(Tret) Akleen Class Weapons Platform

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

My son handed me a highlighter marker that he had gutted and asked me if I could do anything with it.  This little space station was the end result.

The model is made entirely from recycled parts that were never part of any model kit.

STAR TREK UNIVERSE NOTES:

The Urent Gar Station was built around the same time (2340's) as Terok Nor (Deepspace Nine) and Empok Nor.  

Urrent Gar Station

(Tret) Akleen Class Weapons Platform

1:2500 Scale Scratchbuild

 

 

 

It's commission and construction was shrouded in secrecy by the Obsidian Order who wished to build a prototype weapons platform.  The (Tret) Akleen Class was the outcome of this project.

The station was well armed with its 48 phase cannons and 45 torpedo launchers.

 

The station was powered by a similar power plant as that found on the Nor type stations.

Although the project was considered a success, its size meant that it needed a fairly substantial crew to help maintain it.  And since Cardassia was still struggling financially, it was deemed too costly to build more of these types of stations.  Other weapons platforms, stations and satellites were eventually designed and adopted because they were easier and more cost effective to build.

Urrent Gar was still heavily used by the Obsidian Order and towed to various locations to defend many Cardassian assets.  Unfortunately, because there were other options available to the military forces, no upgrades or major overhauls were ever performed on the station.  When the Obsidian Order fell during the Dominion War, Dominion forces took control of the station and moved the station to help defend Cardassia during the final weeks of the war.  At this point, her age and lack of upgrades finally came to light when she was easily overwhelmed and destroyed by the Allied forces.

REAL WORLD NOTES:

This little project stemmed from my son handing me a highlighter marker set and asking me if I thought I could do anything with it.  I don't have many space stations in my collection so I decided to go in that direction for this build.  I went through my parts box and dug out all sorts of items, mostly super glue caps and tips as well as some leftover contact lens case caps from another project. 

As I assembled her, she took on a bit of a Cardassian look to me so that will be what I shoot for.  

I am not very familiar with the Cardassian race, especially when it comes to naming ships and classes of vessels.  I put a request out to Star Trek Modeler's Group page on FaceBook for some naming ideas and Gary Kellogg suggested that I look at Cardassian history.  I ended up using the Memory Beta website to do this as it had more names mentioned.  Urrent Gar became Cardassia's first defacto ruler when it became the Cardassian Union.  Tret Akleen was remembered as the "father" of the Cardassian Empire.

The build went very quickly with me being able to assemble and fill all the gaps with sculpting putty over a weekend.  I also managed to commence with painting the hull it's primary colors as well.

 

 

 

The weekend proved to be super productive as I worked from the bottom towards the top.  I was even able to get the stand painted.

 

 

 

The next day saw me finishing with the painting of the weapons claws and the top of the model.  I then started doing the detail work on the sensors and weapons ports.

 

I had a really busy weekend that didn't allow too much model work.  I still managed to do a ton of touch-ups and clean-up to the bottom and sides of the station.  I ended up focusing majorly on the sensor areas and repainted all the weapons point.  I am happier with how they look now.

 

I ended up taking a day off from the project but when I got back to it, I was able to finish up the painting.  I touched up the paint on the top pylons of the station and then repainted the weapons ports on the tops of them.  The next day, I realized that in my haste, I forgot to repaint some of the weapons ports on the sensor claws.  I did that and then redid my photo-shoot.

 

And there you go.  I started with a pile of "junk" and ended up with a Cardassian station.  It was a fun build and I have a super unique looking station in my collection now.

I hope you found this article as useful and informative as I did while writing it.  Please feel free to leave any comments, questions or suggestions below.

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:

The Model     WIP Pictures