BUILDING A KLINGON FD7 FAST CRUISERby John Schneder II

Preparatory stepArrayed here are the items we will use for this conversion. Displayed are: --razor saw (you may use a regular hack saw, but it will give a larger and rougher cut). --small pliers --marker, but any pencil will do --various sanding sticks and boards (the largest ones are simple fingernail shapers available from thedrug store) --hobby knife --various jewelers/needle files (just make sure at least one is flat) --two stage epoxy (I am using JB Kwik) --two part epoxy putty (pictured here is some Kneadatite that I use for master sculpting, but you can useany type, even the plumber's putty available from Lowe's or Home Depot) --two Klingon dreadnought center engines from a kit bash pack --rotary tool of your choice (this is optional, but it works quicker and can give sharper edges than a file)

Not shown is the donor Klingon D7 miniature

Step #1Remove any flash from the miniature, and generally

straighten it out. Mine was from the factory seconds bag, soit had a few flaws. Once the mini is cleaned up, carefullysaw off both warp engines. Take your time and let the sawdo the work: pewter is pretty hard, so it may take sometime. If you are nervous about cutting into the hull, leave asmall amount of engine still attached to the hull and file orgrind it down smooth. You want to make the bottom of thehull flush like in the picture.

Step #2The dreadnought center engine 'wing' is smaller than the standard D7 engine we just removed,

the next step is to make the hull fit the new engines. Since this is a fast cruiser, I envisioned a rake tothe wings to indicate speed.

Lay out your engines alongside the hull like shown, making them flush with the rear of the hull.Draw a line from the front to the edge of the new engine (shown in the picture) for both sides.

I have painted the area to be removed in fluorescent orange to aid in seeing what I mean. If youwant to do this by all means do so, it can help more than a simple line.

Taking care to not remove the wing phasers from underneath, use a file or the rotary tool andremove the marked piece on each side. Try to keep the cut straight until it looks like the right half of thepicture.

Step #3Klingon side warp engines have

a slight 'bend' to them that the centerdreadnought engines do not. Using thepliers, slightly bend the 'wing' part ofeach engine until they have a bendsimilar to the original cut off engines.Don't worry about getting it perfect, justtry to make both have roughly the samedegree of bend. Once you do this, fileoff any flash, and file off the alignmentpeg on top. This peg was originallyused to align the engine with the boomon the dreadnought, but we will beattaching the revised engine flush with the FD7 hull. Test fit the new engines to the hull. If they lookoff-kilter to you, file the hull and wing until you obtain an angle that looks good. I prefer them mostlystraight with a slight downward tilt to enhance the 'speedy' look.

Step #4Mix up a small amount of the epoxy of your choice (I use JB Kwik and highly recommend it).

DOING ONE ENGINE AT A TIME (I cannot stress this enough), attach the engine with the epoxy. Theepoxy should take a few minutes to set up (my JB Kwik took six minutes to get tacky). During thistime, reposition the engine so it appears straight from every angle, and aligns with the edges of the hull.Don't hesitate to flip it over while you are positioning it to verify you have the angles correct. Again, DOONE ENGINE AT A TIME!!

Once the epoxy has set so the engine will no longer move, mix up another small amount andattach the other engine. What is important here is to make sure both engines match with regards to eachother. As you can see in the left half of the picture, the back of each engine (exhaust) is roughly evenwith the other. Your side view of the mini should look like the right half of the picture.

Let the ship sit upside down for several hours to let the epoxy fully cure (you can place it under alamp to cure it faster). If you find that one (or both) engines are not to your liking, carefully snap themoff before the epoxy has had time to fully cure, scrape off the epoxy, and try again.

Step #5Once the epoxy has fully cured we will now apply the epoxy putty. Its use is two-fold: first it

strengthens the engines' bond to the hull, and second, it allows us to make a smooth transition from theengines to the hull.

Knead together two equal amounts of the two-part epoxy putty until the color is uniform. Howlong you have to work with it varies. The stuff I use gives about a one hour work time. The Lowe's/Home Depot plumber's putty gives a work time of only about 10-15 minutes. Place a small blob on theinside of the 'wing'. Any of the putties you use will want to stick to your fingers, so have a cup of wateron hand. Lightly dip your working fingers and thumb into the water before smoothing the putty. Don'tuse too much water though. Trust me it works wonders :-)

Smooth out the putty towards both the hull and the engine itself (See the picture for properplacement). Once you have the back of the wing smooth, use the hobby knife and trim the putty thathas bulged around to the outside of the wing and engine. You can then smooth the edges with the knifeblade (the water works well here too). Set your mini under the lamp and leave overnight to properlycure. Once the putty is cured, use the sanding sticks to smooth it out until you have blended it to thesurrounding parts. There is no strict guide for the sanding except to start with the coarser grits, andcomplete with the finer grits. You can sand as much or as little as you like.

KLINGON FD7 GRAPHICby Adam Turner

Step#6When you are finished sanding, wash off the miniature with some hand soap and completely

rinse with warm water. Handling it as little as possible, allow it to air dry. Once it is dry, it is time toprime. A primer is usually an oil-based aerosol can. (I get mine from the cheap spray paint section atWal-Mart.) However, there are also latex and acrylic primers, even ones that must be reduced and usedwith an airbrush. Use whichever one you like. Prime the miniature and allow it to completely dry (atleast two hours).

I am going to paint this kitbash using Testors Model Master oil base for the main hull colors, andvarious other acrylic paints for the detailing. I am painting the FD7 in a scheme much like the old WorldWar I battleship splinter patterns (they were alternating lines of greys and blues). Listed below are thecolors I am using for this miniature.

These paints are Testors Model Master Enamels: FS36118 Gunship Gray (Main hull color) 2094 Panzer Schwarzgrau 39'-43' (Splinter color) FS36375 Light Ghost Gray (Splinter color) FS35109 Blue (Splinter color) FS37875 Flat White (various detail) FS37038 Flat Black (ends of warp engines, boom detail) 17038 Gloss Black (disruptors/phasers, boom detail)

These paints are Tamiya Acrylics: X-6 Orange ('dot' on warp engine, impulse engine) X-11 Chrome Silver (warp engine and various detail) X-23 Clear Blue (warp engine cooling vanes) X-27 Clear Red (APR cooling) XF-1 Flat Black (washes) XF-5 Flat Green (shield grid, boom details) XF-6 Copper (sensor dimple on boom) XF-7 Flat Red (warp engine and boom detail)

Base coat theentire mini in a mediumgrey of your choice andallow to dry (see leftside of picture). Thenpaint on the stripes asshown (see the rightside of picture). Ofcourse you may paintthe stripes in any fash-ion you wish, just try tokeep them angular.Allow to dry for severalhours.

Step #7Create a 'wash' of clean water and flat black in a ratio of 3 or 4:1. Apply it to the miniature,

making sure to cover it entirely, and allow the wash to dry. You may need to apply another wash oncethe first is dry to achieve the proper look (I had to use 2 coats of wash). Once dry it will look like the lefthalf of the picture.

Now we will highlight using a drybrush technique. A drybrush means that you dip the brush inthe paint, loading it fully. Then, you wipe off most of the paint on any rag or towel, leaving paint onlyinside the brush. You then lightly brush the surface of your miniature and the paint in the brush adheresonly to the raised details of the miniature. In our case we will first drybrush with the original colors ofthe hull and splinter patterns. Once this first drybrushed paint is dry, mix some white with the base colorto achieve a lighter shade (anywhere from 1:1 to 7:1 original-to-white). How much white is reallysubjective, but you are trying to achieve at least one whole shade lighter. Once you get a shade you like,drybrush again with this lighter shade very lightly. You will find that it only adheres the very highestpoints, and gives them a further highlight, improving the depth of the miniature (see the right side of thepicture).

Step #8 We will now begin painting the various details. Of course, you are free to use whatever colors youwant, and since I started painting Star Fleet miniatures back in the 1980's, my choice of colors reflectsthose older days. To achieve my engine cooling and APR cooling, I first base-coated the relevant partsin white and silver (see the top of the picture). Also, you can see that I have base-coated some of theother details, including the phaser dot on top of the LH warp engine (FD-7's have one disruptor replacedwith a phaser-1 on each engine).

After allowing the white and silver to dry, I then applied the clear blue or red (see the bottom ofthe picture). You can also see that I have highlighted the larger details (boom collar at the rear where itmeets the hull, bridge dome on the boom, warp engine rears, etc.) using the base color mixed with somewhite. You can leave them un-highlighted if you wish. Often what looks great in super close-up photoscan't be seen from gaming distance, so use your own judgement.

Step #9 As you can see here, I have painted on more details, namely the impulse engine, warp engine tips, andthe little bits on the boom. Note: I didn't like the brighter XF-7 Flat Red on the warp engine tips (it wastoo garish for me). Instead, I made it darker by mixing in some black until I had a dark red and used that.

Step #10Here you can see the final detail on the warp engines (silver cooling tubes). Don't forget to do

the inner side of the engines as well. Unlike the D7 engines you replaced, the dreadnought centerengines we have used for this conversion have tubes on the inside as well.

This is the counter for the Klingon FD7from the game Federation Commander.While it is just about the coolest counter wehave ever printed, it cannot compare tohaving a painted metal miniature.

Step #11This step is optional. If you are feeling really frisky, you can get out some yellow paint and add

windows like I have done here. Note: I had to thin down my yellow somewhat as it kept drying in thebrush and wouldn't stick to the miniature. I have also added some Klingon lettering at the top of eachengine (its just barely visible above the blue cooling grid). I chose not to put on a Klingon trefoil sym-bols (I thought the paint looked too cool:-). If you add them, they should go on top of the wings.Or, you could just add Mark Tutton's decals for all of the windows, etc. I have been told they are excel-lent.

FINAL NOTESThis type of "fast-ship" Klingon conversion is how I made the master for the C5. You can

also try it (like I did) for the FDW (fast D5W), the FD5 (fast D5), and the granddaddy of them all, theB9 fast battleship:-) John Schneder II jas888@earthlink.net

PUBLISHER’S NOTESThis document resulted from a BBS dialogue with miniatures fans, who wanted us to publish

articles on conversions and painting, to help others aspire to truly magnificent starships. Such articleswere not a popular feature of Captain’s Log, but we decided to give it a try as web-based document. Iconfess that (being busy) I did very little to edit this document other than toss it into a PageMaker fileand insert the photos, but even so, you can blame me for anything that’s wrong.-- Steve Cole,Design@StarFleetGames.com

Document is copyright © 2008 Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc.