X-65 Class Prototype Attack Vessel

NOTE:  You can click on most pictures to get a larger view of them.

I did a quick share of this ship back when I re-wrote my Eaglemoss vs. The World Article on the Klingon Bird Of Prey.  I had intended to do a full write up about it, but the project got forgotten until now.

I have always wondered what a ship like this would look like. When the Star Trek Modelers Group on FaceBook decided to have a Star Trek/Star Wars crossover contest, it seemed to be the perfect time to give it a try since she would be very X-Wing like in appearance. The class name is in fact taken from the T-65 name for the X-Wing.

I now present to you my Klingon X-65 Class Prototype attack ship.

IKS Hegh Ha'DIbaH (Death Beast)

X-65 Class Prototype Attack Vessel

1:2500 Scale AMT Kitbash

 

 

 

 

Like it's other Bird Of Prey brothers and sisters, the X-65 also featured variable geometry wings that had similar positions for flight mode and planetary landing mode.

  

Cruise Mode

 

Attack Mode

 

Landing Mode

In Universe Story:

Designer Name: Patrick M. Dougherty Sr.

Ship’s Name & Classification: 

IKS Hegh Ha'DIbaH (Death Beast)

X-65 Class Prototype Attack Vessel

Dimensions

Length: 110 meters

Width: ? meters

Height: ? meters

Specifications

Decks: 3

Crew: 6 to 12

Speed: Cruise: warp 6 / Maximum: warp 8

Armament: Photon torpedo launchers (fore and aft); 4 disruptor cannons; phasers

Defenses: Deflector shields, cloaking device

Auxiliary craft: none

The B'rel was a highly successful design for the Klingon Empire and served long into the 24th century. It also spawned several other Bird-of-Prey classes of near identical design, including the D12-class and K'vort-class. Though the K'vort, and later Chuq'Beh-class were notably larger than the original B'rel design.

During the heyday of the B’rel class, several experimental modifications were attempted.

The X-65 which was named Hegh Ha'DIbaH (roughly meaning Death Beast) was one such ship. With her extra set of wings and disruptor cannons, she definitely served the purpose of spreading fear into those that encountered her. However, the extra weapons meant that she needed a larger power plant and this made for even more cramped quarters on board than was normal for a standard bird of prey. Due to the limited space, the ship was not capable of longer term missions either and this is probably why this design never made it past the prototype phase.

Unfortunately, the Hegh Ha'DIbaH did not have a long career. About a year into her existence, she was destroyed in a battle along the Romulan border.

Real Universe Story:

GOAL: To turn this into a Star Trek ship!

Parts Used: 1 Bird Of Prey Kit and the wing assemblies from a second BOP kit.

I faced two challenges with this project. The first was the mounting of the second set of wings and since I wanted my model to have movable parts, this challenge grew. With some well placed drill holes though, this was easily remedied. 

 

 

The bigger challenge was the fact that these BOP model kits had tons of open spaces to begin with and my removal of a protective cowl made it so you could see right through the ship. I ended up jamming some sheet styrene into the middle of the model.  After grinding it down enough to fit the top of the model back on, I then re-purposed the cowl to fill in other gaps. I was happy with the end result.

 

 

 

After the hard parts were out of the way, it was a matter of just mounting the guns and then painting.  Given that I HAD to pre-assemble her, I decided that trying to paint the feather plating individually would have been madness.

 

Surprisingly, painting some of the other smaller areas of the ship made her look pretty good given that the "feathers" were plainly done.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed building this beast.  And I was really proud of how well she was recieved in the modeling community.  

As always, I hope you found this article useful and informative.  If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to comment below.

So for now, "Live long and prosper!!!"

Additional Links To Photos Of My Collection:

AMT X-65 Class Prototype (Model     WIP)