Steamrunner Class Build Report

Status
Not open for further replies.

Paragon

Active Member
With the release of Zousho's Akira I've finally built some Star Trek models I've been wanting for awhile. First of course was the Akira, then cam Zousho's Saber and Defiant classes. I also built a scaled-down Norway class (I tried to get it on scale with the Akira, at 1/1900). With four of the Federation's anti-Borg warships built, I decided I'd finish the fleet off with the other two, the Sovereign class and the much more obscure Steamrunner class. The Steamrunner, like the Norway, Akira, and Saber classes originally appeared during the fight with the Borg in First Contact. It also saw limited use in Deep Space Nine, though never as a very prominent ship, and sometimes as wreckage. I became most familiar with it through the games Armada and Dominion Wars, where it was a somewhat more prominent ship.

There is a Steamrunner kit already available at Steamrunner Class Starship pictures from crafts photos on webshots but as you might see, it comes with no instructions. I've decided to help out by building this ship and documenting my progress for anyone else looking to build one for themself.

First, I decided to clean up the parts. It appears to me that the parts were scanned from something, so the first step was to remove the odd orange outlines and the discoloration of the paper, replacing them with white, so I didn't end up printing all that color. I also found that page five of the model is not actually the same scale as the other four, which would have caused quite a few problems if I had tried to construct it without rescaling them. After that, I shuffled all the pieces around and managed to squeeze them down from five pages to three, to help me save materials. I really want to touch up the entire model, because the texture resolution is pretty bad, but I decided to build it first, to get a better grasp of the model.

For my purposes, I also scaled down the model to 80%, in hopes it might be similarly scaled to the Akira and other ships now.

Anyway, I'll start posting pictures soon.
 

Paragon

Active Member
Ok, here are the images so far. I think I might have the saucer figured out.



First came the bottom of the saucer. It is made of two large pieces, and two small pieces. From what I have seen, the division of all of these pieces is simply not necessary. When I redesign this, I will consolidate all of the these pieces into one large flat bottom.

These three parts are 7, 9, and 20.



Once again, one flat piece would be better here.



Next comes the top of the saucer. This is piece 1, which goes on the front of the saucer.



Here we see piece 30 being attached to the back of the saucer.



And 73 in like fashion.



This is piece 4 after being cut out and scored. Piece 23 is attached to the side of it.



We can also see on the other side of piece 4 how piece 72 fills the triangular gap.

Remember, the mirror pieces are 29, 28, and 71.



Piece 12 is then shaped into a bowl, and goes in the large opening in piece 4 (piece 11 goes with 29).



As you can see, it creates a cave where the bussard ramscoop will be placed.



Assemble both of those sides, and attach 15 between them.



This is how the top should attach (approximately) to the saucer. It won't look right, trust me, but thats the only way it can attach.

 
S

Starship Builder

thanks for showing this ive looked at that model alot of times but wasnt sure would you by any chance be able to put the cleadn up versions for download
 

Paragon

Active Member
I'm considering it. If I do upload a different version, I'm going to make a lot of changes to it, including updating the texture. Missouri1981 also seemed to not want his uploaded to different sites, so if you want a copy I'll have to e-mail it to you. PM your e-mail address to me if you want that.
 

Paragon

Active Member


Piece 13 is part of the command deck, and goes directly between the bussard pods.



-------------------------------------------------------------



Piece 8 is also part of the command deck. Once assembled, it fits into the hold in the back of piece 13.



-------------------------------------------------------------



This is piece 14. It is once again part of the command deck.



As you can see, it goes at the very back of the saucer, just above piece 8.



-----------------------------------------------------------------



39, 67 and 68 go in the notch at the front of the saucer.

-----------------------------------------------------------------



38 is the back of the command deck (as far as I can figure).



------------------------------------------------------------------



To help the bottom saucer keep its shape, I folded some scrap cardstock to be 8 layers thick, and stuck it in.



And finally I attached the top to the bottom. Once again, this doesn't look right when you're building it, but as you can hopefully see, the result does look like the Steamrunner.



------------------------------------------------------------------



25, 31, 32, and 41.



They go on the backs of bussard pods.



------------------------------------------------------------------



The engines were the first time I really realized what was wrong with this model: the creator had used a pre-existing mesh, not his own, and had not optimized it before using pepakura. That small piece is 35, and it fits into that small space on piece 17, for no particularly good reason. It doesn't change the shape.



------------------------------------------------------------------



More jigsaw pieces. This is 52 and its corresponding space on piece 17.



Piece 48. 53 is the other red piece for 17. These two do change the shape of the engine a little, so make sure they go in the right spots.



------------------------------------------------------------------



The engines are made of two halves. The second half has some of the smallest, most ridiculous jigsaw pieces yet. This is piece 37 (the large one), with piece 65...



....and 60.

------------------------------------------------------------------



The two halves then go together. Angle the front though, going from the leading edge to the beginning of the small dark boxes, otherwise it won't attach correctly.





-----------------------------------------------------------------



Attach the engine. The red side is on the outside.



-------------------------------------------------------------------



For piece 40 and 74, I got rid of the other sides and just cut out the important part.



It doesn't even reach all the way around the back of the engine that way.



------------------------------------------------------------------



I also got rid of a lot of the blue parts and just slapped a piece of blue on the back of the engine.

------------------------------------------------------------------



Do yourself a favor when assembling the engine connectors and only score the outmost lines to make a simple box shape.



-------------------------------------------------------------------



18 is the majority of the deflector housing. It makes a box-ish shape.







------------------------------------------------------------------



57 and 42 make up the deflector dish.



49 and 50 go on the top and bottom of the dish.



-----------------------------------------------------------------



Then it goes in the front of the deflector pod.

-----------------------------------------------------------------



The engine connectors attach to the top of the deflector pod.



-----------------------------------------------------------------



The deflector pod hangs down from the engines.



------------------------------------------------------------------



The bussard ramscoops are pretty straightforward. When attaching them inside the "cave", it should attach to the side of it, not the back.



------------------------------------------------------------------



Finally, 51 is the bridge, and goes atop the command deck. I actually didn't like this bridge, so I got rid of it and made my own.



------------------------------------------------------------------

FINALLY! That wasn't so bad, was it? Ok, I know you want to strangle me, or the model designer. Like I said, I should make a cleaner version of this model and release it, based on what I've learned. Don't wait up for it if you really want a Steamrunner class though, it may be awhile.




 

Paragon

Active Member
And here are the dedicated anti-Borg ships of starfleet in ~1:1900 scale. The Norway might be a little too big, but the rest should be right. I tried to get the steamrunner correct compared to the Akira by using the size of the escape pods.



 

CJTK1701

Banned
WOW! That went fast! I don't know how you guys build that fast. I'm doing good to get a model done in a week. Do you precut and score each part, or build one part at a time?

Great job!
 

Paragon

Active Member
I typically just cut out and score the pieces as I go. I also use a clamp to press the tabs together when I glue them. About a second or two per tab makes them nearly as strong as if the glue were dry, which frees me up to work on the next part without holding the parts while they dry.

I'm also not a meticulous builder. You'll find a lot of errors with my construction of the Steamrunner. My idea though is to take it slower when I build the updated version.
 

billy81

New Member
This is actually my model on webshots (I forgot I even had the site up). Feel free to do whatever you want to it.
 

CJTK1701

Banned
I typically just cut out and score the pieces as I go. I also use a clamp to press the tabs together when I glue them. About a second or two per tab makes them nearly as strong as if the glue were dry, which frees me up to work on the next part without holding the parts while they dry.

I'm also not a meticulous builder. You'll find a lot of errors with my construction of the Steamrunner. My idea though is to take it slower when I build the updated version.

Brilliant! Thanks for the tips. I'm just learning how precise you have to be. Some of these models are not for the faint of heart, nor for the easily excitable. If you can't finish a styrene model, you'll never finish some of these.
 

billy81

New Member
I think that you got most of them right. This was the first model that I made using Pepakura Designer, so there were a lot of mistakes in it.
 

Paragon

Active Member
Just for those of you curious, when I said I use clamps, I meant the medical ones. They have notches that keep it together when closed, and look like scissors. They can be found in most drug stores I think.



I've never tried the plastic ones, so I can't be sure how well they'd work.
 

Millenniumfalsehood

Well-Known Member
If one wanted to be technical, the term you'd be looking for is "hemostat". I've got a pair that I use and they're indispensable for paper modeling. Those notches are also adjustable as far as the strength of the hold, which is really only useful in plastic modeling.

Don't use the plastic ones. As nice as it is to have a cheaper alternative, they do tend to break after a while. Metal hemostats are much more durable and wll pay for themselves after a while.
 

Paragon

Active Member
Hemostats, then! Thank you. Yes, my pair has proven incredibly useful, as I said before, it helps set the glue very quickly by pressing the parts together tightly. Another advantage of hemostats is that they keep the model clean, they don't spread glue nearly as easily as fingers. There are downsides. Sometimes tabs are too long for the clamp, and sometimes there are just tabs that you can't reach with them, but overall they definitely improved my modeling.

Anyway, a slight update: I've redone nearly the entire saucer (except the bussard ramscoops, shuttlebays and torpedo launchers). I've redone the deflector housing, engine struts, and I'm almost done with the engines. Once I finish the engines, all I'll have left is the deflector, and the aforementioned parts. I've been completely re-drawing the texture in Photoshop. I'm keeping it similar to Zousho's style, very simplistic, with lots of solid colors, but very fine resolution.

I've also made a few changes to the model, including a big change to the middle saucer that goes between the ramscoop pods - it is now elevated much higher, and includes white formers akin to those of Zousho's Akira. I've been consolidating pieces, putting small ones together where it will make assembly easier. The engines are also much simpler now, with no beveled corners, and the fronts have been fixed to attach to the saucer at the correct angles. The deflector pod now assembles like the torpedo pod of Zousho's Akira; it consistes of a top piece and a bottom piece that have been optimized for easier construction and better overall shape. I'm going to try adding formers for the inside of the bottom saucer, we'll see how well they help.

I'd like some test builders to go ahead and volunteer to help me find errors in the model as soon as its finished, before I release it to the download section. I'll be building it as well, but I'd prefer two or three other people test it as well.

I expect to have it ready for testing by the end of the day.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top