Buran Buran.

   Couldn't resist the Barbarella pun ;-). Today was 'Bite The Bullet' day and I've started on the Challenger class USS Buran. All my sources agree that the saucer is made from two upper halves of Galaxy class parts. I've opted for the Hudson Valley Gift Shop version:-

   My sources also agree that Galaxy class nacelles were used, but just to be awkward they are at a different scale. I had to print them at approximately twice the size of the saucer scale (whatever that was...):-

    There seems to be some agreement that the nacelles are slightly longer than the saucer. There is then some divergence - some sources think that the engineering deck is thin and straight-edged, others think it's a modified Galaxy secondary hull. I've opted for the latter. To make things awkward again, this is in yet another scale; somewhere between the saucer and the nacelles:-

   The photo shows the pieces I'll be using for the engineering deck (as well as the finished nacelles. The bottom three pieces are currently a rough guide for the shape of the underside. More modification will be needed since the Buran doesn't have those markings. The real fun is yet to come when I try to recreate the submarine tower for the upper nacelle support. Apparently it was taken from a Russian Typhoon kit. I might also reprint some of D-Whale's nacelles as the ones here are a bit 'blocky' for my liking.

    The pieces I cut above for the engineering deck didn't work - it ended up looking like a grey banana and it was too big. I reprinted the pieces and trimmed curves into the joining edges. I also found a design by rocketman on Deviant Art for the Red October, which is a Typhoon class Russian sub. Reworking the conning tower gave the parts necessary for the nacelle supports.

   The tower piece still on card needed to be shortened and reduced in depth and angled for the lower support. I used parts of the Galaxy class nacelle support to construct a way of attaching the engineering deck to the saucer.

     With these sections connected I drew on my damage guide.

    The only reference photos available made a guessing game of where the damage should be and because of this I've left the lower nacelle intact. I used my usual wire wool and shredded offcuts to simulate parts being blown off the saucer and upper nacelle.

    The wires are for another flickering yellow LED.
    The USS Buran turned out to be less of a challenge than I expected; I doubt very much that I'll be able to say the same of the USS Chekov!

We Have Engaged The Borg.

   One of my dad's hobbies is floral art and he's got loads of handy stuff kicking about the place. One of these handy items is multi-coloured metal flakes, which can also be stuck onto wire wool; red and gold on the Federation ships, and green (of course!) on the cube. Most of the support wire I use is also from his gear. I'm using 1mm steel rods to keep the fibre optics straight. In the case of the Federation phasers I've tied them together with gold thread and applied a glob of PVA which I'm hoping will hold everything in place and allow me to cut off the unsightly knots. The yellow light still isn't working as can be seen in this close-up off the USS Saratoga:-

   I used the same method for this damaged section as I did for the larger one minus the red and yellow paint - shredded wire wool, minced offcuts, green metal shavings and three micro fibre optic filaments (which don't show because of the flash). I'll try the red LED then mibbe the phaser will light up.

 "We have engaged the Borg"

    These are the other ships that are mounted so far. There does seem to be a slight yellow tinge on the USS Yamaguchi's phasers... Raiding my dad's kit again produced some natty green thread stuff that gives a kind of pearled effect to the Borg phasers that are hitting the USS Firebrand and the USS Kyushu. Both the green and the blue LEDs are working perfectly - woohoo! So, we have the USS Princeton (wreck, top left), the USS Bonestell (small blob, middle left), the USS Yamaguchi (top middle left with phasers hitting damage hole), the USS Kyushu (crippled target of Borg phaser, bottom middle), the USS Firebrand (being torn to pieces by Borg phaser, top middle right) and the hated USS Melbourne (target of Borg tractor and cutting beams, bottom right) as well as the USS Saratoga firing on the cube in the previous pic. I'm getting there...

btw apropos of nothing - Linwë Séregon is my name translated into Tolkien's Quindar Elvish - although I'm guessing any 'unusual' name will come up the same. I liked the sound of it so I claimed it as a user name and e-mail handle. Kirsty

   With a few more ships added things begin to look a bit more impressive. I've also bored a hole through Wolf 359 and planted a bulb in it which just about shows up. I'm still having problems with the phasers - it looks as if I'll have to replace the Yamaguchi's filaments; the Saratoga's phaser is working now though. I would also like to replace those heavy duty 'cables' on the Firebrand - they're ridiculously thick!

Don't Play With Me Cos You're Playing With Fire.

   My next build is D-Whale's Freedom class USS Firebrand. This is the progress so far:-

    This one has a massive amount of damage so (as previously mentioned) I'm going to try fitting flickering yellow LEDs inside the hull and the nacelle. The black areas in this diagram show what chunks will be removed:-

   I should be able to thread the wiring through the neck and out the hole at the back of the nacelle - it has a black coating so (hopefully!) it shouldn't be too obvious. With the upper hull complete I cut the parts for the lower hull and neck:- 

   I had to discard the dark support pieces for the neck to make way for wiring. With both halves and the neck formed I pushed a darning needle through the lower hull for the LED prongs to slide through. I also marked the cut lines for damaged sections:-

     Before connecting the hull pieces I had to work on the nacelle:-

    The central areas of the blue piece had to be removed as the nacelle will be housing another LED:-

    I forgot to take photos at this stage because there was a lot of wrestling going on. The structure on the top of the nacelle had to have a central slice removed and then was thread onto the extension wiring of LED 1. I had to build the rest of this structure around the wires and then connect LED 2 in series with LED 1.. After that I built the nacelle around the wires and bulb - or tried to... It is bulging a bit in one area because I stripped too much wire from the battery connecting extension, but fortunately it's also in an area of extensive damage so it might work out alright in the end. I thread the battery leads through the largest damage holes after ruthlessly stripping out as much of the innards as I could. I also had to add a bit more card to insulate bare wire. After the wrestling match I had this:-

       I'm going to leave the neck hole open and blacken some of what is showing - it's much better looking damage than sticking on a picture. I'll fill the rear holes with pinpricked damage printout, but leave the front starboard hole, as the combination of ragged card and bare wiring should be quite effective when some of it is blackened. I'm also going to attach the starboard hull chunk with wire so that it looks like it's falling away. A few filaments of wire wool and some shredded offcuts should prove useful as well.
   With all the extras added the result is this:-

    The buckling on the nacelle adds to the sense of impending doom. And now the poor wee beastie is on fire:-

    The rest of my day has been spent wiring bulbs and tying up fibre optics and sanding other fibre optics. Here's a wee taster with a very rough filament straightener:-

    The obvious wire on the Borg phaser will be replaced with something less invasive once the PVA sets properly. The yellow LED had to be replaced. I have the new one wired up ready for attaching Federation phasers; I'll have two coming from the Yamaguchi (the blur on the left of the pic) and one from the Saratoga (which was also mounted today). The Kyushu was also mounted and attached to a Borg phaser, leaving one more for the Buran (still to be built).

A Departure From Star Trek.

   My recent bout of modelling, as previously mentioned (somewhere) started with Asterix the Gaul. I obtained a huge number of 25-30mm plastic figures which were issued in France, Belgium and Germany during the 60's and 70's and painted them cartoon style to match the albums. This photo shows Cleopatra paying a 'surprise' visit to the construction site of Caesar's Palace (pun totally intended) after the Romans have demolished it:-

   This is from "Asterix & Cleopatra: The Greatest Story Ever Drawn" and shows all the main characters in the book - if sometimes not very well ;-).

   The next diorama was a tribute to the last animated feature, "Asterix & The Vikings" and shows my first paper model, a Viking drakkar:-

 

   The characters this time are feves - charms from France which are placed in a cake called la gallete des rois which is eaten on Ne'erday. Asterix is in a wee boat I bought from Dave Graffam which is ideal for Unhygeinix's fishing boat. The two landing craft on each side are intended for a diorama of "Asterix In Britain" which is currently on hold.

   I love the puns in the names of characters from Asterix books, eg Justforkix and Abba are the two young lovers above, Abba's mum is called Ikea, and the Vikings have names like Cinematograf and Stenograf. In the original "Asterix & The Normans" the Viking chief was called Timeandahaf - it cracks me up every time - simple things...

Wreck 3.

   The New Orleans class USS Kyushu will be another of the wrecks for my Wolf 359 diorama. It will have extensive damage at the rear (secondary hull and both nacelles) as well as scorching to the primary hull and a chunk out of the starboard side. This one will be the target of a Borg phaser and may have a bit of a debris field. I'm starting with the primary hull of Paragon's design:-

   I even remembered to cut the holes for the recessed 'windows'! So the primary hull has been built - still intact at this stage:-

   My damage photos are conflicting now - one shows the bridge scorched and another shows it gone. Considering how fiddly it was to build I'm going to have it scorched. Here are the parts with their scorch marks and cut lines:-

   After cutting I have this:-

   Then with some filling in the holes I get this:-

   After which I joined everything together:-

   Tacking on some strands of wire wool and offcuts gave a passable debris field effect:-

   I'll be blackening the wire wool and offcuts - unfortunately, I left my pen on the laptop and it dried up! lol I'm now off to wire some bulbs to a 'chocolate block' and link the blocks in series. The inside of the Borg cube is starting to look like ground zero for the Manhattan Project!

Your Biological And Technological Distinctiveness Will Be Added To Our Own.

   I managed to get back to theBorg cube today and I've fitted the tractor and cutting beams. The fibre optics (which were wound for posting) are playing at 'Silly Buggers' and the only way I could get rid of the curve was to lead it along a length of wire:-

   Sanding the filament has done the trick with the blue LED - it is the strongest of the bulbs that I have:-

   And from an angle that shows the tractor beam lighting up the USS Melbourne a bit better:-

   I've also connected seven lengths of filament to the yellow LED. The beam effect is proving to be a wee bit more awkward with it because the bulb is quite weak. I'll persevere with the sanding for a while yet and if it's not strong enough I'll replace the yellow LED with a stronger (more expensive) bulb. Seven filaments should be more than enough. Two each for the Yamaguchi and the Bellerophon still leaves plenty for the other three undamaged ships, especially if I have one not firing - which I suppose is statistically more likely, and the Bonestell is probably too small for a 1mm filament to look good anyway. I'm now waiting for a green LED and some more 1mm fibre optic filament for the Borg fire.

Sisko's Ship.

   Moving swiftly on...
   Now that the debacle with the Melbourne is over I'm building the Miranda class USS Saratoga, on which Benjamin Sisko was first officer. I've used the USS Reliant design from the SF Paper Craft Gallery with the registry altered accordingly. I'm back on terra firma here as I've already built a micro of the Reliant - this one will be a wee bit smaller though.

   This one should be finished in jig time then I'll be able to mount the Melbourne, the tractor beam LED and the cutting beam fibre optic filament.

   And here is the USS Saratoga measuring 1 1/4" (32mm) from bow to stern.