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The Klingon Bird of Prey Owners' Workshop Manual is a British hardcover reference book, published in November 2012 by Haynes Publishing in collaboration with Gallery Books for release in the USA, written from a in-universe perspective by Ben Robinson and Rick Sternbach. The book details the construction and outfitting of the B'rel-class scout IKS Rotarran.

Summary[]

From the back cover,
"The Bird-of-Prey is the classic Klingon starship – a tough raiding and scouting vessel that has served at the heart of the Klingon Defense Force for more than a hundred years. Life on board is harsh and brutal, with any sign of weakness leading to a challenge to the death. The ship itself is stripped back and lean, with everything designed for a single purpose – war.
This Haynes Manual traces the origins of a Bird-of-Prey from the moment it is commissioned by one of the Great Houses and constructed at the shipyards of the Klingon Naval Academy. It then proceeds to examine General Martok's famous ship the I.K.S. Rotarran in unprecedented detail.
Featuring a stunning cutaway drawing and, for the first time ever, detailed deck plans and incredible new computer-generated artwork, the Haynes Bird-of-Prey Manual is a technical tour of the ship's systems, from the bridge and engineering rooms to the disruptors, torpedo launcher, and the all-important cloaking device. In addition, the Manual provides a unique insight into life on board a Klingon ship and the Rotarran's glorious history in the Dominion War.
This Haynes Manual is fully authorized by CBS. All the new artwork has been designed by Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager's senior illustrator Rick Sternbach, who is the world’s leading expert on Star Trek technology, with CG renders produced by Star Trek VFX artist Adam 'Mojo' Lebowitz."

Excerpts of copyrighted sources are included for review purposes only, without any intention of infringement.

Background information[]

  • The manual, a follow-up to the USS Enterprise Owners' Workshop Manual, included artwork by Sternbach and CGI renderings by Lebowitz, and features an introduction written by J.G. Hertzler as his Martok alter ego.
  • Originally, as was indicated on the solicitation cover, it was Robert Bonchune, having done the renderings for the previous outing, who was slated to do the CGI renderings. However, as stated in the acknowledgments, Bonchune was unable to do so due to family circumstances.
  • Other acknowledged contributors were Michael Okuda, who provided a cache of display graphics, Bill George and the webmasters of Ex Astris Scientia, Bernd Schneider and MA admin Jörg, who provided reference material for the book.
  • Like the preceding Manual, the book was executed as an A4-format hardback without a dust jacket release, but unlike the preceding Manual, it did not see an other-language edition besides the UK and US editions.
  • Rick Sternbach was encouraged enough by the good reception of the book, to submit a pitch to Haynes later that month for a follow-up, U.S.S. Voyager Owner's Workshop Manual, [1] [2] which was essentially Sternbach's last-ditch attempt to get a Star Trek: Voyager Technical Manual off the ground, a longheld desire he had nurtured since 2000. The 2020 reference book Star Trek: The USS Voyager NCC-74656 Illustrated Handbook from Eaglemoss Collections – published by Bird-of-Prey co-author Robinson without any input from Sternbach – effectively and definitively put an end to any prospect of ever seeing his dream come to fruition.
  • Robinson on the other hand was already considering an entirely new follow-up reference book concept, "I think the logical thing to do, and I haven’t even said this to Haynes, would be a Starfleet shipyard. I’m actually working on a collection of small model Star Trek ships. We’re collecting all the different CG models together as reference and then producing die-cast scale-model ships. These ships, like the Akira or… you can get much more obscure, like the Equinox or the Prometheus… they’re a big part of what makes the franchise cool for people, and there’s been remarkably little done about them. So if Haynes come back and say, “That went really well. What do we do next?” I think that’s what I would suggest to them." [3] As it turned out, Haynes was not interested in Robinson's ideas, and what he had in mind eventually became the Star Trek: Shipyards book series which launched in September 2018 for the employer he was working for on their "collection of small model Star Trek ships", Eaglemoss Collections.
  • In the UK a spin-off product was released by sub-licensee Demand Media Ltd. in November 2013 in the form of a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle, representing the cover illustration of the book with technical call-outs.

External link[]

Previous Haynes Owners' Workshop Manual:
USS Enterprise Owners' Workshop Manual
Haynes Owners' Workshop Manuals Final book in series
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