Further Adventures in Star Trek Scribbling

... Continued from Adventures in Star Trek Scribbling
 

  Look away now if you're averse to Star Trek nincompoopery.
 
  Yes, this is another post chock full of Trek-related art by myself and master of computer generated witchcraft, Scribble.
 (I mean, how can the models exist only within the confines of a computer?  They're real, physical constructs, aren't they?  They certainly look like it.)

  I did warn you.

The latest version of my alternate take on the officer ranks.  If you look closely, you can see that the gold bars are wider than on the previous models, and the ribbing is parallel to the long edges of the open areas in which they sit. 

Hasn't Scribble done a marvellous job?!

::

  Since the last post, in which we looked at the officer ranks, I've been thinking about the flag officer ranks - i.e. the various admirals - and some of the other uniform accoutrements and embellishments.

It appears I'm not the only one thinking about uniform bling.  Here we see James T. Kirk eyeing up Admiral Morrow's impressive embellishments!

[screenshot from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock via TrekCore]

::

  Below are the original movie ranks and Scribble's updated versions:

The actual physical models of the Star Trek original series movie ranks... [via]

... and Scribble's computer generated movie ranks

  Now, as you can see from the above images, the admiral ranks are made up of (amongst other things) the pointy arrowhead ends of the captain/fleet captain insignia (don't they look like little Christmas trees?).  So, those arrowheads became the inspiration for my take on the admiral ranks.

The sketches above are my early musings on reinterpreting the "Christmas trees";

  In keeping with Star Trek's ideal of Starfleet being an exploratory, diplomatic, and scientific endeavour first and foremost, with more militaristic applications being kept as a last resort, I had a go at envisioning the arrowheads as stylised quill pen nibs.  After all, "the pen is mightier than the sword" as the saying goes.  However, those pens reminded me of squid or cuttlefish...

I also had a go at turning the pointy ends of my own captain rank insignia into admiral insignia as the quick sketches on the left and middle (above) show.

The "pips" and "squeaks" are to display length of service and commendations

  I'm probably going to go with turning the original circular five and ten year service "pips" into rounded triangles, and the elongated lozenge commendation "squeak" into a rounded parallelogram.  But, before that, I must get on with the admiral insignia.

The angles of the pointy ends of my captain rank insignia are conducive to five and seven pointed stars (with a bit of fudging).  Ignore the three pointed star on the bottom-left as it looks like the old Romulan emblem.  

Oh, dear...  They look a bit like ninja throwing stars or complicated bicycle gears...

  I'm thinking of overlaying gold or silver (or bronze, if I get a bronze pen) quills to make up the complete admiral insignia.  Although, I think they may end up looking too fussy, so I might just forego the quills and put something in the centre of these designs instead.  Or, maybe simplify all those points and then add the quills?
  Whichever, I need to find a protractor and some graph paper to assist me, as trying to work out all these angles with just a ruler is very time consuming and frustrating. And, as you can tell from the somewhat lopsided designs, inaccurate!

  That's it for now, you'll be pleased to hear.  I'll post more when there's more to show.

  Unless I have a sudden flurry of activity, the next post will be on Hallowe'en which will also be my 1000th post!  Time flies...