Klingon K'Tinga 1/537 Study Model Build Update 1

Greetings!

This is a new series of entries on the larger project I mentioned in the Retro Review of the K'Tinga kit, and is a pre-cursor for something else.  The whole purpose of starting this build is to have a paint subject for my 1:350 scale Klingon K'Tinga which I got for Christmas.  What a beautiful model kit!!  But this is the kit that came before and I'm building up a Round 2 re-pop that came out a few years ago.

UNBOXING

The parts didn't change at all with this kit from the original except for the stand and the socket for the rod in it.  I first opened this up 5 years ago in case anyone is keeping track with the previous entry.

This is what you get, 3 bags and a small decal sheet.

Part count like many kits of this era are low, 31 parts exactly plus the base and rod for the stand.

COMPARISON

I decided to compare this kit with TOS Klingon D7 (1:650 scale) model I have...

I built both of these models as a kid in the 80's and 90's and I remember their proportions were similar, but just how similar.  The K'Tinga is listed at 1/537 scale where as the D7 is 1/650.  Essentially the K'Tinga is a upgraded version of the D7 for the films much like the TOS Enterprise was refitted for the TOS movies, but the lines of the hull were much different.  Let's see how the K'Tinga and D7 compare...

1/650 D7 on the left, 1/537 K'Tinga on the right

I was pretty surprised how close the main body of the Klingon ship of both classes are basically the same.  Light blue is the TOS D7 and the green one is of course the K'Tinga.

The engineering section of the K'Tinga model appears greatly bigger but I always felt this was disproportional to the studio model.

The neck for both has the same girth but you can see the K'Tinga is elongated by about at least an inch!

The 'bulb' which I think is the most inaccurate section of this model is virtually the same size in profile as the D7.

From the bottom you can see how disproportionate the K'Tinga (top, old broken model I built in the late 80s).  The K'Tinga bulb isn't as wide as the D7 version.

The Bridge section is virtually identical (ellipsis and domed cylinder) meanwhile the D7 is actually larger here!

From the bottom, you can really see the size difference.

Using a bit of math here and photoshop, I've compared what 1:650 should look like to 1:537 and how it should size up.

It's pretty close.  You can see that scaled up, the D7 is larger than the 1:537 scale K'Tinga which is what I hypothesized.

1:350 K'Tinga comparison...

As I previously mentioned, the purpose of building this model is to test painting techniques for the larger 1:350 kit which was released in November 2018 by Round 2.

1:350 K'Tinga, 1:537 K'Tinga, 1:650 D7

What's really noticeable is how the neck droops on the old AMT kit.  This was a problem with many of the models of this era, very difficult to built them aligned properly without heavy modification.

Comparison of the engineering sections.

And the bridge section.

Scaling up the 1:537 to the 1:350 K'Tinga you can see the differences.  The 1:350 is supposed to be 1/2 scale model of the studio model, making it 1:187 scale at about 4 feet long.

The 1:650 scale D7, sized up is pretty much bang on to the 1:350 K'Tinga which is what I expected it to be.

CONCLUSIONS

I think the 1:537 K'Tinga and 1:650 D7 are the same size as the K'Tinga studio model was supposed to be, but the proportions are quite off.  The 1:537 K'Tinga has a special place in my heart as it was the only 'movie' version of the Klingon ship for decades and I grew up building it many times.

Despite it's flaws, it does build a nice, highly detailed model, one that was even used in DS9 as background ships supposedly.

That will wrap up this entry, until the next time!  To see the pre-update, check out this link:

https://fordosmodels.blogspot.com/2019/01/retro-review-klingon-battle-cruiser-pre.html

Happy Model Building!

Star Trek and all related marks, logos and characters are solely owned by CBS Studios Inc. This fan blog (production) is not endorsed by, sponsored by, nor affiliated with CBS, Paramount Pictures, or any other Star Trek franchise, and is a non-commercial fan-made blog intended for recreational use.  No commercial exhibition or distribution is permitted. No alleged independent rights will be asserted against CBS or Paramount Pictures.

Retro Review: Klingon Battle Cruiser!! - pre-build update for a BIG project...

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!

Did you have a good New Years?  I did!  Thank goodness 2018 is over, although it was largely a good one, time for a renewed sense of optimism for the future.

So this is a bit different, it's not an update but a review of a kit I recently acquired, a 1979 Vintage Klingon Cruiser from Star Trek The Motion Picture.  About 2 years ago I did a similar entry for the Vulcan Shuttlecraft https://fordosmodels.blogspot.com/2017/01/retro-review-vulcan-shuttlecraft.html

I feel this entry is appropriate as this year will be the 40th anniversary of the release of Star Trek The Motion Picture.

The callout on the front of the box.

'Quality molded in a way which will allow the younger modeler to build an attractive model without painting.'  Well, when I was a young modeler, this was true, but I think both Round 2 and Bandai have really cornered the market I feel in terms of releasing kits with multiple coloured sprues.

A sign of the times with the hanging method as a display option.

And the best part of this box art is pictures of the studio model, but truncated.

And this I love, a picture of Spock and Kirk with an early version of the Enterprise Refit, also known as the Taylor/Dow Refit Enterprise which doesn't have the internal spotlights and TOS styled bridge and sensor dome on the bottom of the primary hull.

Inside the box, the first thing that stood out for me was the vintage promotional art.  I have one of these from an old USS Enterprise AMT Refit from TMP, often referred to as a smoothie.

So here are the parts laid out.  What's interesting to me is that it's molded in battleship grey.  The kits I got in the 80s (in Canada) were a light blue, much like the TOS Klingon D7.  I had heard some of these kits were released in many different colours, even including black, much like the current 1/350 K'Tinga.

And the instruction sheet which at the time used to show the parts layout, much like Revell kits.

And of course, the rub-down transfers and the holographic stickers.

THE COMPARISON...

So here is the vintage kit in comparison to current Round 2 re-release.

Here are a direct comparison of the parts.  No changes here, but anything missing here just fell off the sprue.

This is the only sprue/part that did change, the lower main hull.

The new part omits this part, the burnishing tool for applying the rub-down transfers.

The other major change is the new stand system for the model vs. the original one.

The original stand is on the left and the standard large Round 2 stand on the right.

vintage K'Tinga

new re-release K'Tinga

You can also see a dramatic height difference too.  

Here are the decal comparison with the new version on the bottom.

Instructions comparison

original

re-release

original

re-release

That will wrap up this entry, until the next time!

Happy Model Building!

Star Trek and all related marks, logos and characters are solely owned by CBS Studios Inc. This fan blog (production) is not endorsed by, sponsored by, nor affiliated with CBS, Paramount Pictures, or any other Star Trek franchise, and is a non-commercial fan-made blog intended for recreational use.  No commercial exhibition or distribution is permitted. No alleged independent rights will be asserted against CBS or Paramount Pictures.

Star Trek Space Ship Set - AMT 1/1600 Scale - Update #3 and FINAL REVEAL

Greetings and Happy New Years!!

This will be my last post of 2014 (for obvious reasons)...

So I will get to the point, here is this little set completed.  I am really pleased with how each little ship (each one under 7" long!!) turned out.  The most complicated ship out of this set to finish was the Klingon D7 Battlecruiser.  I had to basically re-sculpt the 'head' and warp engines.  I was tempted to re-sculpt the 'shuttle bay' (originally the impulse engines Star Trek The Motion Picture redesigned that section to be a shuttle bay with the engines below - I generally prefer this version of the ship but the original design with the forward vent makes some sense if it's a big engine.) but didn't as I wanted  to keep some integrity to this kit (and I will be doing that later on with my Klingon diorama).

Since there was no way to accurize this model (everything is basically wrong - wing shape, leading edge of the main hull, proportions, etc.) I decided to keep it like the original release of the model, including making a rub transfer of where the original windows were and made decals out of them.  The rest of the decals are a copy from the larger newer kit as the original decals disintegrated when I tired to use them.

Compare this to this shot...

...with this one (minus the battle damage).  This is a screen capture I found online from Star Trek: The Doomsday Machine.  I don't normally post screen captures or repost for that matter but I do this under 'fair use' and 'educational demonstration'.

As opposed to using the Round 2 decals as a guide to make accurate markings, I used David Shaw's decal sheet from one of the model building forums to reproduce the window locations on the actual 18" AMT model, which was used in Star Trek The Doomsday Machine original series second season episode.

(I purposely took this to be reminiscent of the 2nd shot from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" where 3 Klingon battle cruisers (K'Tinga - essentially a greebled Klingon D7 with a different paint scheme but same proportions) engage 'the cloud', aka Vejur/V'Ger.)

I hope you enjoyed this build.  I will continue with the 'NX Sisters' build of Columbia & Challenger but I'm also prepping to for another 1/1000 build (the Defiant is on the back-burners for now), a 1/1000 USS Brattain (as seen in Star Trek TNG: Night Terrors - a redress of the USS Reliant) and USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A refit!  (I've been wanting to do one again since my other refit fell off a shelf and broke).  Unique to this build, I will be lighting as much as I can, including windows!  It's going to be tricky but I'm recalling excited about it.  It will also be the first time I will be using brass etched parts!

Happy Holidays to my readers and friends!  Wishing you and yours all the best and a Happy New Year, cheers!!

Fordo