Construction Log: Nova Hobbies 1/1400 Scale Negh’var

Back when I started building the K’vort class and the B’rel class birds of prey, I was doing so to take a break from all the tedious decals I was laying down on my TMP era Federation Frigates. But when I wrapped up the BOPs, I discovered that I wasn’t quite finished scratching the Klingon itch (sounds like a disease, doesn’t it?) So I decided to pull out ONE more green ship. This time I decided to go big, and for Klingon ships you can’t get much bigger than the old Nova Hobbies 1/1400 scale Negh’var resin kit. At about 19 inches in length, it dwarfs the small B’rel class scouts and even easily casts a strong shadow over the Vor’cha class cruiser. While I had built one for a friend back when the model was released, I never did get around to painting another up for my personal collection….until now.

The Neghvar model was released in early 2005. It was a beast of a kit, with a hollow case main hull, and parts to build the kit either as the Negh’var with its disruptor cannons or the future ship with the forward spire. The ship was roto-cast at Federation Models, and my copy had a fair number of divots and air pockets that had to be addressed. Also, as the model was nearly 15 years old, it lacked a fair amount of detail on the hull that we discovered later when studio model photos were published. Suffice it to say there was a fair amount of work that had to be done.

I landed on a base coat of Model Master Pale Green and Green Zinc Chromate, at about a 60/40% ratio. I had tried a few different colors first (the worst one being THIS abomination) and I felt like the Pale Green and GZC combo stayed within the colors I had chosen for the Birds of Prey, while being just different enough to offer some visual interest.

I continued with a lot of panel masking along the hull for the lighter and darker green colors. These were rattle can colors for the most part, which meant less control while spraying and longer drying times. But the colors looked very close to the filming miniature, so I was pretty happy.

Bottom panesl taking shape:

 

And some of the new detail parts getting added!

The bottom is pretty colorful, all things considered. More of the light green was added, and the yellow back panels were masked and airbrushed:

 

The guns got some color on them, and then I turned my attention to the sides of the ship. The edges are all pretty bare, and do well with some color with green airbrush feathers.

I finally got to the colors that really define the Negh’var – those awesome red panels. I duplicated these with decals, so the edges were nice and sharp.  I also went in with random color decal panels to give the ship some more visual interest.

I then turned my attention to some more missing and incorrect detail. There are two blister pods on the top of the wings that were not supplied with the kit – just a round cutout in the red panel to show where it was supposed to go. I started with that detail, and carved the blisters out of modeling foam and styrene. The supplied wingtip guns were incorrectly shaped and needed to be shaved down into an oblong pill shape instead of the round original form. And the kit supplies a long spire that is similar (but not accurate) to the AGT Future Klingon ship, but nothing is provided for the cut down weapon that the Negh’var sports. That needed a full scratchbuild.

And finally, the ship went into the grime barn for some heavy weathering. Klingons like their ships dirty, and the Negh’var was far to clean to let any self-respecting warrior take command. I weathered the ship using a combination of Tamiya Smoke airbrushed into corners and edges for shadows, followed by dark washes and umber orange washes. FInally, I broke out the Tamiya weathering powders for some extra streaking and panel coloring. The model was mounted on a stained and polyurethaned pine plaque with a very cool fan-designed Klingon trefoil symbol I found online that I mod-podge’d onto the pine.

This has been a pretty challenging but fun build. All told, I wound up modifying the base kit pretty significantly. I added missing panels and details just fore of the main superstructure on the top of the main hull, new details on the front and back faces of the “arms” spanning the wings, new rear panel detail on the back of the ship including a new shuttle bay door, corrected the detail surrounding the impulse engines, then scratch built new blister-pod guns on top of the wings, a new center disruptor in the forward notch area to replace the incorrect kit part, and I modified the kit parts for the wingtip disruptors to accurately represent the pill-shaped guns instead of the round ones provided. I used a couple pages worth of home-brew decals to super detail all the panel details, and I tried some new techniques that I’ve never had the stones to do, including airbrushed feathering panels and using oils for weathering. And finally (hopefully!) this will be the first model that has home-made photo-etch used on it as well. I’ll update the photos when that time comes, but for now….

….Heghlu’meH QaQ jajvam!