By Jeffrey Griffin - images & text © 2004

Scale: 1/2500

Parts: 7 resin pieces. No stand is included.

Instructions: 1 page assembly/decal placement diagram

Decals: 2 Sheets: ALPS-printed waterslide by JT Graphics & Inkjet by VA Miniatures

Molding Quality: 9 - Minor flash and pour tabs

Detail: 9.0 - Very nicely detailed, especially for this scale

Accuracy: 9.0 - Has all the lines of the K'T'Inga and is easily distinguishable from the TOS Era D-7

MSRP: $17.00 USD (~$21.28 CAN/ € 13.70 EUR) available from Federation Models

Overall Rating: 9.0 - At first glance, a real gem.

Image: Instructions

For nearly 20 years, 1/2500 scale Star Trek modelers have had to "make do" with a seriously limited selection of ships to choose from, and very few non-Starpleet ships. ERTL first introduced us to the scale for Trek models in 1988 with the release of the first 3-Piece U.S.S. Enterprise Set kit, then a Snap-Fast kit some years later. Over the last 10 years or so, a number of garage kit manufacturers have produced an ever growning number of kits in this scale, mostly Starfleet vessels. While there was a plethora of different good guys, they had no enemy to fight. Finally, however, we have a Klingon Battlecruiser from VA Miniatures - the K'T'Inga!

First seen in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" in 1979, the K'T'Inga was an upgrade to the design of The Original Series (TOS) Era D-7 Klingon Battlecruiser. VA Miniatures' has done a great job of capturing the look of the K'T'Inga with curve of the command pod and the detailing for the aft of the secondary hull, addition of the cargo bay doors on the port forward secondary hull and the addition of weapons emplacements in various areas of the hull.

I was fortunate enough to purchase two advanced copies of the kit directly from VA Miniatures. I'm happy enough with the initial buildups to have purchased four more for my ever-growing Klingon Fleet in 1/2500 scale.

What You Get

The kit consists of a 7 pieces: command neck/pod, secondary hull, command decks, pylon/nacelle assemblies and the "powerpacks" that go on either side of the hangar deck. The kit comes in a plastic bag with an card stock "cover", as most VA Miniatures kits do. Inside the bag with the parts is an instruction sheet for placement of parts and decals, and two decal sheets. The first decal sheet is by JT Graphics and includes the Klingon Trefoils for the top and bottom of the secondary hull, a three-piece trefoil for the hemisphere on the underside of the secondary hull, a really tiny trefoil for the hangar door, windows, impulse vents, Klingon script, impulse intakes (red glowy vents just forward of the hangar deck) and the magnetic attractor plates (which are two different colors, for some reason) for the top portion of the secondary hull, forward of the hangar deck.

The second decal sheet was made by VA Miniatures so the kit would include the intake vents on the secondary hull. These appear to be produced by an inkjet printer.

Assembly and Finish

While this is meant as an "in-box" Preview, I've already assembled one Klingon Battlecruiser. Clean up was minimal on the first one, though I had to remove the pour-tabs on a few of the parts. There was little flash, however. Assembly is straightforward on these. One nice feature is a wire running up the middle of the "neck" meant to be embedded in the forward section of the secondary hull by using a pin-vise drill to make a small hole, then fill up with CA/epoxy. This helps to keep a casual bump of the "neck" from knocking off the entire forward section. Parts fit is pretty good. The only problem I encountered was when I assembled this, I didn't have my pin-vise with me, so found the need to use the wire to make as deep a hole as possible in the secondary hull. I then sniped a small part of the wire (roughly .040") to allow the "neck" to fit flush on the secondary hull.

Conclusions

This kit was a lot of fun to assemble. I've been a big fan of the K'T'Inga since I first saw it in ST:TMP and was quite excited to find out that this non-Starfleet ship was in-works. It's a nice, small scale model allowing a modeler to build up a fleet of ships that will take up considerably less space than the larger scaled ships.