In order to hone my kitbashing skills, I searched the web far and wide for interesting kitbashes to try my hand at in my favorite scale of 1:2500. The rally low cost of those sized kits made it easy to acquire the parts needed to have many a bash fests.
During my travels, I happened across the website of a very skilled model maker named PT Riley and he had built the original TOS era Vagabond. You can check out the model at THIS LINK.
I liked the looks of the ship and the backstory he had made up for it, so I started chopping and gluing.
The following ship information was taken right from PT Riley's website...
USS Wanderer (NCC-1512)
Vagabond Class
1:2500 Scale AMT Kitbash
Length:290 m, Width:127 m. Height:73 m
The Vagabond class was designed at roughly the same time as the Constitution class and used some of the same components. The pod that housed the navigational deflector was originally to house the shuttlebay as well, but it was found to be very cramped, with capacity for only two shuttlecraft. In battle, she was maneuverable but suffered from some integrity problems during high warp maneuvers.
The Wanderer herself was lost in the mid-to-late 23rd century during an ion storm. She was presumed destroyed. It wasn't until 2370 that the truth became known when the ship returned to Federation space. She was manned by the descendants of the crew. She had been extensively refitted with alien and "drawing board" technologies, and she now serves as a part of Starfleet once more.
Real World Notes:
My model differs a bit from PT's model in that I used a Miranda Class hull for my "saucer" section while it looks like he started with a regular Constitution Class saucer and then added an extension to it.
Photo Credit: PT Riley
I really like two of of PT's builds and deeming them simple enough to build on my own in 1:2500 scale, I constructed both of his ships at the same time. Both of his ships were of the TOS era and I also wanted to see what they might look like had Starfleet kept them around and chose to refit them during the TMP era.
USS Gypsy (NCC-1672)
Vagabond Class Refit
1:2500 Scale AMT Kitbash
Real World Notes:
Since I also had extra Constitution Refit parts, I decided to also simultaneously build the Gypsy as a TMP era upgrade as well. Like my other designs that position the engineering hull on top of the saucer section, I left the photon torpedo launchers on top for a better attack range. It just didn't look right having them just above the bridge module. Plus, by doing the secondary hull like that, I didn't have to contend with cutting off the shuttle bay door and remounting it in the correct orientation.
Sadly, these were built in my early kitbashing days, and as such, I never took any work in progress pictures to share the build process with you. I do remember that these two ship were not too challenging to build though.
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:
Vagabond Class Vagabond Class Refit
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