Building the Klingon Cruiser part 1 by Billy Lehner
My wife says that I can’t leave well enough alone when it comes to making models. She says I simply overdo it and get carried away. She is right. I got carried away with this model too.
The shape of the Klingon Cruiser is unusual. The shape of the cruiser is a strange combination. The ship has bug eyes, a Panama hat and clown mouth, a swan neck, a turtle hump and bat wings. It had straight, triangle and round shapes. It looks like a builder’s nightmare. But the design of the Star Trek TV show’s enemy, the Klingons and their Klingon Cruiser worked; it was believable.
The design is one of pure contrasts. The large, bulbous head and broad, massive, body gave the D7 a powerful and strong look to it. The elongated neck gave the opposite effect of a fragile spacecraft that could only seem to move in space. The design is a great artistic shape that looks well balanced at all angles.
I built the lighted Star Trek Enterprise and the Klingon Cruiser in the 1960s. The model was just lit in the nose section. But it gave me hours of enjoyment as I imagined them lit up and soaring through the galaxy planning to ambush Captain Kirk and the Enterprise. I did not make the best models back then. It had globs of glue and glue strings. The neck was fragile. It was unpainted and looked like…plastic! My lack of modeling skills and crooked, peeling decals made the model sad to look at. But it was one of my first lit models and I was proud to have assembled it properly even if it wasn’t the greatest model in the world.
I wanted to build it again but AMT has not made the lit version in decades. I understand AMT does not make the model anymore. Finding and building a rare, unbuilt, 1960s model to put together is more money than I would care to part with. And I don’t have the heart to destroy the collectible value of these 1960s models.
But there are still plenty of unlit versions of this models around since AMT reissued them in new artwork box for the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of Star Trek. I see them regularly at Ebay. At least until the, out of production, model kit excess stock dry up the models are plentiful and cheap to buy.
Thankfully the AMT Klingon Cruiser model is the exception to the rule that AMT only makes inaccurate models. This model is almost completely accurate. With the exception of a strange tube that can be left off the model and the holes filled and a different end to the warp engines the model is true to the TV show version. And I rather like the AMT version of the warp engine.
I wanted my lit starships again! I have already lit the unlit 1975 AMT Romulan Bird of Prey and wrote an article here at this web site on the build-up. My lit Enterprise was on hold until more parts come in the mail. So the next model project was the Klingon Cruiser. I imagined a modernized version of the 1960s model and a tribute to AMTs rare decent quality model. The ship would have modern white high intensity LED lighting in the sensor dome and windows. But I wanted lit impulse engines with a little twinkle effect but how would I do that? I found the perfect answer to the twinkle effect using belly button lights.
As I built the model I added more lighting.
The model was lit entirely with light emitting diodes (LEDs). A 5-mm high intensity white LED for the nose section, a 5-mm red high intensity LED for the impulse engine, and a 3-mm yellow and green standard LED for the engine positioning light. The flashing in the impulse engine, engineering positioning lights and rear hangar deck warning light were created with, yes, belly button lights!
Belly button lights are used at Rave parties. It is a small, self-contained unit that is taped into a belly button. When lit the lights give off a fairly intense, bright, random and continuous red/green flashing effect. The flashes are biased more toward the red flashes.
They are small because they are constructed of Surface Mount Technology (SMT). They are also efficient running for approximately 24 hours on a set of two alkaline button cells. The LED lights mount in the circuit board are tiny high intensity red and green LEDs and bright enough to be easily seen. The lights give a nice random flash to them. Combining two belly button lights in the impulse engines of the Klingon Cruiser give a very random flash to them and make the impulse engine area look like power surging through them.
I found a lot of these lights selling at Ebay. The prices range from 15 lights for $9.99 to about $3.50 each. Before you bid look carefully at the shipping costs. Some of the sellers charge outrageous shipping!
On to part 2
