Sunday, January 22, 2023

Star trek 1/7000 (Klingons)

 My immediate future is the far distant future in SSSPPPAAAAACE.


Last year I began to dabble in some Star Trek ships for some space gaming; kinda on a whim.

Painting will now go into warp speed as there happens to be a local convention in March called Conquest Avalon which is exclusively focused on Sci-Fi and Fantasy.  I thought "What an opportunity to become phaser focused on getting ALL these ships ready for the game table."  

We last visited the Star Trek topic back in August last year with this Post that focused on the Federation, but I've been silently working away on the Klingons during my hiatus.  All behind the scenes, all stealthy,  like Klingon starships cloaked and lurking in ambush...hidden from sight.



(think about it
Let the joke sink in)


Star Trek 1/7000 Klingons

Going from small to large: Let's start with everyone's favorite and most recognizable: the Klingon Bird of Prey.


Bird of Prey (Kvort Class)






Like all my ships so far; this is from Shapeways and is the "aggressive little cruiser" from Nova.  Now super cool trek nerds like me (because I have joined you, my fellow trekkies) know that the in-universe size of the Bird of Prey is ALL over the place going from small, to medium, to super large in a variety of class names (but the names are in Klingon so they all sound the same).  This is because while making the movies/TV shows modelers used the same ship and just up or down scaled it as the script needed; sometimes the ship is shown as a small one or as a large one.  I would of expected more consistency from a Sci-fi universe.  The B'rel class is the small version and the K'vort class is the bigger version. I went with the big version because I thought that matched my perception of what the ship is: something like a frigate (bc star trek to me is just ships of the line in space) and at 1/7000 scale it's still a small ship on the table.  Plus I like the word K'vort because that sounds like a sexy dance while B'rel sounds like a hair removal product for ladies.



SIZE PERSPECTIVE:
To get an idea of it's actual; size, here is the ship next to a 25mm round.
As you can see, it's quite small.  Makes my paint job all the more impressive.




Renegade Class




"WTF is a Renegade??!!!!'"  
Easy trek nerds, remember I am one of you now.  I'll explain.  
In Star trek the The Original Series (TOS) the Enterprise was a Constitution class starship and the Klingons had their equivalent the D7.  Now I am on the record for stating that I really don't care for the look of the D7 (stupid ship looks like a stupid snapping turtle with a stupid hat on it*); and I'm more of a Star Trek Next Generation (TNG) or Deep Space 9 (DS9) type of guy.  By that time in the franchise the federation had moved beyond the Constitution class and onto the Excelsior class; which is what I have in my federation fleet.  Now for some reason the Klingons didn't do this and kept on using the D7.  It got a slight facelift as the K'Tinga class but really it's still a D7.  kinda like if I went to a tanning booth: I'd be tan for the first time in my life but I'd still look like me...

So I wanted a Klingon medium sized ship that was not a D7; and found this ship on Armadillo miniatures that is based off the Klingon ship in the fan made youtube series  Star Trek Renegades; which might be terrible or great, I dunno because I didn't watch it. But this Klingon ship is perfect for my needs; like when a blind date accidently admits she likes the same kinky stuff you do.  The ship looks cool, fits in better with the TNG era ships, and it's the right size being bigger than the BoP and the D7 but smaller than the Vorcha (see later in the post for the Vorcha).  

See? Waaay cooler looking than the D7



here is the actual size pic next to the 25mm round.


*EXCEPTION: David's D7s that we've used for Klingon Armada are way cool.  After some futile resistance they have flown into my heart.  Maybe the models just look cooler than the media.  I'll probably get some D7s eventually...

This ship was even featured on Trekyards on Youtube, where two guys talk about star trek ships almost as if they were real.  so I think it's official enough.  I called it the Renegade Class because I never picked up it's name other than "that Klingon ship from Renegades."  And Renegade just sounds cool to my mid forties -stick the mud-stable routine- boring family man ears.  
There you go trek nerds.  Now we can all be friends again.  Give me a smile...

That's nice



Vor'Cha Class



In the never ending arms race in the Star Trek universe (which was all about peaceful exploration) The Klingon Vor'Cha class was the response to the Federation Ambassador class.  It made it's first appear in TNG and several more in DS9 when it got it's official cannon name because it was spoken in dialogue! That seems to be a trek rule. 
I think the ship design looks the biz-ness so I'll have several.  Any good Klingon fleet is gonna have lots.






Size Pic.  Bigger in size and ferocity.

When looking online for visual references to get an idea of how the ships are supposed to look (which I don't take too seriously since it's all made up) there are exciting pics of Klingon ships with the super cool red fire bird markings on the wings and there are boring pics without them.  Obviously I went with the super cool red accents more often than not.  I think it looks good, but it does run the danger of the Klingon ships looking like Winter Warriors from the planet Christmas.


(because red and green are Christmas colors)

And Lastly we move on to the...


Negh'Var Class







This is the Klingon battleship.  It shows up in a whole 2 episodes of DS9 (and in one of those episodes it has like 30 seconds of screen time before it gets One=Shotted (blown up) by a supped up version of the Enterprise) but it's gotten really popular since then.  It looks the part of a big dangerous ship.  




FUN FACT: Vor'cha and Negh'var in Klingon mythology were brothers.  One was a brilliant thinker of strategy and tactics and the other a ferocious warrior and battle leader.  Both fell in love with the same woman and wanted to marry her, and killed each other over her.  Crazy huh;  Klingon history is almost like a Shakespeare play.  And you would think that the strategic thinker who knows how to see the long picture would recognize that the bloom comes off the rose  and let the other have her...


It's a big ship. So green and red.
Like a Christmas tree that wants to destroy your planet.




Whole fleet


What's a post about star ships without some pics of the whole fleet huh? 

everyone fly left...




Now everyone fly right...


Now fly down.




The bases aren't totally done yet.  They need some labels and a little bit of stars.  I finally settled ona  40mm round base with a washer glued to the bottom for stability.  The flight pegs are 2" or 3" which provides a nice height differential.  The ships are secured to the flight peg by magnets.  SUPER STRONG rare earth magnets.

I TOTALLY trust the magnet not to drop my brittle plastic battleship.
That's the face of someone with complete trust in his craft.


He is SO.  He just won't show it.




Full Speed Away From Here


You've wasted enough time here.  Time to move on to something productive.  But come back later if you like Star Trek because I'll be doing this stuff for the next month and a half.  

Thanks for reading.
Double thanks for writing  comment.
Till next time.


EDIT: Shopping Cart

For anyone looking to waste your time in a similar fashion; here are the links to Shapeways where I purchased the miniatures.  I got them all in "smooth fine detail' plastic except for the Neghvar which was in white versatile plastic because the price for the miniature in smooth fine detail was too high for my broke butt.  I meant to include links in the original post but forgot as I was too busy being Hilarious.




Vorcha torpedo (this is the hammer head on the vorcha body seen in the fleet pic)



56 comments:

  1. These ARE very cool Stew and even though you do point it out yourself, the red highlights on the various ships are pretty impressive work.

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    1. thanks Keith. I did point those out. it's just that i am rarely impressive so on those few occasions when I am I have to mention it out of fear that it'll be missed. 😁

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  2. Outstanding work, Stew! The green and red patterns look cool just as Keith says. Now, has the Big One from Shapeways arrived yet or is it still in the dockyard?

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    1. Thanks Jonathan. the Big Wha? OOOOHHHHHH. took me a second. (lowers voice to a hush, seductive and secretive) 'yes, THAT one. it is here. it's being painted now. likely will be featured in my next post..) 😁

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  3. Nicely painted - interesting point on the Bird of Prey not evolving, never thought of that. I had a dabble with Star Fleet Battles a loooong time ago and even in the days when I did complexity, I found it too much - though from memory, I think they brought out a ‘Captains Edition’ of the rules to make life a little easier!

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    1. Thanks Norm. yes, the SFB series is too much, even the easy Federation commander version is too much. The rules I will be using will be Starmada Unity. Expect a long winded boring post about it, 😁

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  4. Nice looking ships may have to dig through the lead mountain to see what i have Once I have finished my dark age stuff

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    1. Thanks Mr. Anon. When I am done with space ships I'll probably see what's in my lead pile for Dark ages...😁

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  5. Love the tattoo! ☺
    So are you learning Klingon to make the full transition to ST nerd? ☺
    I learned somewhere that "hello" in Klingon translates as " whadda ya want? "
    Guess what there's a translator online.....'Ip 'oH!
    Neil

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    1. thanks Neil. I'm aware of the online translator. I'm gonna use it to name the Klingon ships in Klingon. Now part of me wants to give them names that translate into something appropriate like 'terror" and "conqueror" and 'revenge' and part of me wants the names to translate into silly things like "fairy wing' and "big hugs' and 'rainbow sparkle.' 😁

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    2. Surely the names should be Christmas themed? Santa Claws, Dasher, Prancer etc, Elf? ☺
      Neil

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    3. Oh my! That’s a hilarious idea. 😀

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  6. Like how they came out, it's the right tone of green not to say Christmas when mixed with red, although if you add too much more white it could change that haha.

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  7. Big Star Wars fan here (it's a complicated relationship)... so the joke has gone way over my head. Don't tell me, I'm still trying to work it out. Those ships look great, love the colour scheme you've chosen, and with the creepy menacing shapes they don't seem too Chistmassy to me. I've only recently gotten into Trek as of about 5 years ago...I'm currently be-bopping between TOS and all the Discovery series on Netflix. TOS is my favourite. I'm looking forward to a game report but no stress if you can't get around to it. Good to see you're posting a bit more. Have fun, all the best. Slap-Dash.

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    1. Thanks Dash. I'm gonna tell you the joke because it's not worth that much thought: Klingon ships can cloak and not be seen, so its a tattoo of a cloaked ship as in it's not there and there's no tattoo.

      TOS is alright, I just like TNG and DS9 better. I didn't watch discovery. 😁

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  8. They look great Stew. I stumbled across a Star Trek site a few weeks ago and lost an hour reading through all the variations. It looks to be quite an interesting rabbit hole to disappear down.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence. What you mean is a worm hole or space time anomaly. 😀

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  9. You certainly have done your research on Klingon space ships.

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    1. Thanks Peter. Just some internet skimming. Gotta do something while I’m at work. 😀

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  10. I don’t have the words to express my jealousy. Awesome post. Great ships. And some funnies too.

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    1. Thanks Jolly. More to come unfortunately or fortunately depending on your mood. 😀

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  11. Lovely work there Stew and it took a second read to get the tattoo joke, which I did enjoy!!! Not my sort of thing at all but I do enjoy seeing nicely painted models whatever the 'period'.

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    1. Thanks Steve. It’s only going to be a slight diversion through space. 😀

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  12. I'm playing in a heavily modified Federation and Empire game and the Klingon naming conventions are pretty hard to grok. Ds and Es and Fs with various numbers. Boo. Lovely bit of kit you've bought yourself and painted up though.

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    1. Thanks Dave. Yes TOS era Klingon ships have stupid class names. 😀

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  13. Nicely done fleet, although they haven’t been out for a while I have some aeronautical ships of a similar scale 👍

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    1. Thanks Matt. It’s the flight stand affect that I think makes a fleet look good. 😀

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  14. Excellent looking fleet Stewart, and great finds on all the ships, your colour scheme looks perfect. Like the idea of the renegade ship, couldn't find the Klingon word for renegade, but here is a list of Klingon renegades that you could use, Keraz, Makesh, Kardis,and Korol, hope these help.

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    1. Thanks Dave. Huh, I probably should call the renegade class something in Klingon just to keep the universe consistent. Good call. 😀

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  15. Being caught somewhere between TOS and SFB, I am confused by some things, such as not seeing the endless beauty of the D7, and I've no idea what an Excelsior is, but regardless, your ships look fantastic, and your assembled fleet is magnificant. Thank you for sharing this wonderful post.
    Wait, "Its all made up"...wwwwhhhaat????

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    1. Thanks Irish. Beauty is in the eye huh? The Enterprise B is an Excelsior class. If bored you can read previous Star Trek posts. 😀

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  16. Not a Trekkie, but the Renegade from TOS is imprinted on me as what a Klingon ship looks like (showing my age). Others are quite cool, too! Obviously, the lore and later iterations of the Trek universe brought more to the table. Green ships? They look good, but I would have never thought of that: is that drawn from some "reference" or was that your idea?

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  17. Thanks Ed. In the TNG series and later the Klingon ships are greenish. 😀

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  18. Excellent write up. I look forward to seeing them at Avalon and maybe an MWS meeting

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  19. Oooo... these are very pretty! Great painting on some cool minis and not bad at all for a Stew who doesn't like to put paint to mini!
    Sudden urge to research Romulan ships in 1:7000 is hard to ignore!

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    1. Thanks Dai. Romulons are all you bud. 😀

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    2. Dai, the main Romulan ships are huge! And also green!

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    3. Yeah. Be like 4 x 5 inches or thereabouts.

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  20. These are incredibly cool looking models Stew and you’ve done a tremendous job on painting these. I do remember goodly our group playing Star Fleet Battles in the 1980’s and having a great time. Love the names and the entire history and background of the milieu.
    I’ve always like the Klingon Cosmo Kramer “Kavorka” class vessel myself - quite a magnet in itself mate if you catch my drift…

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    1. Lol thanks Carlo. I think I played SFB once and walked away thinking it had way too much going on. 😀

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  21. Love the sentence "Plus I like the word K'vort because that sounds like a sexy dance while B'rel sounds like a hair removal product for ladies." 🤣 Maybe Klingon ships are sponsored by different retail brands.
    Very nicely painted Stew and I am sure the battles will be bloody and victorious.
    P.S. Love the tat and I assume when you play you will be wearing a cloak 😁

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    1. Thanks Ben. But I don’t play the Klingons. Only the Federation: that way I can wear my skin tight pants suit. 😀

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  22. That is an impressive fleet Stew. My favourite is the Negh'Var Class.

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  23. These ships are even more lovely in person, when you can use them to drive cowardly StarFleet before you, and hear the lamentations of their widows (and widowers). [spoiler alert]

    Stew is not just a great painter, but he hosts a mean game too.

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    1. Thanks a lot David. It was a pleasure seeing you again. 😀

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  24. Lovely looking ships, I'm with Ed , I can only think of one kind of klingon ship from the original series, I thought they joined the federation? Does that mean these ships get scrapped? Or used alongside federation ships in an uneasy M1 Abrahms/Polish T55 kind of way? Anyway, all good and who knew the klingon anthem was "I wish it could be Christmas everyday!"
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain. The Feds and the Klingon Empire are allies most of the time, but in the DS9 series they go to war with each other. Then they make up later. 😀

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    2. Did they get married???? 😂

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  25. The ships look really great! Do you enjoy painting these ships anymore than other miniatures you've worked in the last couple of years? You're doing a bang up job on them so that got me wondering if this is finally thing to make you fall in love with painting :)

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    1. Thanks Jeff. I’ll admit there is a certain fun novelty to painting ships as opposed to miniatures as I haven’t been doing it for years and years. 😀

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  26. Wow Stew, the paint on the birds of prey are out of this world. I tried printing some ST ships a while back, but wasn't happy with the outcome. These Shapeway models look great and super detailed. 1/7000 scale you say? I may have been trying too small.

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