Cesare Tatarelli’s Classic Klingon

So, why would I think anyone would want to see a relatively simple model of an original series Klingon cruiser? Well, to date, it is my most successful project for a couple of reasons.

1) I rehabbed the poor model from my father’s basement storage. It was in pieces, several of which were broken and not just separated at old glue seams, the worst being the head and neck. And what was still intact was so poorly done (about 25 years ago) that I had to slowly disassemble them.

2) I got a chance to do some ‘scratch’ building. The entire impulse deck was missing, as were the end caps for the warp nacelles. And of course, there were no decals.

So, thanks in large part to Agatha Chamberlain’s diagrams and to photos of Billy Lehner’s Klingon Cruiser, as well as the model instruction sheet I found on a gaming site, I was able to construct the impulse deck using .3mm and .5mm sheet styrene, and some thin styrene rods. I took some liberties and used etched brass for the detail of the two structures on the sides of the deck. This part of the reconstruction was the most fun I’ve had to date with kit building. The nacelle end-caps aren’t accurate, I admit, but they do the job, I used some spare parts and some styrene. The tre-foil was easy, done in illustrator, but the Klingon characters, I had to cut them from styrene, and I like the raised effect on the hull.

The hull is painted with Motomaster grey primer, and the details are Humbrol silver…finished with a coat of Testor’s clear gloss …

All in all, a fun experience, and you have to admit, the Klingon cruiser is a unique design and is really quite elegant.

Cesare Tatarelli