I am working on a Star Trek the Motion Picture Klingon Battle Cruiser, D-8, K'T'Inga Class and I have a couple of questions.

My plan -
White LED in head with fiber optic for windows.
Red LED for forwad torpedo

Blinking Running light on rear neck

Rear hull -
White LED with fiber optic for windows
Red LED for flush vent
White LED with fiber optic for formation lights on top vents and rear near shuttle bay.
Red LED for aft torpedo and Impulse engines

White LEDs for lights with fiber optic for warp engines.

I will kit bash the upper deck of the bridge so that it looks closer to what it should be. After all AMT/ERTL did such a good job with those 2 pieces:drunk:

The other improvment I am making to the model: I am shortening the neck by about 1/2 an inch and then jamming it in to the head of the ship. This will prevent it from snapping at the weakest joint on that ship.

The only other thing I may do is scratch build a shuttle bay. The ship will be in a steel drydock, so an open bay would be a nice addition.

The questions -
I am going to order the "blinking" circuit board. I also need to do something for the torpedos. How do I combine the 2 circuit boards and the window and formation lights on to a single power source?

Here is my start on the K’T’inga.
First – The end of the neck has been cut off and the front has been opened up so I can run 4 wires through the neck. A close examination of the neck will reveal that I have “pushed” it in to the head about an eighth of an inch. This should prevent the weak joint from snapping.

The rear – Impulse engines are opened up and contour putty has been filled in to smooth out the bottom. Aft torpedo is a piece of aluminum.

Shuttle Deck and Flush vents – A test fit of the flush vents revealed that they do not fit properly. So I had to use a sheet of styrene on each as a shim. Now they fit properly. I opened up the shuttle bay door. On the inside I put a sheet of styrene in to smooth the inside out a bit. Then I put a rectangle piece of styrene around three sides. These will hold the shuttle bay floor in place. The green is contour putty that is hardening. Once that is done I will smooth it out and then a clear piece of styrene along the back wall to reflect light. A styrene wall will be put below that.

Planned for the shuttle bay – I will put in a couple scratch built shuttles and Klingon Fighters. I am going to base the fighter design on Andrew Probert’s design for the Kling on fighters. I will also put some freight containers stacked up. I also plan to use some small styrene rods to create barrels of blood wine.

A few more updates
I have the shuttle bay floor sized. In the rear of the bay I have a clear plastic bar which will help light the interior. Also in the picture is a “mock up” shuttle craft. The size is what I need, I just need to come up with a better design.

A little more work done. I have created one "Klingon Fighter" based loosely on Andrew Probert's design. It will be housed in the shuttle bay. I may try to create one or two more.

In the one picture you can see the floor along with the rear wall with the light bar. Its not glued down as yet which is why it is not on the edge

A little more work. I started modifying the bridge deck. I have added sheet styrene around most of the deck to increase the detail. I still have to to the 2 domed areas.

Any input regarding the lighting would be helpful. In the meantime I will continue the build

[quote=geino;2938699]A little more work. I started modifying the bridge deck. I have added sheet styrene around most of the deck to increase the detail. I still have to to the 2 domed areas.

Randy

Thanks. I will be in touch when I get to the lighting.

I will post more pictures on Tuesday or Wednesday.
In the meantime, I got a bit more done over the weekend. I had to built shims around part 27 and all of the parts associated with it since the fit is so terrible:drunk:. I will have these parts finished today and include them with the pictures in a day or two.

I have the windows drilled on the rear hull. I will use somebody elses suggestion of attach fiber optics with 5 minute epoxy and let it stick out a bit so that when I am painting I will not have to worry about getting paint on the fiber, it will get cut off.:thumbsup:

Shims are finished on the bridge deck. I still have to finish decking on the bridge area and then add the windows.

Windows drilled and fiber optic in place on the parts in yesterdays post. I will upload pictures on Thursday.

I have more than half the windows drilled on the forward bulb area. As soon as I finish that and have the fiber optic in place I will post pictures.

Here are the pictures from yesterday's work.

More modifications to the bridge deck.

I have added even more sheet styrene to the "kidney". It is about 1/3 done.

I removed the dome from the area behind the kidney. I cut a craft bead in half and put that on as a new dome. I will be adding more detail to the "pipe" assembly I added to the top of the bead.

Also added is the smaller pipe assembly.

Before anybody says "it's not cannon". You're right. I am not going for a completely cannon design.

The upper bridge deck is nearly done. I changed what I had started to do last week, and I think it looks a lot better.

First I removed the dome I created and increased the height by about 1/8 of an inch with a piece of styrene. then I half flattened stryrene rods and added them as ribbing across the kidney and the dome. I replaced the triangle shaped area and added a rib over it too. I then used small pieces of styrene cut to various sizes to add detail over the kidney and dome areas. There are also very small piping details added to the large pipe at the top of the dome. I moved the smaller pipe and then added the detail around it.

I still need to add some detail to the new extended area below the dome and add the windows.

I may also add the smaller piping details to the smaller pipe.

I met up with my brother this weekend and he gave me the dry dock he made for this model.

The dock is made out of welded steel. As you can see in the pictures it is sized for this model once assembled.

I will probable have him weld 3 to 5 more C channels around the center which will be used to lighting and running wires.

Across the top I plan to put in an office complex which will have a large exposed shuttle bay. In it will be many extra shuttles, Klingon fighters, and other Klingon inspired craft.

I am also planning on adding a Klingon Bird of Prey from the Adversary set. It will be docked in a fashion similar to how the one was docked at Deep Space Nine.