by Paul Mather

The Valkinor is a 'Strongback' class transport, a design adapted from a Valkrys class destroyer frame. The 'Strongback' class is a highly versatile transport and has been used in a variety of roles, Military transport, colony support and resource transportation. The Valkinor was commissioned in 2271 and was assigned to Support command. Its primary role has been that of a mineral transport and has been in service doing runs from the various Klingon kraylon crystal mines and later, the dilithium mines of Praxis and Rure Penthe.

The Model

This model was designed and built specifically for this contest. I began with some basic plans drawn on A3 graph paper, this gave me the overall general shapes I wanted to achieve. I had bought some interesting shaped pencil cases at the local stationary super store and two of these became the basis for the cargo containers. I envisaged that these pods could be ejected in case of serious problems. I wanted the ship to look sufficiently Klingon, so I opted for the classic, bridge, boom and body ensemble.

The main materials used throughout were sheet styrene a 10mm square plastic duct for the spin and a few bits and pieces from the spares box, mainly tank pieces.

I began by building the command pod on the end of the 10mm ducting. I kept the shape similar to the K't'inga but I wanted this to be a smaller ship so I increased the relative size of the bridge unit and, since this was a transport, reduced the weapon pod beneath. This was all built from styrene, the pod beneath as a plastic spoon from a cafe, the bridge section was a 1/35th scale tank turret topped off with two tank wheel parts.

I made the main hull from sheet styrene ribs over which i laminated sheets of styrene to get the soft curves. Layers of styrene 'feathers' were added to make a nice movie-era look. I then built up the neck, again all sheet styrene with a few tank bits for extra detailing. Again I wanted the look and feel of the movie era ships.

The next step was to scratchbuild two Klingon warp drive units. I built up layers of styrene sheet and then sanded and filled to get the proper shapes. The 'twiddley bits' were supplied by various 1/72nd scale tank kits. More tank parts supplied the rear details and the top of the shuttle bay and reactor housings.

By this point I had a real quandary. On paper the ship looked fairly utilitarian, but here, in 3D she suddenly started to look really mean! I nearly abandoned the concept of this being a transport in favour of it being an escort/destroyer. The more detail I added, the meaner she looked. In the end though I tested the look with the pods in place and thought se would still look like a working gal. I decided to add to the back story about this being an adaptation of an older destroyer hull.

I finished construction by building the nacelle supports and gluing the nacelles in place. She was now ready for filling, sanding and touching up.

The ship only needed a little filling here and there. I did make a few cosmetic changes along the ay and added a few more 'feathers' than I originally intended.

I primed the ship in light grey, did a bit more filling and sanding, did a second dust of primer and deemed her fit for painting. I then painted her using standard Klingon mix of German tank grey, olive drab, a touch of white, a touch of yellow and a touch of bright green and a dash of silver. This went on easily. I then did various panels and feathers in varied shades of Klingon mix with touches of red, green, grey, black, silver and white.

I painted in the impulse drive, bridge lights ad a few portholes lit. Then I got out my trusty artists dry pastels and set to some heavy weathering. This is a ship that frequently enters atmospheres that are dirty, dusty an damp so the ship got a thorough going over with black, brown, tan and grey pastels. The ship fairly leaped to life. I mounted her on a brass rod onto a round pine base.

Image: Bow

Image: Stern

Image: Starboard side

Image: Top view