K'Tinga 1:1000 Scale

I have always wanted an accurate model of the K'Tinga. The now AMT 1:535 K'Tinga Klingon Battle Cruiser, back in the day, was the only available kit, and it was a horrible mess. The panel detail was aggressively too pronounced, and the deflector panel detail on the underside is, to be kind, speculative at best. The only solution back in time was to scratch build an entire secondary hull (everything behind the neck). Little did I realize that wasn't remotely the entire list of issues. In case you're wonder, yes, I have the 1:350 K'Tinga, and it's awaiting its turn for the model bench. 

So my plan was to convert the Polar Lights 1:1000 (technically 1:977) D-7 into a K'Tinga. Apply some sheet styrene to replicate panel details, call it good, right? Not exactly. First off, I didn't have any good references for the underside. So using some shots of the FX miniature from a website moderated by a guy named Phil Cloud (site name Cloudster) and many hours with TurboCad, I generated a 2D plan view of the underside. Good blueprints have since come out on the internet. But I ran into a major issue immediately upon starting construction, and this reference shot of the FX miniature is the cause. There isn't a picture of the D-7 for comparison, but the thickness of the Secondary hull of the K'Tinga is a 1/3 taller than the D-7. This explains other issues with the AMT K'Tinga, which will I describe in later pictures. 

Using FX Miniature shots and a calculator, I estimated the correct height of the secondary hull. Only the secondary hull body was thicker, the wings were, at 1/1000 scale the same size. I cut some shims and glued them to the kit part. 

Another view of the mod in progress. Examination of the various references indicated the aft of the secondary hull main body was also taller. 

Another finding was that the "neck" was relocated, at this scale a couple of millimeters higher from "The Original Series" D-7. So I cut the a sliver from the top of the slot, and glued it the bottom. I've applied a front piece to the new section. It's crude because I know that it will be covered up with intricate details later. 

With a cover piece to ontop of the shims, I've started detailing the top side of the secondary hull, and applied major elements to the front. The shuttle bay pod with its undetermined purpose pods is in place after drilling out holes for the pods snap construction posts. The Polar Lights kit is a quick assembly, snap fit model. 

Close up of the assembly. I've razor sawed out the grooves in-between the tines in the front of the shuttle bay pod. Besides being the shuttle bay structure, the pod provides some sort of waste heat management function to the Klingon Cruiser. 

From this angle, additional shims, that appear in the FX miniature have been added. The Secondary hull's change in height has changed slope of its top. But the shuttle bay pod is still level, thus shims. 

At this point, some of you might be wondering, why scratch build details at 1:1000 scale? Good question. It's the challenge I guess. Some modelers apply photo etch to 1:700 ship models. I saw someone fully detail a Spitifire's Merlin engine wiring harness. I don't have any photo etch for this kit. There is a lot of simplification from FX miniature references that by my estimates are around 1:100 scale, to a 1:1000 scale model. BTW, I've concluded that any detail less than 1mm square is virtually impossible to reproduce with sheet styrene. BUT, grooved sheet, like from Evergreen, has grooves at .010 thou intervals. And I can layer .015" sheet. So here I've started detailing the neck. It's the D-7 neck with greeblies. 

Another shot of the K'Tinga neck. The module on top of the neck was constructed like any other scratch build box construction, except the dimensions were to a 1/2 mm. Yes, you can interpolate to half millimeters with a standard ruler. Think I used 10 thou sheet for this. And it was a pain in the ass to build. Would have been more fun at a larger scale, but what's the challenge in that? Not to say that I don't respect modelers who build Pop Culture projects that are 1:200 scale and start with 4x8 sheets of plywood. 

Underside view. The details below the neck are 5 thou sheet. It's so flimsy, you have to carefully lift it to the cutting pad. The three rectangles to the right of the neck are re-supply bays, large doors open, pods are dropped off, the doors closed. On the AMT 1:535 Battle Cruiser, these rectangles are squished and misshapen quadrilaterals, because whoever engineered that kit, didn't understand or care what the details on the front of the secondary hull is. The round shape on the bottom of the secondary hull is a sensor array cut off a 1:535 Refit Enterprise. Repurposed because the original part on the Enterprise model was replaced with an aftermarket item. 

Top of the K'Tinga Command bulb. More obvious in later picts, the bridge module has been widened with frustum like shape. The tan parts are 1/72 tank parts that roughly look like details from the blueprint references. A rivet counter would fault me for taking short cuts, but like I mentioned before, it's impossible to cut details that are sub 1mm. The panel details were cut from 5 thou sheet. And careful examination of photo reference's says that some of them are two layers thick so I cut additional pieces and layered them. 

Another angle on the command bulb. The radiator details were changed on the sides of the bridge platform from half rounds to a row of vent like structures. Original kit part set aside, scratch built pieces inserted. 

Close up of the neck not attached to the secondary hull. 

Long story short, two things I knew early on, the K'Tinga Warp nacelles were wider than the D-7s. The nose of the warp nacelle had a slight angle to it. FX miniature pictures implied there was a complex and intricate series of flat panels composed of the 'nose' of the warp nacelle. I spent a lot of time modeling the warp nacelle in 3D CAD software, believing I would have to print the 1:1000 nacelle in a 3D printer. Then I noticed between two FX miniature pictures, that this detail I was so keen to reproduce was just paint! The nose was smooth, and facets were just lines drawn on the FX miniature exterior. Ditch the CAD software! Where is my no. 11 blade! 

I have cut the front off the kit part, and glued it to the shim that widens the warp nacelle to the accurate width at 1:1000. I have glued a piece of scrap to the front of the warp nacelle and am going to cut off the excess, thens sculpt the piece to the desired profile. 

Another angle. The shim was placed against the blue prints, and correct angle was cut into it before gluing it to the kit parts.The scrap part that will bridge the front of the warp nacelle to the kit part has been super glued into place. 

The angle of the shim part is important, so some care has been taken to glue it at the correct angle. Non-trivial exercise, because the fracking warp nacelle is at an angle at the top/bottom/side blueprint views. 

A piece of transparent tape has been applied to the warp nacelle. And lines of a detail part to be applied has been drawn on the tape. 

The tape is removed, and reapplied to the appropriate thickness sheet styrene. 

Warp nacelle with its modified nose complete. The side profile is correct, and the centerline from above profile is correct. 

Picture of the side profile of the nacelle itself. 

The transparent tape part has been cut and applied. 

Side view of the two parts have been cut, glued to the kit part/s, and its front smoothed. 

A lot of work to get the warp nacelle to this point. The effort to make the original kit parts modified to the correct shape and angle is the tiny sliver of plastic below the detail layer applied on the front of the nacelle.  

Another shot of the front the warp nacelle. 

I like to build in discrete components. As if I making a kit for myself. 

Close up of the in-progress secondary hull. 

Better view of the aft details.Impulse engines have been built. Greeblie bays to the sides of them have been cut. 

Breakdown of the major parts. 

Shuttle bay pod, in progress. 

Isometric view of the shuttle bay pd. Various details have been created and applied 

In case you were wondering, I use organizers for my in-progress scratch builds. Excuse the Nikon product placement. 

I have some very tiny parts that I am too chicken to glue into place. This bicycle organizer keeps them safe between modeling sessions. Only the secondary hull doesn't fit in it. 

Closer shot. 

I am going to create a tiny detail from three pieces of sheet styrene. Cut from a For Sale Sign. It's 15 thou sheet, but I can get it from the local hardware store "For Sale" sign section. This is my go to when there is no nearby hobby shop. My local Hobby USA, closed forever just after Christmas. 

The reason there is this crazy looking excess is, I need something my fingers can grab hold of. So I grip the bottom piece with one set of fingers, and I bring another strip with super glue pre-applied up to the bottom piece with my other hand. I get them aligned, and hit them with some accelerator. 

Once I have my blank made, I trim off the excess. I have a 3 sided part here. It's 2 mm tall, and 5 mm long. 

Same blank as above, except I've sanded the sides and front to desired angles. I've transformed the channel into a scoop. 

Another shot of the scoops. 

Flipped over to show that they're hollow. A lot of garage kits, simplify details like this. Does this take longer? Yes. Does it look a 10, 100 times better. Absolutely. 

Here are those scoops, temporarily placed on the model part. 

They look weird because I've looped some transparent tape over to hold them on the kit part. They wouldn't stay on the kit part through just friction for the picture. 

Because the kit is snap fit, a lot of the components can be disabled. Not so much on this project, but a lot of pop culture modeling, requires intricate work that interconnects. I like being able to temporarily being able to assemble different components, model details that interconnect them, the take apart the sub-assembly, so I can then work on some other intricate set of components. 

More perspective on the shuttle bay. 

The top of the shuttle bay comes off. 

There is an observation/control deck with port holes that can monitor incoming and exiting shuttle craft. 

There is a stacked panel door system to the shuttle bay. Modeled here in 10 thou sheet. 

Final shot showing the scoops I made earlier. The revelation that to build tiny parts using extra pieces of sheet styrene has let me build all kinds of things that I had thought were impossible at this scale. 

An early detail that shows up in various plans, that the transition from the K'Tinga bridge platform to the command bulb, is ribbed. I took some grooved sheet, cut it in strips perpendicular to the grooves, and glued it to this raised bit of plastic on the kit part. I then sanded it flush to the kit part. Took a few minutes, and done. Star Trek rivet counters will rejoice. 

This picture does not exactly translate to anything displayed on the model. But here is how to create another crazy small detail part. See the tiny slots in the 10 thou sheet plastic. Notice how they line up with the slots in the high accuracy ruler? Yes, the ruler helps make those slots. Yes, I'm nuts. BTW, for every finished detail part, I'm averaging at least one failed attempt. Don't let my photo album suggest that I succeed the first time I build something. For the slotted piece above, draw a line on 10 thou sheet, 1 inch/1 cm wide minimum. Line the edge of the ruler on the line. With sharpest needle you can find, run it inside the slot of the ruler. Scribe with authority, but how much pressure takes some practice. There's a couple of failures for each successful part here. Do NOT TAKE the Ruler Away. With a model drill bit that fits in the slot, drill out the ends. Now take the ruler away. With a new model knife, score the lines on between the holes. A couple of passes, and the center piece pops out. What happens often, is 5 of the slots come out, but the 6 the one is malformed. In the new picture, I'll show you what I was making.  

See the detail part to the right of the detailed warp nacelle? On the FX miniature, this is some convoluted detail piece. It has six horizontal slots above and below a series of holes in the middle. My part isn't even 100% accurate. But in the middle, I have 3 small slots with 3 slightly larger rectangular holes. By creating a series of those slots on my 'blank' for the middle row, I could make the small slots, then merge a couple of the small slots for the large rectangles. The brown & grey 'thing' to the right of my part is a .1 mm mesh I bought from Amazon. Cost me 10 bucks, and is a lifetime supply. I will trim the mesh later. I have used a flexible solder for the piping on the exterior of the warp nacelle. 

Here's a close up of the detail part. For maximum difficulty, the detail part is layered. The bottom part has the 6 horizontal slots, top and bottom. then I had to create the 1 small & 1 large X 3 pattern of slots. Then a second piece of 10 thou sheet goes over the top with 3 small, and 2 large slots. The FX miniature shows this mesh on the back set of slots. The 1/350 model kit shows textured recesses. At 3X the scale, I will have no problem drilling out those slots on the injected kit.