Centaur Class Refit

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I love the art of kitbashing.  It has allowed me to populate my collection with all sorts of unique models.  However, given the choice of purchasing a pre-built and pre-painted model over building my own I will often opt for the lazy approach and make the purchase.  Had I known that Eaglemoss was going to produce the this ship, I never would have embarked down the path of building the model.

This is the story of that model build...

Shadow Empire Constitution Class

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It has been a bit since I shared one of my model builds.  With the rewrite of my Eaglemoss vs. The World review of the TOS Constitution Class (you can read that review at THIS LINK), this model came back into the light.

I figured that it was time to give it an article.

Ravenclaw Class

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What do you get when you mash up a 23 century Romulan ship with a 23rd century Klingon ship?

I saw a very similar design in a model builder's FaceBook group, and HAD to try my hand at it.

U-34 Cricket Class Prototype

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The U-34 Cricket Prototype was an experimental precursor to the 23rd Century Romulan Bird Of Prey.

Only two of these style of ships were known to be built.  One of them was re-purposed and converted into a tramp cargo ship.  The second ship was presumed lost but was later discovered in a boneyard and was salvaged and rebuilt to original specifications.

Chimera Class

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What happens when you are an avid kitbasher and see a picture of a weird ship that people are making fun of?  Well, if you are me, you accept the challenge and try to build your own.

What you see above is not only the picture that inspired me to build, but also a similar angled shot of my finished project.

EMvTW 118: USS Firebrand NCC-68723 (Freedom class)

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Eaglemoss is continuing with thier line-up of resurrecting some of the more unique kitbashed ships that were built for the sole purpose of dying in the Battle of Wolf 359.  We see this fleet of ship very briefly in the Star Trek: The Next Generation's episode titled, "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II".

The USS Firebrand (NCC-68723) is definitely a unique ship.

Euderion Class Refit

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As a kitbash model builder, I draw my inspiration from all over the place.  Sometime though, imitation is just to darned irresistible.  That was the case when I was searching the web for kitbash ideas and stumbled across some very cool DeviantArt.

The creator had put a lot of love and attention into his artwork and I reached out and got permission to build his ship in physical format.

Wayfarer Class & Wayfarer Class Refit

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I built these two models around the same time that I built my Vagabond starships.  Both that design and this design were the brainchild of a very talented model builder named PT Riley.  When I saw those two designs, I wanted to have a go at building them in 1:2500 scale.  PT only built his models in TOS style, and I wanted to re-imagine his designs as they would have looked like if Starfleet had kept them around until the TMP era.

This is the story of my build of the Wayfarer and Wayfarer Refit models...

Project Time Trap

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Sometimes, when I am searching for ideas to kitbash, I have to look no further than actual TV episodes or movies of star Trek.  In the case of this next model, it was an episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series and an episode called "The Time Trap"

This is the story of that random idea and rather quick build...

C-8 Class Dreadnought

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As a kitbasher, I sometime get my ideas from other builds that I see.  Other times, I might see a drawing, diagram or a picture in a book and decide to try to replicate that in plastic.  This next model that I'm going to talk about is of that latter category.

And here is this model's story...

VoDleH Class (AKA Emperor Class)

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As a kitbasher, I sometime get my ideas from other builds that I see.  In the case of this model, I thought about building this model after building a 1:2500 scale Praetorius class that served in Starfleet.  This is the Klingon counterpart to that build.

And here is this model's story...

Praetorius Class

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Most of my earliest kitbashes were inspired by other builders' work.  I would search the web for kitbash ideas and when I would find something I like, I would then try to replicate it in 1:2500 scale.

I stumbled across the work of Phil Giunta of Plastic Galaxy Models, who is another well known kitbasher.  I found his build of the Praetorius Class which in essence is a high speed torpedo boat.  You can see more information about his build at THIS LINK.

Starstalker Class

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When I was first honing my kitbash skills, I searched the internet far and wide for ideas.  When I happened upon pictures of this ship that was built by Jay Dennis, I was in awe.  I had never contemplated using a Miranda class hull as the primary saucer section for a starship.  The concept was brilliant, and I loved every angle of the design.  and so, I set out to attempt to build my own in 1:2500 scale.

This is my model's story...

Vagabond Class & Vagabond Class Refit

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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.

Avenger Class

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Sometimes, while browsing around the internet, or reading through some of the model club FaceBook pages that I hang out at, I'll be introduced to a drawing that just grabs my attention and screams "BUILD ME!!!"

This is the story of one such build.

Since the ship has never been seen on screen, there is no official canon classification for it.  Some non-canon sources have deemed it the Avenger Class.

Miranda Class (TOS Era)

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A lot of people have speculated that there were other classifications of ships in the service of Starfleet during the TOS era besides the Constitution class.  They further speculated that some of the ships we see in the movies or TMP era were probably refits of those TOS ships.  

Hence the idea for a TOS era Miranda Class.

Although we never see a TOS era version of this type of ship on screen, there is a reference to the USS Reliant in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode called "Court Martial" where the Reliant's registry is seen on the wall in the background of one of the scenes, indicating that she was in dock for repairs.  Using that as a point of reference, it can be rationalized that what we see in Star Trek II is in fact, a refit version of the ship, much like we are treated to a refit Constitution class in the movies.

EMvTW Extra 08: USS Enterprise (Matt Jefferies Phase II concept)

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Eaglemoss has continued with thier endeavor to bring us a special lineup of ships that are either non-cannon or more recently, prototypes of well known ships.  While I was originally opposed to this idea, the fact is, Eaglemoss has brought us some very nice renditions of those ships.  The next model in this lineup is the Enterprise, as it would have appeared in the series called Star Trek: Phase II.

This ship has a special place in my collection as it is the very first kitbash that I ever built (top model).  Since that was my very first kitbash, my skillset was not good enough to build my own nacelles, so I just used TMP era ones.  Eventually, I found someone who produced a resin set of official looking nacelles and at that point, I had another go at building the model (bottom left).  And so, I thought that was it.  But Eaglemoss has come along and presented us with thier rendition of the ship and non-model builders can also enjoy this ship in thier collection.

U-10 Cestus Class

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During my review of the Eaglemoss Special #11, the USS Enterprise (XCV-330), a Starliner Class or sometimes called a Declaration Class ship, I proclaimed my fondness of ring ships.  I shared my collection of my various ring ships, and the Romulan U-10 Cestus Class was one of them.

This ship has never appeared in anything canon and I only learned about it while researching another really ancient Romulan ship.

Omnuim Gatherum - Administrative & R&D Offices Space Station

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One of the things I've noticed over the years is a serious lack of space station models, especially when it comes to Star Trek.  Sure, there are models of Deep Space Nine (Nor Class) and Deep Space Station K-7 (K Class), but that's really it.  If you do some searching around, you might be able to find some expensive garage kit resin models of other stations, but they can sometimes be hard to acquire.

As my kitbashing skills progressed, I found that I had a large pile of Constitution Class and Refit Constitution Class saucer sections and began to wonder if maybe I could build my own station.  Thus was born Omnuim Gatherum, the Administrative & R&D Offices Space Station for my own ship building company, Triple-D Enterprises.

EMvTW 91: USS Saratoga (NCC-31911) (Miranda Class)

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Lately, when I have an Eaglemoss model to review, I normally don't have anything else to compare it to.  Especially when it comes to pre-built and pre-painted models.  That is technically the same case with this next model. the USS Saratoga, a Miranda Class Variant that we are introduced to very briefly in the Star Trek: Deespace Nine series premiere episode titled, "Emissary".

My current collection of this ship consists of the Eaglemoss model, an AMT (Round 2) model that I built, and a slightly inaccurate MicroMachine.