So my next project on the Road to the 350-E® is AMT's original Klingon Battlecruiser.
I'm very familiar with the original studio model and was pretty excited to get this kit as I consider it a real piece of Trek history. Many modelers know the filming miniature was built by AMT and that this kit is a mechanical copy of that master. Which makes it the only accurate kit AMT ever produced. (bazinga!)
However... I was not prepared for just how accurate it is. The molds capture far more subtlety than I expected. The finesse and character of hand crafted form is reproduced here excelently , nearly 5 decades after they were created. Which isn't to say it's perfect. The kit was poorly engineered and lots of stuff suffers for it. But we'll get to that.
Before anything else I documented everything with photos and 2D scans of the kit parts. This is just for reference purposes to use for 3D modeling. Looks kinds cool though.
The kit comes with a few icky chrome pieces, including the old engine detailing that's no longer needed. This was accurate to the 'Roddenberry Model,' but Round 2 has altered the molds to reflect the filming version.
If you look closely you can see the reflection of me committing murder!
I read bleach would remove the chrome, but it didn't touch it. I gave it a couple of coats of Easy-Off and it was gone in minutes.
The newly supplied stand is much too short for my taste. It includes a ball-socket so you can move the model but it seems too loose. You can also mount the model directly to the pole, which makes it all the shorter.
Parts.
A particularly ugly piece of engineering. Right now I plan to throw these bits out, fill the areas where they're suppose to go, and then use some styrene strips to recreate the detail.
I'm very familiar with the original studio model and was pretty excited to get this kit as I consider it a real piece of Trek history. Many modelers know the filming miniature was built by AMT and that this kit is a mechanical copy of that master. Which makes it the only accurate kit AMT ever produced. (bazinga!)
However... I was not prepared for just how accurate it is. The molds capture far more subtlety than I expected. The finesse and character of hand crafted form is reproduced here excelently , nearly 5 decades after they were created. Which isn't to say it's perfect. The kit was poorly engineered and lots of stuff suffers for it. But we'll get to that.
Before anything else I documented everything with photos and 2D scans of the kit parts. This is just for reference purposes to use for 3D modeling. Looks kinds cool though.
The kit comes with a few icky chrome pieces, including the old engine detailing that's no longer needed. This was accurate to the 'Roddenberry Model,' but Round 2 has altered the molds to reflect the filming version.
If you look closely you can see the reflection of me committing murder!
I read bleach would remove the chrome, but it didn't touch it. I gave it a couple of coats of Easy-Off and it was gone in minutes.
The newly supplied stand is much too short for my taste. It includes a ball-socket so you can move the model but it seems too loose. You can also mount the model directly to the pole, which makes it all the shorter.
Parts.
A particularly ugly piece of engineering. Right now I plan to throw these bits out, fill the areas where they're suppose to go, and then use some styrene strips to recreate the detail.
