COMING SOON!! Polar Lights – 1/350 Klingon K’Tinga Cruiser Kit

COMING SOON!!

Presents

Star Trek

1/350 Klingon K’Tinga Cruiser

$TBD

Kit Materials: Plastic Injection

Number of Pieces: TBD

Kit Price: TBD

Kit Availability: TBD

Famed artist’s Charles Adams and Steve Neisen had a great deal to do with the creation and release of this long sought after kit in this scale and fine detail. The world of Trek Modelers will be grateful when this release is realized. I say that because I remember a slight hype for this very subject. Way back in 2004 this was being discussed, and designed. I remember the late artist Thomas Sassar working on this back then. I still have some of his exploded parts artworks.. with one for this very kit which I have held on to and will show here. (SEE BELOW). Since Charles has more detail now, and he has made a new all digital model created off the original filming miniature, this “part map” Thomas made in 2004 is sure to be very different. With all that recalled… and again, we are grateful to ALL whom have brought this to life. Thank you Round 2, Charles and Steve… this is an exciting time indeed!
Kurt Kuhn
Kuhn Global Incorporated
Modelers Miniatures & Magic

Below: Thomas Sassar’s OLD “Exploded Parts” drawings of the 2004 planned, and pushed back 1/350 K’Tinga

Here is what artist and digital designer Charles Adams has to say regarding this great project he is involved with…

I made the patterns for this model, including all the plating, panel lines, and corrugated textures. I also modeled nearly all the details in the front part of the ship (bulb, “Cobra head,” bridge dome) and much of the engineering deck.

 

I started this project way back in 2006. In fact, this was the first ship I ever modeled in Rhinoceros 3D (aka Rhino). I began the project using Rhino 2 and finished in Rhino 5.

 

I worked mainly from photos but I also had a few key measurements of the original studio model. I then referenced known plastic model kit parts used to detail the original as a “measuring stick” to try and get the shape and proportions just right. As you can imagine, this process can take a lot of time and effort. In fact, it’s taken many years of hard work to get to this point. It’s never easy trying to get it just right.

 

This project would not have been possible without help from quite a few people who provided valuable reference and helped to identify some of the model kit parts used on the original filming model. I have credited many of them on my Facebook page.

 

By 2017 I had the patterns pretty much done and then the opportunity came to compare my model to the original using photogrammetry. This is something I had not tried before. A friend in the VFX industry uses sophisticated photogrammetry software for motion tracking. With permission from my source, I supplied some never-before-seen photos of the original studio model taken from several different angles in a single photography session. These were then used to analyze my 3D model to see where it matched the original and where things were off.

 

After several rounds of minor tweaking, I knew I had captured much of the “character” in the shape of the original model. For example, the “wings” twist somewhat and the engine nacelles are not straight and parallel with the body. Instead, they toe in a bit. I was able to verify that I had achieved a close enough match to the original to be completely satisfied with the likeness of my replica.

 

Once the model was completed, I reduced the patterns to 1/350 and supplied them to Round2 in a 3D CAD format. Since this had started out as a studio-scale project, it was not necessary for me to model every single kit-bashed detail in 3D. Thus, Round2 needed to have their Chinese factory add many of the “greeblies” to the main body and engine nacelles. Steve Neisen helped by supplying some of these kit parts to use as reference.

 

Their factory printed prototype can be seen recently in Round2’s blog. This has not yet been altered to eliminate undercuts in the patterns, so some details may need to be adjusted  in order to facilitate injection molding.

 

Qapla’  😉 😀

 

Charles


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