Klingon D4 for ACTA Starfleet

Returning to my series I'm doing on my adaptions of the on-screen Klingon vessels to ACTA Starfleet this post covers the Klingon D4, as seen in Star Trek Enterprise. This ship was also part of the Four Years War as detailed by FASA. My take sees the ship as equipped with beam disruptor weapons and photon torpedoes.

Klingon K23 'Little Killer' from Studio Bergstrom & Woomera Shipyards

These just arrived as part of my pre-order. Designed by Woomera Shipyards and produced by Studio Bergstrom, these are the K23 'Little Killer' Escorts and they have just gone up on the Studio Bergstrom shop. I have to say, and you can see it for yourself from the photos, these are really nicely detailed miniatures.

This version of the ship is the 1:3125 scale miniature and will be used by me as a cruiser, probably designed for planetary assault and support. There is a 1:3788 scale version that I also intend to get that will fit the bill as an Escort vessel. Check out the level of detail on this baby!

MicroMachines original series Enterprise, K23, MicroMachines D7

Scale wise, as you can see from above and below, the 1:3125 scale model is almost as large as the MicroMachines original Enterprise and Klingon D7 toys and so will make a nice new shiny Klingon cruiser. Time to paint her up!

Another excellent product from Woomera and Bergstrom. Hat's off to you lads yet again!

Klingon D5 Tanker variant also from Shapeways

And here is the tanker variant of the Klingon D5 cruiser. You can also find her on Shapeways here.

Here are some more photos of it.

 

Klingon D5 from Shapeways

Finally finished painting up the D5's I purchased from Shapeways some time back. You can find this version of the model here on Shapeways. The ACTA Starfleet ship data card for this ship is almost done too, so I will post that soon. Here are some more photo's of the model.

Klingon Early Bird of Prey for ACTA Starfleet

Today's addition is the original Klingon Bird of Prey (Enterprise series era), also known simple as the Early Bird of Prey.

Gravitic Mines are a new weapon for ACTA Starfleet. These weapons are dropped directly behind the vessel during the Long Range Drone Attack Phase. Place a mine marker when a mine is dropped. It remains active for the entire game or until detonated. The mine becomes active when the laying ship has moved four or more inches away from the mine marker. Any enemy vessel entering a four inch (4") radius around the mine marker will suffer a mine attack of 3AD with the Devastating +1 and Multi-Hit 1D6 weapon special traits.

Design methodology: my thinking on the design of this vessel for ACTA Starfleet was based on the notion that it was the main Klingon combat vessel for the era where the Klingons first took to space with a warp capability. An aggressive warrior culture would build their vessels for war. As such this baby would have been able to contend against all comers of that era. Designs online show the vessel to have a number of disruptors. With the advent of ACTA Starfleet version 1.2, disruptors received an upgrade from the original Mongoose version. This gave the option to utilise the new version of the disruptor as the 'Heavy Disruptor' seen as a bolt on screen, and the older (Mongoose) version as the ship born beam weapons seen in the later series such as The Next Gen and DS9.

The inclusion of gravitic mines is in part a homage to DS9 episodes where the Klingons laid mines around conquered Cardassian planets. This behaviour would also have been fitting for the original series Klingons and also is a key feature of the Star Fleet Battles computer games. Dropping a mine with an enemy on your tail certainly made them change course and give you the chance to shake them off. So why not have that same option in ACTA Starfleet?

Klingon Ro’Tahr-class Bird of Prey for ACTA

Studio Bergstrom Praetor Pocket Destroyer

Following on from yesterday's post on my take on Klingon vessels (as seen on our TV screens) for ACTA Starfleet, today's entry looks at the little patrol vessel I have named the Ro'Tahr class Bird of Prey. This ship was never on our TV screens but its simply too cool not to include.

This sweet little mini comes from Studio Bergstrom and is a Praetor Pocket Destroyer.

Klingon Raptor-class Scout for ACTA Starfleet

Klingon Raptor-class Scout vessel

I thought it was high time that I got back to developing my take on the cinematic view on Star Trek vessels for A Call To Arms. ACTA Starfleet doesn't capture the design features of the later TV series and movies. For example, Klingon vessels do not use photon torpedoes and have phasers. However, in the TV shows and movies Klingon vessels come armed with photon torpedoes and utilise disruptors as a beam weapons (mostly) instead of phasers. Romulan vessels are armed with disruptors and plasma torpedoes, etc.

I want the TV/movie feel and so have been thinking how best to design my Klingon vessels with that design principle in mind.

As such, I plan to post a series of blog entries detailing my take on the Klingon vessels as seen on our television screens for A Call To Arms Starfleet. This is the first entry in an attempt to capture that style of vessel. See what you think.