HOME | DD

Description

Here are all the technical callouts for the Hound’s Tooth. Creating this image was slightly more difficult than it should have been, due to some odd inconsistencies associated with this design.

Now if you’re a fan of Star Wars, you know that there are several characteristics that you can generally count on finding on most Star Wars ships:

1. There will be a cockpit, window, or canopy positioned somewhere on the front of the ship.

2. “Sublight engine exhaust" will probably come out of the back of the ship somewhere.

3. The main weapons will be visible and easily identifiable somewhere on the ship.

Somehow early depictions of the Hound’s Tooth are missing all three of these characteristics. It’s almost as if the designer had never seen a Star Wars movie, and didn’t really know what we were expecting.

Early “canon” depictions of the Hound’s Tooth show no visible cockpit, canopy, or windows of any kind. Worse yet, the only visible engine exhausts inexplicably point straight up. One might imagine engine exhausts that pointed down for landing, and rotated up into a horizontal position for flight (like Slave One). But why would they be designed to point straight up, with no obvious way of rotating into any of the more useful directions? And no easily identifiable weapons are apparent anywhere on the ship.

The 2003 edition of “The New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels” indicates that there is one concussion missile launcher, but the text goes on to explain that there are actually an unspecified number of concussion missile launchers, “each with a magazine of 6 missiles.” The diagram points to a general area where a quad laser cannon is supposed to be retracted, but it doesn’t even bother to suggest where the ship’s ion cannon might be located. More perplexing still is the fact that there are two very large and prominent “weapon-like structures” located on the sides of the ship, but these are never identified or labeled in any way.

The creative team that made “The Clone Wars” TV series did an excellent job of making some sense out of all this. To their credit, they faithfully maintained the ship’s overall distinctive profile and features, while adding an interesting cockpit/command bridge in an eminently logical and sensible location. They also added much-needed sub-light engine exhausts (which were pointed in the right direction), and they added a boarding ramp onto the front of the ship. (Presumably this was in addition to the one on the starboard side that is pointed out in the Essential Guide.) In addition, the TV show actually gave us a pretty cool action-sequence showing the ship extending its landing gear, with the wings rotating 90 degrees for landing. To the best of my recollection, the TV series doesn’t show us any of the weapons being used, so it doesn’t really add much clarification in that department, but overall, it really moved this ship in the right direction. And while this series puts the bridge right where the Essential Guide told us the concussion missile launcher(s) was/were located, it also added 6 tubular structures mounted to hardpoints on the bottoms of the wings. I’m guessing that these are wing-mounted concussion missiles, because that would be cool.

Also, this ship is supposed to hold a smaller scout ship called the Nashtah Pup in a hanger bay on the upper deck. According to Fantasy Flight Games, this ship is a Z-95-AF4 Headhunter. I'm not sure how you would fit a Z-95 into this ship along with the engines and everything else, (maybe it sits pointed straight up?) but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, because having that fighter on board would be extremely cool.

Additionally, some appearances of the ship include some decorative multi-colored “nose art” that appears to be mostly worn off. I have never seen a clear depiction of what the art was supposed to look like prior to its being weathered away. So, since it was nearly worn off way back during the Clone Wars, (and since it doesn’t appear on all depictions of the ship,) I’m assuming that it is fully worn off by the time of my images, somewhere around 40 ABY.

Anyway, here is my take on the ship, synthesizing the available material as well as I could.

Description

Here are all the technical callouts for the Hound’s Tooth. Creating this image was slightly more difficult than it should have been, due to some odd inconsistencies associated with this design.

Now if you’re a fan of Star Wars, you know that there are several characteristics that you can generally count on finding on most Star Wars ships:

1. There will be a cockpit, window, or canopy positioned somewhere on the front of the ship.

2. “Sublight engine exhaust" will probably come out of the back of the ship somewhere.

3. The main weapons will be visible and easily identifiable somewhere on the ship.

Somehow early depictions of the Hound’s Tooth are missing all three of these characteristics. It’s almost as if the designer had never seen a Star Wars movie, and didn’t really know what we were expecting.

Early “canon” depictions of the Hound’s Tooth show no visible cockpit, canopy, or windows of any kind. Worse yet, the only visible engine exhausts inexplicably point straight up. One might imagine engine exhausts that pointed down for landing, and rotated up into a horizontal position for flight (like Slave One). But why would they be designed to point straight up, with no obvious way of rotating into any of the more useful directions? And no easily identifiable weapons are apparent anywhere on the ship.

The 2003 edition of “The New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels” indicates that there is one concussion missile launcher, but the text goes on to explain that there are actually an unspecified number of concussion missile launchers, “each with a magazine of 6 missiles.” The diagram points to a general area where a quad laser cannon is supposed to be retracted, but it doesn’t even bother to suggest where the ship’s ion cannon might be located. More perplexing still is the fact that there are two very large and prominent “weapon-like structures” located on the sides of the ship, but these are never identified or labeled in any way.

The creative team that made “The Clone Wars” TV series did an excellent job of making some sense out of all this. To their credit, they faithfully maintained the ship’s overall distinctive profile and features, while adding an interesting cockpit/command bridge in an eminently logical and sensible location. They also added much-needed sub-light engine exhausts (which were pointed in the right direction), and they added a boarding ramp onto the front of the ship. (Presumably this was in addition to the one on the starboard side that is pointed out in the Essential Guide.) In addition, the TV show actually gave us a pretty cool action-sequence showing the ship extending its landing gear, with the wings rotating 90 degrees for landing. To the best of my recollection, the TV series doesn’t show us any of the weapons being used, so it doesn’t really add much clarification in that department, but overall, it really moved this ship in the right direction. And while this series puts the bridge right where the Essential Guide told us the concussion missile launcher(s) was/were located, it also added 6 tubular structures mounted to hardpoints on the bottoms of the wings. I’m guessing that these are wing-mounted concussion missiles, because that would be cool.

Also, this ship is supposed to hold a smaller scout ship called the Nashtah Pup in a hanger bay on the upper deck. According to Fantasy Flight Games, this ship is a Z-95-AF4 Headhunter. I'm not sure how you would fit a Z-95 into this ship along with the engines and everything else, (maybe it sits pointed straight up?) but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, because having that fighter on board would be extremely cool.

Additionally, some appearances of the ship include some decorative multi-colored “nose art” that appears to be mostly worn off. I have never seen a clear depiction of what the art was supposed to look like prior to its being weathered away. So, since it was nearly worn off way back during the Clone Wars, (and since it doesn’t appear on all depictions of the ship,) I’m assuming that it is fully worn off by the time of my images, somewhere around 40 ABY.

Anyway, here is my take on the ship, synthesizing the available material as well as I could.