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This
is a kitbash of Starfleet's Challenger Class. The most notable
vessel of this type was the USS Buran NCC-57580 which was
destroyed by the Borg at Wolf 359.
The USS Armstrong was named for the first human to set foot on
Earth's moon in 1969. The starship Armstrong was ambushed by
Klingon forces in 2373 and took heavy casualties. It later
docked at Starbase Deep Space Nine for medical aid.
This Challenger Class model was built in much the same way as
the study model filmed for 'Best of Both Worlds, Part II'. The
known components include two 1/2500 upper Galaxy Class
saucers, two 1/1400 Galaxy Class warp engines and bridge
module, and the sail tower from a 1/400 Russian Typhoon sub.
Based on the one photo available of the Challenger Class, I
speculated that the engineering hull was made from two
back-to-back secondary hulls from the 1/2500 Galaxy Class. I
also included the 1/1400 Captain's Yacht.
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Both
upper saucers were glued together after the 'neck' sections were
removed from the Galaxy Class parts. (The two saucer undersides
were used in the construction of the Cheyenne Class model.) I
cut both of the assembled Secondary hulls at their widest point
and glued both back halves together. This gave the hull the
approximate length and shape I determined from the study model
photo.
This photo was taken at the approximate angle as the only known
photo of the USS Buran study model. This was done to show where
I made assumptions as to parts involved in the model, placement
of windows and escape pods, etc.
The picture of the studio model of the USS Buran can be seen on
the
Challenger
Class page at the Ex Astris Scientia website.
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The
Typhoon sail was only slightly modified to fit. Only the upper
nacelle had some plastic removed so it fit flush to the top of
the sail. The bottom nacelle was connected by using 2mm styrene
sheet fitted to the pylon mounting slit and up into a slit cut
in the secondary hull underside. The difficult part of assembly
was getting a strong joint between the saucer and the secondary
hull. Sheet plastic was used to 'sandwich' the parts for
strength.
I tapered the Galaxy Class pylon structure to meet up with the
vessel separation lines of the saucer.
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The
basecoat of the Armstrong is French Light Blue Gray. The phaser
color is Medium Gray.
Lifeboat hatches were made with extremely thin styrene and were
painted Sand.
Windows were Dremeled indents in the plastic and were either
painted Black or White.
The Bussard collectors and impulse engines are Gloss Red. The
warp grilles are Mat Sky Blue. The vent rings and RCS thrusters
are Zinc Chromate Yellow.
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I
am assuming the vessel would have a horizontal warp core. I had
a marking prepared for the core ejection hatch, which I
conjecture is the center-most cargo door on the underside aft of
the secondary hull, but did not apply it at this time.
I made all of the markings for the Armstrong using Adobe
Illustrator. They were printed on self-adhesive clear label
paper. Theses are only temporary markings, but they look pretty
good on their own. When I can get proper waterslide decals
printed, I intend to battle damage the model and rename it USS
Buran, the Challenger Class ship that fell at Wolf 359.
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Photos
by Stephen L.
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