CGI during its initial appearance, the former for close-up shots, the latter for distant shots. The CG version further appearing in VOY and ENT. 

The physical model measured 34" × 14", and was eventually listed in Christies' 2006 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection auction. The catalog estimate for the lot was US$3,000 to $5,000; it ultimately sold for US$3,200 ($3,840 with premium).  The winners of the lot, a couple from Pennsylvania, were interviewed for The History Channel's Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier.

 Karemma ship in 
 Bajoran impulse ship in 
 Antarian starship in 
 Unnamed Delta Quadrant starship at Ledosian space port in 
 Xantoras evacuation transports in

Additional sources

Atmospheric probe 

See main article: Atmospheric probe

Groumall 

After John Eaves joined the art department of DS9, one of his first jobs was designing the Cardassian freighter that was able to conceal a large gun, tasked to him in August 1995.  

His first take on the design was a tip of the hat to Rick Sternbach's . "I took the front end of a Galor-class Cardassian ship and tried to fan off from that. Using the front end, kind of sculpting it a little bit differently, and putting all these cargo bays in a row.", as he remembers. () The producers found the design too militaristic looking and asked for a more industrial, "freighterish" looking design. Elaborating further, "It was just a series of boxes, all stacked on top of each other in series of sixes, with a big engine detail on the back and the familiar looking Cardassian fork on the front. They wanted it very "freighterish" so I put the bridge on the back like it is on an oiler tanker of today. (...) That's where this design had come from: it's a bunch of huge, huge engines on the back which take it wherever you want to go. They wanted this more than the other one because it is very industrial looking."

It took Eaves another three months of refining before coming up with a design the producers signed off on in November. Though it was becoming less and less customary to produce full orthographic blueprints for model shops by that time (three-quarter views were deemed sufficient), in this case Eaves did, and sent them off to Tony Meininger's Brazil-Fabrication & Design in December, where the studio model was constructed, making its debut in .

The model was used twice more as a Cardassian freighter, but was also redressed twice to represent freighters belonging to other species: the first time, repainted but otherwise unmodified as a Nekrit freighter in  (it was in this color scheme that the model later made its last appearance as a Cardassian freighter). The second time the model was again repainted, but this time modified with the addition of warp engines and Klingon markings to represent Klingon cargo vessels in , though Effects Supervisor for the episode David Stipes would have loved to have had a more Klingon design. He later rationalized the use of the Cardassian design, "We actually wound up using Cardassian freighters that were modified by Tony Meininger, which didn't seem all that implausible, considering all the fighting that had been going on between the Klingons and the Cardassians. We painted them Klingon colors, as if they were prizes of war". () This was the last appearance of the studio model. No production CGI model was ever constructed of this design.

The model, known as  was listed in the 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection auction and estimated at US$2,000-$3,000. It was sold on 6 October 2006 with a winning bid of US$5,000 ($6,000 including buyer's premium) in the modification in which it was last used, namely as a Klingon cargo vessel, to American collector Anthony Sforza.  A foam core camera test model sold in May 2008 as  for US$384.00 in a It's A Wrap! sale and auction. One of Eaves' design sketches was sold in the Profiles in History Hollywood Auction 44, estimated at US$300-$500, on 15 May 2011 as Lot 1511 for US$475.

Further reading
"Designing the Cardassian Freighter", Ben Robinson , June 1999
Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection, issue 157, August 2019
External link

DS9 Season 5

Ty'Gokor orbital facility 

 See main article: Ty'Gokor orbital facility

Spacematic 

 See main article: Spacematic

Jem'Hadar battle cruiser 
 
 See main article: Jem'Hadar battle cruiser model

USS Yeager 

 See main article: Yeager-type model

Dopterian interceptor 

 See main article Dopterian interceptor

DS9 Season 6

USS Curry

 See main article: Curry-type models

USS Centaur

 See main article: Centaur-type models

Romulan shuttle

 See main article: Romulan shuttle

Dominion battleship

 See main article: Dominion battleship

Chaffee-type shuttlepod

 See main article: Chaffee-type shuttlepod

Cardassian orbital weapon platform

 See main article: Cardassian orbital weapon platform

DS9 Season 7

Monac shipyards 

The original mesh of the CGI model would be reworked for a later appearance in Star Trek: Enterprise.

K'Vort-type escape pod

Space swimmin' changelin' thing

Breen ship

The Breen ship was designed by John Eaves and rendered as a CGI model. 

Eaves commented: "Designing the Breen ship has an interesting origin. The Breen are a race that have no established architecture, therefore it opened the door to me to be extremely creative. My initial pass had the ship loosely around the letter 'T'. The story behind the 'T' is that it is the first letter of my fiance's name, Tara. I submitted the drawings and the producers liked the shape and requested more detailed drawings. When these were presented, the producers requested the drawings go a different direction than the original 'T' shape. Therefore, I started designing 'T' ships with a more stylish letter formation – lower case 't's', 't's' hidden among other shapes, etc. Each design sparked enthusiasm with the producers, yet they still wanted to see more fantastic ideas. So, after several more passes, they chose a drawing I didn't think they would choose. It broke all the traditional rules that Star Trek ships are required to meet. The 'T' ship, as I call it, is an open-faced, multiple plane swept wing conglomeration of weapons and engines and a big fat 'T' right in the centre. If you know where to look, all of the letters of Tara's name can be found in the detailed panelling of the ship's exterior. This has been my favorite of all designs for DS9 because of the inspiration which went into its design". ("Far Beyond the Drawing Board", )

The CGI model was constructed and rendered by Doug Drexler, who had just mastered the  CGI software on his own accord, and the build of the Breen ship was in effect his very first contribution in this format for the franchise. () Eaves wrote: "Doug Drexler made a massive skills jump from graphics to CG model maker with this ship, and what fun it was to watch him learn something new. And now he’s a master of CG modeling and animation with unlimited talent!"  As was usual with Eaves' designs, enough room was left in his designs for the digital modellers to apply their own ideas to the final model build according to their design interpretation. Drexler's build was therein no exception as he worked in some design changes and additions on the detail level, as well as choosing the overall colorscheme for the ship, which was met by Eaves' approval. The model was then turned over to effects house Digital Muse for compositing it into the effects scenes of its debut episode . (Star Trek: Designing Starships Deep Space Nine and Beyond, pp. 84-85)

The mesh for the model would later be modified by Brandon MacDougall at Foundation Imaging to represent the Quarren coyote ships in  seventh season episodes,  and , which incidentally, earned him and his team a visual effects Emmy Award nomination. (Star Trek: Voyager Companion, p. 478)

Further reading
"Designing the Breen ship", Ben Robinson, , November 1999
Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection, issue 69, March 2016
External link

Cardassian workbee

A Cardassian version of a workbee appeared in . Its existence and actual appearance was only firmly confirmed on , being "little more than "atmosphere" around the yard, and never meant to be seen up close". This last new Digital Muse CGI build for the series was later modified at Foundation Imaging, () and seen in better detail as an Imhotep ship in .

 05