Star Trek:- Spaceagent-9's Klingon D7 - micro build log (2 methods)

linweseregon

linweseregon

Senior Member
Nov 23, 2013
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Spaceagent -9 was kind enough to send his D7 design and (as requested) I'm going to build a standard version using his template and my own variation with layered elements. I printed eight copies of Spaceagent's design on one A4 sheet, so hopefully one will suffice for the standard build and the other seven should surely be enough for a layered version.
First up is the standard version:-
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I started with the parts that I was certain of, ie the wings, and worked from there trying to figure out which part should go where. In retrospect I should probably have checked some orthographics, but my internet connection has been dodgy (to say the least!) for a few days. 02.JPG
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Some trimming on the front and back pieces was required to get all the edges flush and leave a space for the struts to be attached. The symbols had to be cut with a modelling knife as they were too small even for my mini scissors.
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The nacelles went together slightly asymmetrically, but in my opinion this looks quite good when they are attached to the struts. I know that I've placed the smaller pieces in the wrong position - the reference I had available was a similar model which had some very obvious mistakes on it :-( - I placed the squares at the front and used the irregular shaped pieces to form the rear of the nacelles, but I realise that the irregular shaped parts should be folded around the front. This will be remedied in the layered version.
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The box on top of the wings - yes, I know; very technical term! ;-) - went on next, and I think I've identified all the parts for it correctly. There is a blue bar which can be placed on the front which I've omitted to give a bit of variety.
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I used a cocktail stick to curve the neck and trimmed the side struts to get them flush with the front of the wing structure.
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This is where I hit a big snag. The bulb required a lot of reworking - when I had put it together it was twice the size necessary for the rest of the bridge. I had to savagely trim the back and remove large chunks from the top to get it in proportion to the rest of the ship and give it a shape I was satisfied with. It might have been a better idea to remove the tabs and join the bulb pieces with strips of paper glued to the inside, but I did achieve a size and shape which I'm happy with. It's not shown in the next photo, but it will be when I photograph both builds mounted and side by side.
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At the end I was left with a handful of pieces which I have no idea of where to put and a few others which I felt were redundant at this scale. Now that I can get back online I'll find some more reference pics and see if I can work out where the mystery pieces go. In the meantime I have a nice teeny, wee D7 measuring approximately 2" long :-)
 
Next up is my rework with some layers, again starting with the wings.
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Using 200gsm card gives enough thickness to have obvious indentations and protrusions. A single thickness was sufficient for the blue strips on the wings. Following the pdo provided by Wulf111 for a 'Legacy' D7 (many thanks Wulf111!) I've removed sections from the rear and side pieces and glued the solid originals behind these sections. Again, the front and rear plates had to be trimmed to make everything flush.
 
yeah! 2 inches long! that is micro! that's so cool how you can build it so small....
 
This is really neat! It must be difficult to pin down which details are essential (and workable) at this size, for the designer and the builder.
 
@spaceagent-9 lots of practice! lol With 50+ under my belt it's getting a bit easier.

@ThunderChild Thank-you very much :-)

@Draegor Thank-you very much too :-) I can't really speak for the designers, but I just shrink available designs to what I think will be around 2" when finished. If parts are less than 1/2mm thick or smaller than a pinhead then they're gone. Sometimes my estimates are way off - mainly due to not seeing how the parts fit together when they're flat - eg my Defiant ended up 3 1/2" long;huge for me! lol

OK, on with the log:- I had a setback today in the form of a big, daft pup. My cutting board was on the receiving end of his excitement and the first build ended up like a victim of the Doomsday Machine! I had a dozen pieces laid out ready for gluing and they got scattered along with my offcuts, so everything finished up as just so much confetti - lol. A bit of surgery with a modelling knife and a cocktail stick almost repaired D7 no.1, but sifting through the confetti didn't produce any of the smaller pieces I had ready and I had to cut some more. It's just as well that I printed the design seven times! Eventually i was back at this stage:-
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For the port strut I removed the striped part on the outer layer and retained the original parts for the central and back pieces. The result can be seen on the glued starboard strut.This produced struts slightly thinner than version 1, but still with good proportions. For the outer layers of the nacelles I removed blue central strips and made the ends smaller to give a bevelled effect. I found that four layers wouldn't be thick enough and cut another central layer on each nacelle. With the five layers joined the wrap-round pieces were added - blue square vertically on the rear, white square on the bottom and pie-shaped piece in the outlines on the front. The results will be shown properly in the finishing comparison pics. That done it was time for 'the box' on the wings (?impulse engine?):-
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The main box will be composed of seven graduated layers to give a profile flush with the end piece. Three layers is sufficient for the outer structures and I'm going to use the original piece for the front. More tomorrow, assuming the Doggy Demolition Squad doesn't strike again ;-)
 
With 'the box' complete I moved on to the neck and upper bridge:-
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I've retained the original neck as layering would end up looking like a dog's dinner. Three layers of gradually decreasing size were used for the section on top of the rear of the neck, and I decided that three would be OK for the side struts. Six layers gave a good depth for the bridge superstructure and four was sufficient for the rhombus. I added the piece to the right on top of the rhombus. After checking Ex Astris Scientia I saw that the top of the bridge appeared to be elliptical so I cut three layers of gradually decreasing size for this then added a fourth smaller layer (not shown in the photo) to the bottom of this section. The two orangey dots were only slightly smaller than a pinhead and I used the moistened tip of a cocktail stick to place them atop the ellipse. The two blue rectangles were attached to the sides of the superstructure and required a tiny trim after they were attached. I also decided to add a window section from the command module strip to the front (after checking the orthographics) and finally attached the piece that looks like a grain silo:-
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Now for the dreaded command module! This time I'm not using tabs and I'm not building the bulb before attaching it:-
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With the first strip attached to the superstructure I've glued three very thin strips of paper to the inside to replace the tabs I used in version 1. Working from the front paper strip the command module pieces were then trimmed to the appropriate length before being glued directly to the neck - it's more time consuming, but I can work on the mounts while I'm waiting for the glue to dry. I run a fingernail along the inside of the module strips to get the desired curvature. The two blurry blue dots will be glued to the underside of the superstructure and I might have a go a insetting the torpedo launcher - I have plenty of spare parts to practice on!
 
wow~ this is really looking good.
those blurry dots are labeled ''phasers'' on some diagram I read a long time ago. I would think that it would be disruptors, but the language tapes has phasers in Klingon as part of the standard weapons.
its really looking great. I am very impressed.
 
@spaceagent-9 Thank-you very much Jim :) I've fixed the disruptors to the bridge - it'll just have to add to TOS's infamous continuity errors - lol.

I decided against recessing the torpedo launcher - it would be waaaay too fiddly. So here are the finished models:-
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Paper would be better for the torpedo launcher, but I wasn't going to print out a sheet of A4 just for one tiny part ;-)

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Yes, I know version 1 has a bent neck - remember The Doomsday Machine, ie my daft big puppy dog! lol

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This shows the extra detail that can be produced with layering. At this scale I think it's particularly effective.

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And finally - "Are you looking at me?!? Today is a good day to die!" ;-)
 
You did a GREAT JOB on these models!!!
It always AMAZES me when I see people (like yourself) making these small models!!!
KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!!
 
@Rhaven Blaack Thank-you yet again Rhaven :-) That's me up to 56 now - lol. It's strange how I seem to have endless reserves of patience for these, but not much in other areas. It helps that I love the challenge of working with these small ones - not that I have much space for larger models!
I've just watched DS9 "One Tiny Ship" and I thought 'Ooh, I can build an actual size model!' Mine are tinier than the Rubicon was though ;-)
 
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