1/350 Klingon Bird of Prey - Improving the AMT Kit

[Neon Nautilus]

Here's a little more of the work that I've done on the neck. This concentrates mostly on the shaft that runs underneath it.

So, I already spent some time studying this area to get a feel for the elements that were needed, what I could make and what I could use from the kit and the Green Strawberry upgrades. I've already shared in an earlier post some of the details I'd a added to the GS resin shaft. Trouble was that after more study of the studio model I wasn't feeling very happy with the way everything looked in comparison.

Things came to a head when I tried out one of the PE parts against the model. A small rectangular plate just behind the PE radiators under the neck.

According to the studio model it should sit in-between the wider cylinder of the shaft on the left and the 'V' shaped strut to its right. There wasn't enough room for it though.

Might not seem like too big a deal but this little test triggered a realisation that the proportions of the GS resin shaft weren't right.
The two 'V' struts are bigger than they should be and wider apart. The rectangular parts on the shaft that the V's points are connected to are too far apart. There are also some issues in my placement of the hanging radiator parts, I think I should have put these further forward rather than gluing in the same spot as the removed kit parts.

Initially I did try cutting up the shaft a bit more to widen the spot where that rectangular plate goes. But this just pushes those PE Vs further right and even more out of position. Here's my first try at putting it right anyways.

Cutting out the resin shaft.

Drilling the larger cylinder to accept a 2.5mm styrene rod.

Gluing in a wider piece of styrene. All the white circles top left are my attempts to cut the end of the styrene rod nice and square.

All back together but still not happy as the Vs are no where near the correct position.

Okay, literally back to the drawing board. I opened the studio model pics on my computer, measured the length of the neck on my model kit, then sized the images so they were 1:1 scale. Next I drew over the top the various shapes I was going to try and replicate. Not everything will be in the right place on the kit as the radiator parts and the slotted pieces in front of them are too far aft. However I was prepared to let that go as the work to sort it did not balance with how minor a difference it is.

Here's the drawings I made. I then removed the image from the background and printed out the in scale line drawings to work against.

The first part I rebuilt was the double V struts. They have a U beam profile so to make this I laminated three thin strips together. One at 0.5mm x 0.25mm with a piece at 0.75mm x 0.25mm either side.

Here's a profile view to get a better idea.

These were next laid over the drawing, miter cut to the correct size with a razor blade before being glued together. They were then attached to the base part of the strut and detailed with some brackets I could see in one of the ref pics.

I'll pick this up again in the next post.

 

[Neon Nautilus]

How about a 1:100 scale kit?

That would definitely be easier to work with than this 1/350 AMT one. Although size does seem to be relative where the KBOP is concerned!

 

[edge10]

 

[Neon Nautilus]

After sorting those V struts I moved onto the shaft. From my scale drawings it looked like I needed a 3mm tube for the main shaft and a 5mm tube for the larger diameter section between the grills near the front. I didn't have any styrene in those diameters but did have some aluminium tube instead.

I started with the larger 5mm diameter piece. It looked a little too wide so I thinned it down a bit first. I chucked it into my drill and whilst it was running I wrapped sandpaper around and ran it back and forth. It didn't take much off but it felt better proportioned after doing so.

I then cut a piece to the correct length as per my drawing. From the ref pics it looked like one end was hollow and the other filled and slightly stepped. To achieve this look I cut a smaller 4mm dia piece and CA glued it inside of the 5mm piece. It was about half the length of the larger piece and positioned slightly proud of one end.

As it's shorter the other end is left open so there'll be a gap between it and the smaller shaft when installed.

This was then CA glued into position over the 3mm dia shaft. One end of the 3mm shaft was also bevel cut to fit against the hull.

Between the two rectangular boxes that the V struts attach to there is a flat plate that wraps around a portion of the shaft.
To replicate this I cut a strip of 0.25mm styrene sheet to the correct width, wrapped it around the shaft and CA glued it in place.
It was then trimmed down to the correct height either side of the tube.

I also reshaped the PE radiator grills at this point. From the ref it looked like they are uniform thickness flat plates at an angle rather than tapered wedges. You can also see a little of the detail I've invented in this area, I don't have any good ref under the neck so having to get creative here.

I then looked at the larger diameter piece as there appear to be some fine ridges around this on the ref. The GS resin piece features these as indentations rather than raised and they're quite wide. I ended up trying to do this with 0.2mm wire, stripped out from some hook up wire.

I don't have many pics of this process as I've got to be honest, it didn't work out too great. I was finding that the CA glue was just not bonding to the aluminium tube. The wire has such a small surface area that I don't think there was enough to bond. I was also finding that any styrene detail I added would not glue well either. I tried a lot of things to help over a few sessions but ended up too frustrated and decided to get some styrene rod and start again.

The Plastruct styrene rod I purchased was wider than needed at 3.2mm dia. I thinned this down a little with the drill and sandpaper method I'd used earlier.

It was then bevelled at one end and cut to length.

I then trimmed a piece of the 4.8mm tube I'd bought to make the larger diameter section as before. The tube slid fit over the smaller dia piece so I didn't need to make a shim inside, just drilled out one end. The black marker on the edge was used as a guide to keep the edge thickness consistent.

For the other end I wrapped a couple of pieces of thin styrene strip to create the lip I'd seen in the ref pics. They were thinned to be more in scale with fine sandpaper.

I then fashioned the small plate between the rectangular boxes. Same method as before, cutting a strip of 0.25mm styrene to width. This time I pre-shaped it over a thinner dia metal tube and then glued in place using EMA Plastic Weld.

A thin strip was also glued onto one edge to match the ref images.

 

[publiusr]

The March 1989 Fine Scale Modeler had a scratch BoP on page 42.

 

[Carlb]

Well done.

 

[Neon Nautilus]

The March 1989 Fine Scale Modeler had a scratch BoP on page 42.

Thanks for the info publiusr. I found an image of the cover featuring the BoP. Looks like they were modelling HMS Bounty as it has the belly bulge/whale pouch.

 

[Neon Nautilus]

Well done.

Thanks Carlb. I'm getting really into this one. Will have some more to share soon!

 

[Neon Nautilus]

Woops! That was a bit of a long gap! I got a bit distracted with some other modelling projects, but have been back on the KBOP recently with some great progress.

Below is a bit of catch up on the work I did last year but didn't get around to posting.

Firstly, picking up where I left off, I made a small box from 0.25mm sheet styrene to mount on the starboard side of the rod. Pieces are arranged on the sticky side of an upturned piece of masking tape. Plastic Weld is then run along the joins with a small brush. This rectangle is then placed on a piece of styrene and glued to form the back of the box. Finally its cut flush with a razor blade and sanded smooth.

I made a few extra details to finish off the rod which weren't photographed. Below is a comparison image of the completed rod (top) plus the previous failed attempts and the original kit part (bottom).

I also added panels on either side of the neck. Masking tape was laid down, the shapes drawn on, then transferred and cut from 0.25mm styrene.

Additional details were added to the underside of the neck. A fair amount of which has been made up by me as the reference I have of this area is limited.

And here's some images with the rod installed.

 

[Neon Nautilus]

I worked on the 'saddle' at the back of the neck next.

I used the other existing elements of the neck to work out how wide the saddle should be, then cut a sheet of 0.5mm styrene sheet to form the side plates. This was held against the model and the profile drawn on. The end result will be a bit slimmer than the studio model due to the knock on effect of those brass radiators under the neck being positioned too far back. This I can live with.

I cut out the shape, traced it for the opposite side, cut that and then mounted both pieces to the sides of the neck.

To form the top of the saddle I cut another piece from the strip with an overlap either side. This was glued in place and the overlaps trimmed and sanded flush. Next the 'hump' was placed on top to mark the cut where it nestles into the saddle.

Trouble was this piece is tapered so it's footprint is larger than the point higher up the hump at which it joins the saddle. This resulted in a much larger gap than intended.

That fail just meant I needed to cut this bit out and try again. 2nd time worked much better though!

Next I made the padlock looking greeblie that sits on the saddle. This was built up in layers using various cut, drilled and sanded pieces of styrene. I won't describe each step but here's the progression in pics. It's mounted on some upturned tape to hold it in place whilst being worked on. It's only about 6mm wide.

Making sure it looks okay proportionally plus added the plates on top of the saddle.

Must of been cold, looks like I had the halogen heater on!

I noticed the shape of the two side loops wasn't right so I cut them off and remade from strip styrene.

Next I made the large loop at the back of the 'padlock'. Two strips of styrene were laminated together, bent around a toothpick and then sanded flush. It took a few attempts to get it looking right.

Here it is finished and installed.

The last detail to add was the 4 bolt like details around the padlock. The two front ones were just cut from styrene rods. To get the stepped look of the back ones, I cut rings of brass tube, pushed a thinner styrene rod through the centre and then cut to size before gluing in place.

 

[modelerdave]

Amazing work!

 

[Neon Nautilus]

I wasn't totally happy with the proportions of the 'saddle' element I'd just finished. It looked too wide and this accentuated the fact it was not deep enough. To help this a bit I carefully cut the top part off and slightly angled the sides inbound.

The top panel was then replaced and cut flush making the saddle look better proportioned.

Whilst I was correcting elements I also removed these wing shaped pieces and replaced them.

The slot on the right edge shouldn't have gone right to the edge. It kind of looked that way in some of the studio model images but I later noticed it should have been more like the replacements I made below.

I also recognise this piece from another ILM model. Slave 1 uses these parts on its wings.

 

[Fett_Ish]

View attachment 1830370

I wasn't totally happy with the proportions of the 'saddle' element I'd just finished. It looked too wide and this accentuated the fact it was not deep enough. To help this a bit I carefully cut the top part off and slightly angled the sides inbound.
View attachment 1830371

The top panel was then replaced and cut flush making the saddle look better proportioned.
View attachment 1830372

Whilst I was correcting elements I also removed these wing shaped pieces and replaced them.
View attachment 1830374

The slot on the right edge shouldn't have gone right to the edge. It kind of looked that way in some of the studio model images but I later noticed it should have been more like the replacements I made below.
View attachment 1830373

I also recognise this piece from another ILM model. Slave 1 uses these parts on its wings.
View attachment 1830375

I wonder if it isn’t actually a part from the old MPC Slave 1 kit. There are Vader TIE parts on the Excelsior and X wing parts on the Kronos 1. Crazy good work on all them details!

 

[Neon Nautilus]

I wonder if it isn’t actually a part from the old MPC Slave 1 kit. There are Vader TIE parts on the Excelsior and X wing parts on the Kronos 1. Crazy good work on all them details!

Now I'm wondering that too!! I spent a bit of the weekend looking at pics of the studio scale Slave 1 and the MPC model. The lower fidelity (although I was surprised at the detail for the time) of the MPC did seem to match the studio pics of that area on the KBOP. So maybe!

Thanks for the compliment too, much appreciated!

 

[rms77]

What a great build - very inspiring. The accuracy and amount of detail you have been able to add to this kit is amazing - the neck piece is less than 2 cm wide, so to have added all that crisp detail at that scale is really impressive.

 

[Neon Nautilus]

What a great build - very inspiring. The accuracy and amount of detail you have been able to add to this kit is amazing - the neck piece is less than 2 cm wide, so to have added all that crisp detail at that scale is really impressive.

Thanks so much rms77! Great to know it inspired your awesome build too.

 

[Neon Nautilus]

The next bit I did on the neck rod was to add these bracket pieces. Bit tricky to see but looks like two parallel braces with a small cross piece.

The braces span a gap between two cylindrical pieces so I'd need to cut semi circles at both ends. I figured the best way to do this would be to make a circular punch from some brass tube. I sharpened the inner wall of the tube using a tapered cutting bit in my rotary tool. Being careful not to push too hard or the tool would flare the tube.

I used the tube to punch out some circles from 0.25mm styrene sheet and then drew on the shapes of the braces. I then cut one out and test fitted onto the model

It looked good so I used that as a template, tracing it to make more, choosing the cleaner of the many punched holes I'd made.
I mounted them to some tape and cut them to fit the shape of the opposite cylinder. Scalpel blade for scale, these things are tiny!

Mmmm, I wasn't totally happy with the result, the pieces I'd cut were too inconsistent. Fine on their own but not great when all lined up together on the rod. Also I'd initially thought they have a curved profile but after looking at more pics it was clear they were more of a flat bar.

I ended up switching to some 0.75x0.25mm styrene strip. No problem with consistency there. I used the brass tube to cut arcs into it and then measured the length needed to span the gap with calipers. This was marked on the strip and a second arc cut.

It was a good fit and looked much better to my eye so I repeated 4 times and then glued the pieces onto the rod.

To do the cross pieces I inserted a small length of 0.5x0.25mm styrene strip between the two pieces of the pairs, glued and then cut it flush. Here's the end result.

 

[Neon Nautilus]

So that last post concluded all of the bits that I did last year before getting distracted, now onto the more recent work.

I started by getting back into the engine area. I'm lacking some photos here as it took a while to get back into taking the pics as I was going. Needed to get back into the swing of the build first so just cracked on.

In the pic below, the two red lines underneath the piece show where I've removed some of the Green Strawberry resin part. The installation guide for this piece shows to remove the whole of the inside wall of the engine area on the kit (you can see it in the background). The resin part then has two flaps hanging down (the bits I've removed) to cover the bottom half but this leaves big gaps in the kit part.
I decided the best thing to do was cut these flaps off, scratch build the lower inner walls of the kit, then mount the resin part on top.

The red arrow (top right) shows a modification I've made. If you look at the studio model image below you can see these cuboid shapes either side that are recessed. To replicate this I took a piece from a particularly chunky sprue I had. Then sanded it on 4 sides to make it square. The resin was ground away to create the recess and then the sanded sprue cut to fit and glued in place.
I've also replaced the 5 strips on the side of this part so they overlap the square part and look a bit crisper than the resin.

The pics below show the piece after a bit more work. Here I've added the cuboid part and strips on both sides.

I've also put a strip of styrene on the top faces to give an even gap between the resin part and the kit. Various pieces of styrene have also been added under the cuboid pieces to fill the void between the resin and kit parts and help to give the same layered look I could see in the studio model pic below.

After a lot of filing, scraping and sanding of the cut out area on the model kit parts, it was finally time to glue the new engine piece in place. Even with the added parts it was still not quite wide enough to fit the gap so I braced it with a cut down shaft from a cotton bud. I then flowed in some EMA plastic weld to seal it in place.

Getting this in place was a great feeling. I was particularly pleased with how the end pieces below looked in comparison to the studio model after the modifications I'd made.

 

[Neon Nautilus]

This pic shows the engine area after gluing in place. You can see the large gaps under the resin piece either side (circled in red on the left).
I've already filled part of this area (circled in blue) in order to give support to the ends of the resin piece, ensuring they sat at the right height when gluing.
The area circled in green shows where I've added the plate that finishes off the top half. This is a piece of 0.5mm styrene sheet, glued onto the ends, then cut and sanded into shape.

To fill the gap I first made a template by attaching some masking tape over the are and tracing its outline.

The tape was then stuck to some 0.75mm styrene sheet, the shape cut out and glued in place. This took a few attempts to get right with a bit of fettling to ensure a good fit. Then the other side was also filled.

This will need some further refinement as the ends of the lower prongs are a bit too thick. I'll also add a plate over the filled area to tidy it up. Need to figure out the best way to thin out the prongs first though so a break from the engine area was needed.

 

[universaljoint]

Fantastic work so far!