Round2 Producing a 1/350 Star Trek TMP K'Tinga

star-art said:
I would say try to keep expectations realistic.
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Totally hear ya, and I definitely understand R2 uses different production techniques on their kits. That being said, 90% of accuracy is in the planning. Most of the time it doesn't require a fancy expensive mold just to make sure a greeblie detail is the right shape and in the right place. It just takes planning and paying attention. It's been a delight to look at archive photos of the Falcon from 1977 and compare them to kitbashed details on the Bandai and clearly recognize the same shapes. That's what I'm hoping for on the K'Tinga. We'll have many of the same reference photos as they'll have in preparing the kit. I hope they use them. They definitely did a good job with the kitbashed details on the Eagle, so we know they can do it. In fact, the Eagle kit gives me a lot of faith that they will.
 
star-art said:
I would say try to keep expectations realistic. Bandai, Tamiya, Fine Molds, et al use very expensive production processes to achieve that level of detail. Injection molding has little or no flexibility when it comes to undercuts. Therefore, getting really sharp, complex details often requires some very expensive tooling like slide inserts, etc. That sort of thing is likely far outside the budget of companies like R2. I'm sure they will deliver a beautiful model. But, I doubt it will look anything like what Bandai would produce.

Then again, I can't see Bandai making a 2-foot long model like this. It seems their target market (Japan/Asia) prefers small models.
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Hunk a Junk said:
Totally hear ya, and I definitely understand R2 uses different production techniques on their kits. That being said, 90% of accuracy is in the planning. Most of the time it doesn't require a fancy expensive mold just to make sure a greeblie detail is the right shape and in the right place. It just takes planning and paying attention. It's been a delight to look at archive photos of the Falcon from 1977 and compare them to kitbashed details on the Bandai and clearly recognize the same shapes. That's what I'm hoping for on the K'Tinga. We'll have many of the same reference photos as they'll have in preparing the kit. I hope they use them. They definitely did a good job with the kitbashed details on the Eagle, so we know they can do it. In fact, the Eagle kit gives me a lot of faith that they will.
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I imagine a lot of it will come down to parts layout. Some will be impossible but clever layout can help a lot. For instance the bridge dome, if you tried to mold it as one piece, you couldn't get a lot of the details. However, if you mold it as front and back pieces, with an insert for the top, you should be able to get *most* of the details. Of course, I could be wrong, I have never done this sort of thing. Just noodling it out based upon the pics Jamie posted.

- - - Updated - - -

Hey, Jamie just posted an update:

http://www.collectormodel.com/round2-models/4331-polar-lights-models-more-ktinga-goodness/

ktinga-blog-2-2.jpg
 
Tried looking for an English to Klingon translation for "orgasmic" but apparently that's not a Klingon concept. :lol

So, yeah, they're nailing the details. I appreciate what Jamie says about the 1/350 scale seeming small because I was thinking the same thing. To me, the area that marks the K'Tinga's scale is the cobra head above the bulb. It's clearly two decks, which makes that area the same thickness as the 1701's saucer edge. So in my head canon, I won't be calling this model 1/350. Not that it matters to me. It's still going to look great lit up sitting on my display shelf.
View attachment K'tinga scale comp.pdf
 
I'll be watching to see what the expert builders here do with this kit before I try to actually build it, bit I'll buy it right away! This is one of my favorite ships.
 
I've already got my Kronos 1 inspired paint scheme worked out. Any word of when this beauty is gonna be available or did I miss that part?
 
Buliwif said:
I've already got my Kronos 1 inspired paint scheme worked out. Any word of when this beauty is gonna be available or did I miss that part?
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I did Kronos with my old AMT ERTL kit, but it of course lacked all the regal adornment of the flag ship. In that scale, it still worked OK. But in 1:350 not so sure. There is a LOT of PE brass on the studio model.
 
I am really looking forward to this model. I scaled and printed 1:350 scale plans years back after a phone conversation with Thomas. These were based on those available on the market at the time. This model will be over 50% larger than the existing AMT kit. Even if they are only able to get 90-95% of the targeted level of detail in styrene, this will be a damned impressive kit!

I held off on the 1:350 resin kit. I liked the size, but some of the details were way off, particularly the shape of the bridge module. Big, hollow resin casts like that also have an annoying tendency to give in to the effects of gravity and sag over time, even with added structural support. A styrene kit of the same size will have much better dimensional stability, and, by the looks of the photos and meshes, be far more accurate to the studio model.

Autumn can't come soon enough this year!


E
 
PHArchivist said:
I did Kronos with my old AMT ERTL kit, but it of course lacked all the regal adornment of the flag ship. In that scale, it still worked OK. But in 1:350 not so sure. There is a LOT of PE brass on the studio model.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I'm just going for "Inspired by," with the paint scheme... on the web site they actually mentioned doing a Kronos 1 kit if this one does well, so I'll go all out for accuracy on that one..... if and when..... lol
 
PHArchivist said:
I did Kronos with my old AMT ERTL kit, but it of course lacked all the regal adornment of the flag ship. In that scale, it still worked OK. But in 1:350 not so sure. There is a LOT of PE brass on the studio model.
Click to expand...
I made mine the Kronos one version as well with the PE adornment set that was available back then... it turned out pretty good. .. would post pictures but I don't know how to do that yet.
 
scifiguy67 said:
I made mine the Kronos one version as well with the PE adornment set that was available back then... it turned out pretty good. .. would post pictures but I don't know how to do that yet.
Click to expand...

Will probably be after-market / third party PE sets available before ROund 2 releases their version
 
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