Klingon Bird of Prey

I'm building an AMT bird of prey at the moment as well, the first model I've build since I was 10 or something. I'm building it in the cruise/flight mode, but have modded the radiators a bit to tilt the wings up.
I wouldn't worry about the colours being slapdash or anything, the colours in the instructions seem too bright for my taste, and like Woody said, they've been in service for a long time, you'd expect them to have a rather eclectic mix of colours as repairs were made over the years.
(Thanks for those links by the way, they've helped me a lot)

My personal recommendation for the green is the chromate green for the base color and FS Pale Green for the plating highlights. This seemed to best match the scheme as I saw it in ST4. If I remember correctly, the instructions in my kit recommended these colors, but had the Pale Green as the base with chromate detais, which didn't look right to me.

Also, for the orange-red on the underside of the wings, Testor's Russian Marker Red might be a good match, but test it with the green on a spare piece of plastic first.

QUOTE: Originally posted by Hiram Sedai I'm nowhere near my model as I'm over my girlfriend's mother's house at the moment. My girlfriend's deceased father had a truckload of paints and I'll be purchasing more in the future. He had about 30 kinds of gray. No flat medium gray green or Chromate Green yet. Am so tempted to paint it OD Green since I have so much of it. Hmm....

Looking around the Testor's web site I've found that they carry both Medium Grey and Medium Green. "Dumb" question, IF I mixed them one-to-one that would give me the Medium Grey Green, right???

Digital_Cowboy

I'm nowhere near my model as I'm over my girlfriend's mother's house at the moment.

My girlfriend's deceased father had a truckload of paints and I'll be purchasing more in the future. He had about 30 kinds of gray.

No flat medium gray green or Chromate Green yet. Am so tempted to paint it OD Green since I have so much of it. Hmm....

Federation Models will be carrying these hinge sets.

http://home.comcast.net/~cobywan/Templates/BOP_Hinge.htm

They should be available in a couple of weeks.

QUOTE: Originally posted by Hiram Sedai AMT/ERTL 1/650 Klingon Bird of Prey This is the first Sci Fi model I've ever done. My girlfriend and I are looking forward to putting this puppy together although I have none of the paints needed. All of my mine are meant for tanks. Any tips on painting? How do you weather a Bird of Prey when there is no rust and/or mud in space?

Would that be kit #6743? If so I will be building that one shortly myself. I am currently building the Shuttlecraft Galileo II.

Like you I will be painting the Klingon ship as I build it, and that is also what I am doing with the Galileo II, as well as making a few minor mods to the Galileo II, such as cutting open the doors, both the exterior and the interior door in the Aft bulkhead.

And then I'll probably build a diorama to display it on/in.

If the Klingon kit your talking about is the same one that I have where did you find the Flat Medium Gray Green paint?

Digital_Cowboy

some of the paints mentioned in the instructions are also used in painting model tanks

Where'd you pic her up? my girlfriend makes fun of me for building star trek models

Thanks for the links and the advice folks. I'm waiting until I gather up the paints I need because I'll be painting as I build. My lovely girlfriend has wanted to put this one together for a couple of years. Too many types of gray!

I posted this a while ago.. have at it chief! Good luck, can't wait to see the finished product.


Reference Links:

http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/links.htm
http://www.neutralzone.de/database/Federation/StarFleet/
http://www.lcarscom.net/fsd/art.html
http://www.neutralzone.de/database/StarShip.htm
http://www.shiporama.org/
http://www.stguardian.to/startrek1.htm
http://steve.pugh.net/fleet/
http://www.starshipmodeler.com/trek/ds9tech.htm



Some great ST modeling links:

http://www.federationmodels.com/
http://www.ericksmodels.com/gallery/gallery.html
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dunes/2876/models.html
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~markusn/art/uss_newjersey/
http://www.culttvman.com/trek.html
http://www.starshipmodeler.com/gallery/gallery.cfm
http://hometown.aol.com/worfrayl/NovaHobbies.html

Check out www.CultTVman.com and www.Starshipmodeler.com
Both have many articles and Galleries of this ship.
Good luck and have fun.

Most of the Bird of Preys I've seen have been weathered to look rusty. Remember these craft served for long stretches of time and they do enter the atmosphere.