T ' Plana - Hath type model While designing the for , John Eaves , the chief designer , wanted something with a " spinning " element [ remark : referring to Probert ' s " Trumbull " – inspired " half gainer " ] , after the Vulcan courier from , so he designed the legs to fold into the thruster packs , and as the ship landed they would fold out , spinning on their way down . The red hue eventually given to the otherwise unconventional design has been a co - influence on Doug Drexler ' s and thereby establishing the hull color as a signature feature of Vulcan starship classes . Design . When asked to design a Vulcan spacecraft , Eaves was surprised that there were very little references , with only the long range shuttle and the to proceed from , leaving him more or less free to design whatever he felt like . " " I was surprised that a Vulcan ship had never been shown before , but it freed me up to design something from scratch . I tried to think like a Vulcan , creating something that was both artistic and logical . " " , Eaves himself recalled ( " Cinefex " , issue 69 , p . 118 ) and , " " I decided to make the ship more artistic than aerodynamic , and to take its design essence from the sea ; if you look down on the craft , you might feel you were looking at a starfish - with three limbs instead of five . Usually crafts - Human crafts , at least - are designed with an even number in mind , for balance . Well , this structure has balance , only with an odd number of pieces , and with curves instead of straight lines . The main body of the craft is triangular ; from it extend three arms containing the engines and propulsion systems . Those " arms " serve a double purpose - as landing legs , The bottom of the engines are also triangular , and the bottom of the landing foot also has an open - faced triangle . When the legs deploy for landing , the fork that makes the thrust - ring drops down and makes the landing platform with the main hatch situated in the center of the foot . In turn , each leg of the vessel has a hatchway . Herman really liked it right away , so I sent it to Mr . Berman , who called and said , " This is exactly the ship I want . " I continued to do the detail sketches ; Peter Lauritson and David Takemura were heavily involved with the final designs , in order to ensure the CGI modelers could make look good on the big screen . " " ( " " , p . 220 ) Study model . While designing the " Vulcan Lander " , the design became so intricate that Eaves painted himself into a corner and he had to build a study model , or as he put it , " " I had trapped myself with this design : from a three - quarter or top view I could draw it just fine . But I found it almost impossible to figure out how it would look in other angles , because all the bizarre compound curves had minds of their own - making accuracy insanely frustrating to achieve when I tried to put it on paper . It wound up being the hardest ship I ' d ever drawn . I actually had to make a miniature of it just so I could have a reference to draw from . That little model ultimately became the study model for the CGI artist at Vision Arts and Pacific Ocean Post . " " ( " " , p . 222 ) As for the build he remembered , " " I sculpted ⅓ of the model from surf board foam . molded that piece and cast three identical pieces and then aligned and fitted the pieces to make one symmetrical piece that would create the form of the entire ship . I then started to add the paneling with various thickness ' s of styrene , adding e . m . a . strip and c channel , and tiny model bashing parts from other model kits . I made one leg all from styrene and then used ladies press - on finger nails for all the engine and rcs thrust covers . molded everything again and assembled a version with legs up and down . " " The study model , measuring 7 " in diameter , reportedly from Eaves ' own collection , was offered up in the " The Ultimate Sci - Fi Auction " of 26 April 2003 as , estimated at US $ 2 , 000 - $ 3 , 000 . Prior to him selling off his model , it came in - handy one more time when Eaves was contracted by Legends in 3 Dimensions to sculpt a master of his design , putting his model to good use one more time , as an outing in their 1996 cold - cast porcelain pre - painted replicas line , offered for sale through the Official Star Trek Fan Club / and retailed at the " " exhibit in a limited edition run of 2 , 500 pieces . ( ) To date , it has remained the only ( officially licensed ) commercially available three dimensional model ( kit ) of his design . CGI model . The design in the end would not be executed as a physical model but rather as a CGI model . The assignment was given to VisionArt Design & Animation , who had petitioned to be involved in the " Star Trek Movie " franchise . As they had already been able to place their CGI model of the at the disposal of ILM for " First Contact " , they were given the chance to prove their mettle . Eaves ' 8 inch study model was turned over to VisionArt , where it was painted by Robert Tom and photographed by Josh Rose , whose resulting pictures were used as texture maps . Animation Supervisors Daniel Kramer and Carl Hooper eventually built the model in the " Side Effects ' Prism " software . Rose remembered , " " Peter Lauritson made us promise that this would be the best - looking ship we ' d ever done . He told us this sequence would depict the beginning of the " Star Trek " franchise ; and so it would be among the most important moments in the film . " " ( " Cinefex " , issue 69 , p . 118 ) Partial physical build . For one scene however , the disembarking of the Vulcans , a CGI model would not do . A full scaled landing foot of the " T ' Plana - Hath " had to be designed and build . Eaves remembered on the design , " " Once the foot was constructed and Peter and David looked at the concept sketches from Matte World and me , they felt that the landing configuration didn ' t produce the best angle of the Vulcan ship . So they had me redesign the leg deployment so that the main body swivelled away from the landing claws , making the ship come into a forward - facing position with one foot squarely in front of the ship . If you looked down on the craft , it would appear to have six appendages rather than three . It took a lot of work to make those legs come down . We had to change the way they were angled , because where the engines were concerned , the body tapered down to a point and was so long when the legs needed to move , that it looked like the ship was on " tiptoes " - that the legs were too high above position to accommodate the shape . Once we changed the angle , though , a lot of problems were ironed out , including the one I had making he miniatures . ( I thought it ' d take me two weeks , max , but it wound up taking six and a half to flesh out the mechanics of the design and make the model accordingly . ) " " ( " " , p . 223 ) Once build however , it was soon discovered that the mechanism for opening the hatch did not work properly and the decision was made to add the opening of the hatch digitally , giving VisionArt an unexpected bonus . ( " Cinefex " , issue 69 , p . 118 )