Round 2 Klingon Bird of Prey WIP, Part 2

Not a lot of progress since last time, but here's a more detailed drawing of the landing pad drawn in AutoCAD. It's tiled, so to speak, and the cross-hatched areas will be grates over storm drains. (The weather is crappy on Qo'noS.) The triangular "tiles" are not quite forty feet on a side, if this is 1:350 scale.

Speaking of the kit's scale, it is given as 1:350. Nilo Rodis originally stated the length as 110m (about 360 ft). That would make assembled kit come out to a little over a foot long. Instead, it's a little over 10". Eh, close enough. This scale is the part of a long-running debate over with the problem of the KBoP's size. This debate is pretty thoroughly discussed at Ex Astris Scientia. To me, the original BoP in ST3 seemed like it should be smaller than that (it is a scout ship after all), and maybe  about the same length as a B-52, around 160 ft. Since it's fictional, there's no right answer, but I prefer fiction to make sense. There are windows in both the forward and rear hulls, so it's unlikely the crew can't move between them. It also seems unlikely the crew couldn't walk through the neck standing up. This makes the inside height of the neck a bare minimum of six feet. I measured the height of the kit's neck at a little under 3/8". At 1:350 scale, this is a little over 10 feet. Allowing up to 2 feet between the inner and outer walls, this works perfectly. To me the matter is settled: this kit is 1:350 scale and the Klingon Bird of Prey is about 110m long.* 


I printed the landing pad drawing out actual size and set the BoP on it in its state of temporary partial assembly to show the general idea of what it'll look like on the platform.












That's all till next time.


* This doesn't deal with the KBoPs of varying size problem. Here's my view on that: the various Star Trek production crews were under budget and scheduling pressure, and some of them didn't care a whit what the size was, so the same model shows up in a bunch of different sizes. End of story.
Because the KBoP appears in different sizes, some fans (and canon authorities) have concluded that there are several KBoP classes (which may include B'rel, K'vort, and Rotarran) of all different sizes but exactly the same shape. This is preposterous! It totally violates the principle, "Form follows function." It is nothing but a rear-guard attempt to force the special effects to make sense, but at the expense of the ships themselves making any sense.You may disagree, but if you do you are wrong!