Resistence Is STILL Futile...

   My next project is a diorama of the battle at Wolf 359 - had to be done. Didn't it? Hmmm...
   Most sources agree that there were eleven identifiable ships out of the forty sent against the Borg cube by the Federation. I'll be building six hulks and five intact:-

• USS Buran - Challenger class
• USS Chekov - Springfield class
• USS Firebrand - Freedom class
• USS Kyushu - New Orleans class
• USS Melbourne - Excelsior class and
• USS Princeton - Niagra class

with battle damage and:-

• USS Ahwahnee - Cheyenne class
• USS Bellerophon - Nebula class 
• USS Bonestell - Oberth class
• USS Saratoga - Miranda class and
• USS Yamaguchi - Ambassador class.

In addition to these I'm adding a damaged and intact Klingon K'Tinga, as well as (of course!) a Borg cube.
   The backdrop will be a photo of Wolf 359:-

   The Ambassador class is the largest of these ships and I'm aiming for a length of 2" for the USS Yamaguchi; this will make the length of the USS Bonestell 1/2" and should make the Borg cube 1' to an edge. Since printing a 1' cube would take four A4 pages for each face I'll be adopting a wee bit of poetic licence and reducing the edges to 8". I'm starting with the USS Princeton as it seems to be the most complicated to build with battle damage.

I discarded the two black structural support pieces as they aren't needed for models this small. All the tabs were removed to avoid unnecessary bulking-up.

I've tried to follow the damage of the onscreen production models as near as possible. The black line shows the largest section of damage to the saucer.

The bussard housing isn't needed for the port nacelle.

Lather, rinse and repeat ;-).

Many of the pieces are proving to be redundant at this scale, and others have to be omitted for ease of cutting with my mini scissors. The result so far has taken three days and I'm not even half way through the design! This is going to be a loooooong process - lol.

    It looks like my progress has been better than I thought - the Princeton should be finished tomorrow!

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The bit that looks like a windsock hit by a hurricane is the beginning of the secondary hull. I find it easier to use thin strips of paper rather than sitting cutting endless tiny triangles. The paper strips are ~1mm wide btw.

The secondary hull suffered major damage at each end so many of the strips weren't used and the deflector didn't have to be built.

I've used the paper sheet of battle damage that I printed. Before I glue the rim of the missing chunks, I scrunch up a cut section of damage, unfold it and then push it into any nooks and crannies in the cut out chunks with a fingernail. When the glue is almost dry I cut around the edges of the paper at an angle so that the cuts are frayed, and then blacken the edges and try to leach black into the surround of the holes. My 'Cheapo-Productions-Presents' scissors only cut cleanly if the blades are perpendicular to the surface being cut, and the frayed edges produced by angling the blades is particularly effective at this scale.

These are the last pieces that need to be cut from the original design; they are additional detailing for the upper nacelles. I fill the damage holes of each of the major sections (primary hull, secondary hull and the three nacelles) before joining them and now I'm only left with one nacelle's detailing to shred a bit at the back, and the other nacelle waiting to have a substantial hole torn out before it is attached.

I'll have to construct some type of base before making any more ships. Due to our five crazy dogs I don't like to have any ships lying around waiting to be mounted as the youngest dog (aka The Doomsday Machine) has a tendency to flatten stuff!The four sheets for the backdrop of Wolf 359 are already printed so I need to find a cardboard box with a side that will take four sheets of A4. I already have plenty of balsa wood for a support and for reinforcement inside the cube, but I'll have to have a rake round for some more wire for ship mounts.
    The USS Princeton is now finished - woohoo!

       The finished model is bigger than I would have liked at 2 1/2"; this  means that the Yamaguchi will have to be almost double the length I wanted it to be to remain in scale - maybe I can find a work around for this. It also means that the Borg cube at 8x8x8" will be much smaller than it should really be - An Ambassador class ship of 526m reduced to 2" equates to a Borg cube measuring 12x12x12". It' a good job that I can fall back on artistic license!