D ' Kora class model According to the " " ( 3rd ed . , p . 38 ) , the Ferengi Marauder design was inspired by a on Herbert J . Wright ' s desk . As such it was carried over into the of the first season episode , , where the design was to make its debut as the very first new alien starship design of the new television series , referenced to as " a strange horseshoe crab - like design , a bit smaller than the " Enterprise " . " Design . Designer Andrew Probert explained his thought processes , when translating the script description into the first new alien ship for the show , " " The Ferengi ship I wanted to have , not only an obvious shape difference , but a textural difference as well . The original description of the Ferengi ship ship was a horseshoe crab design with a neck that would extend . The front of the ship I wanted to look fairly dangerous . Something that seems real dangerous - looking to me are the pincers on an insect . I designed the front of the ship to basically have that shape . On the underside of the vessel is a boarding ramp which can be seen when the ship turns around . The back of the ship is basically used for cargo storage seeing how the Ferengi are traders . " " ( ) As it so happened , the horseshoe crab design coincided with Gene Roddenberry ' s dictum of warp engines operating in pairs as Probert reiterated : " Now , Gene dictated that there are no three - engine starships and no single - engine starships . When I was first designing the new " Enterprise " he said , " The Federation ship ' s engines always are co - dependent " . It is the same as to say they always worked in twos . So that ' s why when Sternbach and I came up with the " Stargazer " , it had two sets of twos . And then I started thinking that , back in World War II , all the nations that had fighter aircraft and airplanes did the same thing : they took off , they flew , they landed , they maneuvered . They usually had one engine , two wings , two tailwings – so they all had the same components , but they all looked different . There was a national design bias to each aircraft , but technically they all did the same thing . So my thinking was in " Star Trek " – since the " Enterprise " used to have two engines – I came up with the idea that the engines had to reach out to each other in order to work co - dependently . In other words , there would be no obstructions between the engines to disrupt the energy fields or connecting forces between them . And , well , all the alien ships could look different but still operate in the same principle . So that ' s why the Ferengi Marauder is curved , is concave , because that allows the two engines to reach each other . " Further clarifying on his design , he commented : " The Ferengi people were basically space pirates , so I tried to give their ship a threatening look by adding pointed areas at the front , like the back of a pincher bug , and had had it look dirtier and was a little battle - scarred . Then to support the pirate persona , and provide for future episodes , I designed an extendable boarding ramp into the underside of the ship ' s nose , with a clawed front that would be used on raids . Another feature I designed into the Marauder was a large attack ship nestled into an underside docking cavity . This forward - swept wing " drop ship " could land for planetary raids or maneuver in space . The Marauder ' s overall length was to have been about 1 , 200 feet . " ( " Starlog photo guidebook Special Effects " , Vol . 5 , 1996 , pp . 111 - 112 ) Primary studio model . As the first new alien starship design for " The Next Generation " , the intent was faithfully adhered to at Gregory Jein , Inc . , when the recently revived company constructed the studio model as its first " Star Trek " commission . Describing the build , model maker and owner of the company , Greg Jein , elaborated , " " The Ferengi ship was basically an organic shape , so we chose to carve it out of foam rather than clay . Once the hard foam was vacuformed over it , which gave us a nice removable shell , we detailed those shells with model railroad parts and some pin striping tape . Then the next step to that , was putting the finished pattern into a mold in which we did a fiberglass casting of it which held the armature and the lighting packet . " " ( TNG Season 4 DVD - special feature , " Select Historical Data " ) Apart from the below - mentioned articulation , Jein also constructed Probert ' s embedded drop ship as a detachable piece , so the ship could be filmed with an empty berthing slot after the drop ship had left , if script requirements ever called for it , which , as it turned out , never would . The scene where the Ferengi " surrendered " was in the described as : " The snake head - like prow ' s pushing out from the ship body , " ( Scene 21 ) and ( Scene 22 ) : " The Ferengi ship now extends gun - like arms from either side of the prow . " Clarifying , Probert put it as follows , " " The Marauder ' s stretching neck . . . was a locked - in script requirement , to reveal their ship ' s sensitive areas as their way of surrendering . The writer / producers wanted it to look like a horseshoe crab . . . [ T ] he " claws " were a variation of the Klingon disrupter designs from TOS . " ( remember the metal plates on either side of the " barrel " ? " " The " surrender " features were also faithfully translated onto the studio model at Jein ' s company . The articulated " D ' Kora " - class model ( measuring 36 " ×32 " ) was listed as in the " " auction with an estimated sale price of US $ 4 , 000 to $ 6 , 000 . It sold on 7 October 2006 for US $ 15 , 000 ( $ 18 , 000 with buyer ' s premium ) . After acquirement , the owner sought out professional modeler Richard Long of Sovereign Replicas , in order to have restoration work done on the model . Long had to repair a crack on the ventral side of the model , repair a flaw in the casting and reconstruct the drop ship , as the model came to him without it . In return for his services , the owner allowed Long to take molds from the model and construct a limited number of non - articulating models from them as payment . Other physical studio models . Though constructed to all the specifications asked for , in the end the primary model proved to be faulty as Image G ' s CEO Tom Barron testified to : " The only person we could find who was willing to try to build it on our timeline was Greg Jein , who had been working on " Star Trek " forever . But on top of everything there was supposed to be this articulation – the arms were going to extend out into a threatening posture . Well , of course , we were trying to knock this stuff out in an incredibly short period of time . We ' re literally talking about a situation where hours made the difference . The Art Department came up with drawings , and Greg did exactly what was required ; it was a motion control , articulated ship that had these arms that extended out , but , because of the timeline , that articulation was never really seen on the show . The model worked but it was too time - consuming to shoot it . I remember it had internal lighting , but when we went to articulate the arms it crushed the neon , so the lights all got knocked out right away ! Because of the problem with the articulated ship , Greg knocked out an additional version that was literally just a casting that he did in a day . We slapped it on a stick , and that ' s what we used in the show more than anything else . We did end up with a shot where the arms moved a little bit . Then , when they finally cut the show together and put it on the air , there was almost none of that left either . Then , when they decided the show ran a little bit long , they cut another second ; then , if there were any extra commercials , that cuts out the rest of the shot . From then on , we used this shell , and we never used the articulated one again . " ( ) All the footage taken from the physical studio model ( s ) were shot at Image G , footage of the faulty model also used in later episodes as stock footage . A smaller , simplified studio model , cast in resin , painted in a base color with additional weathering , showed up in the Profiles in History " Hollywood Auction 40 " as Lot 1483 . Incorrectly described as a " Screen - used Ferengi ship from " Star Trek : Deep Space Nine " " , measuring 12 " ×10 " , and with a mounting rod attached to it . At a first cursory glance it fitted the description Barron gave of the second model . However , one of the above shown behind - the - scene photos , showed a smaller model under construction at Jein ' s model shop at approximately one - third scale , nicely conforming to the model offered up for auction . Furthermore , the auction description notwithstanding , the apparent lack of detail and lighting made it almost certain that the model was constructed to function as a camera test model , something the description itself hinted at , " " It has the attached puppeteer rod and handle that allowed an off - screen handler to manipulate the miniature during flight sequences . " " ( In , it is the camera that moves , not the model ) . Estimated at US $ 1 , 000 - $ 1 , 500 , it sold on 12 June 2010 for US $ 1 , 400 . CGI model . It was not until s final season episode , , that the design was called upon to make another appearance as a protagonist . By that time however motion control photography , using physical studio models , was no longer employed by the franchise as a filming technique , and a CGI model had to be constructed . Visual effects supervisor for the episode , Ronald B . Moore , had the studio model shipped over to newly - formed Eden FX as reference for the CGI build , being one of their very first projects as a new company . The studio appeared not to be in a hurry to get the model back , as it resided crated - up in the kitchen of Eden FX for weeks after the episode had finished . ( ) As the next - to - last existing physical studio model to be translated into a CGI version for a running " Star Trek " television production , the CGI model was built and rendered by Brandon MacDougall , who had moved over from Foundation Imaging , to join the new company .