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Kitbashes: ones you love and hate

A Ruffian

Lieutenant
Red Shirt
This has probably been discussed quite a bit in the past, but anyway:
What are your favorite kitbashes, canon or non- canon, and in addition the ones you dislike?

I like the New Orleans class a lot. It looks like a mini Galaxy and a chunkier Constitution class, TNG style.
And assuming the Neo Constitution is a kitbash, I find that quite interesting too.

Also, if you want to, you can add your own Kitbashes you designed here. :)
 
Lots of people hate the DS9 frankenfleet ships. I think "hate" is a strong word, myself, and I personally kind of like a lot of them, despite the mixed scales being demonstrated in some of them. The Yeager is one of my favorites and the Buckner/Centaur seems most well-constructed of all of them.

I never really liked a lot of the Wolf 359 designs, though not technically kitbashes.

Still wondering what the saucer-ship was at the ship boneyard at Qualor II, though. :)
 
Still wondering what the saucer-ship was at the ship boneyard at Qualor II, though. :)

I was hoping that after the BoBW Blu-ray came out with behind-the-scenes footage of the filming of the kitbashes, that they would have made a similar Blu-ray for Unification, showcasing the Qualor II hulks. Alas, it was not to be.
 
I get why the TV shows have used quick kitbash models sometimes, but they've never looked as good as the ships that have been through a proper design process.


Except for the Constellation-class, that thing looks awesome.
 
To my eye, the Yeager was the kitbash that was worst. The shape almost worked, but underneath the saucer they kind of kept the nose section of the original Juday class, (I think that's what it was called), and to me that's what made it look like it was just two models glued together. Plus the saucer was a typical smooth Starfleet hull, while the Juday was heavily greebled, and they just didn't fit together. If they had made a new ship with that same basic shape but with more consistent styling, I think it might have looked pretty cool actually.
 
The Constellation has a nice overall shape, but WAY too many greeblies. In the Trek universe, I'm a fan of smoother ships without a lot of dressing. I think it was just nuts to glue a couple of Enterprise pylons and some robots on the hull, and those bigass lumps on the bottom look like a bad case of lipomae.
 
I've done a few that I love, and a few that I hate :).

I've said this before, but I think your work is so good that I wish Paramount would have contacted you to ask if they could film some of your models as background ships in episodes of TNG and DS9.

I get why the TV shows have used quick kitbash models sometimes, but they've never looked as good as the ships that have been through a proper design process.

The two instances in TNG and DS9 where they used kitbashes had two entirely different backgrounds.

For BoBW, the five models built from AMT kits were originally study models built by a professional model maker (Ed Miarecki) in an effort to convince the TNG producers that other filming models could be constructed using the Ent-D molds. The idea was that they wanted to stop using the TOS movie models as guest ships and start creating new ones more contemporary to the Ent-D, and these five studies would be the basis for new, more detailed shooting models. None of the studies were ever meant to actually be shown on screen, but when they needed some quick cheap models to battle-damage for BoBW, they had them lying around, so they used them.

For DS9, it was a completely different scenario. They had to show a battle-damaged fleet, and unlike BoBW, they had nothing lying around they could use, or any professional model makers to build pre-damaged filming models. So the art departments from DS9 and VOY just hastily threw together a bunch of model kit parts in out-of-scale configurations so that they didn't resemble ships they were already using. Unlike Miarecki's models, these kitbashes were not meant to be taken at all seriously and were never meant to be more than little blobs in the far background.

To my eye, the Yeager was the kitbash that was worst. The shape almost worked, but underneath the saucer they kind of kept the nose section of the original Juday class, (I think that's what it was called), and to me that's what made it look like it was just two models glued together. Plus the saucer was a typical smooth Starfleet hull, while the Juday was heavily greebled, and they just didn't fit together. If they had made a new ship with that same basic shape but with more consistent styling, I think it might have looked pretty cool actually.

I get the feeling that the Yeager was meant as an in-joke. It was first seen in the DS9 episode with Robert Picardo, so I think Gary Hutzel had a little fun by showing this ridiculous kitbash made from VOY ship parts to emphasize a VOY actor showing up on DS9.

The Constellation has a nice overall shape, but WAY too many greeblies. In the Trek universe, I'm a fan of smoother ships without a lot of dressing. I think it was just nuts to glue a couple of Enterprise pylons and some robots on the hull, and those bigass lumps on the bottom look like a bad case of lipomae.

Remember that Greg Jein was just basing his larger filming model on the smaller yellow kitbash Rick Sternbach made for TNG season 1. That small yellow model wasn't even originally supposed to be the Stargazer, but when Jein built his new model, he used it as a reference. There was never supposed to be a 'Constellation' class, as the Stargazer was supposed to be a reuse of the movie TMP Enterprise.
 
I've said this before, but I think your work is so good that I wish Paramount would have contacted you to ask if they could film some of your models as background ships in episodes of TNG and DS9.
*blush* Thank you, sir.
Gotta try to build some more - it's been 3 or 4 years since I've done one. I've got a HUGE stash of Trek kits and ran out of ideas. :lol:
 
Except for the Constellation-class, that thing looks awesome.

The Constellation has a nice overall shape, but WAY too many greeblies. In the Trek universe, I'm a fan of smoother ships without a lot of dressing. I think it was just nuts to glue a couple of Enterprise pylons and some robots on the hull, and those bigass lumps on the bottom look like a bad case of lipomae.
I'd have preferred if the Constellation class had used a Miranda class primary hull, with the vertical pylons and engines from the refit Enterprise, no extra greeblies. Don't know if there was a Reliant model kit available back in 1987 when the episode was created.

@Forbin, robots? Where are those on the filming miniature?
 
I need to dig up photos of the filming miniature (of which Ex Astris is oddly bereft), but yes, there’s a robot there - not sure if it’s an Optimus Prime part, some other Transformer, or a Shogun Warrior model kit part. The two big dome halves on the underside are from the Dark Nebula Empire “3-Legged Tank” kit from Space Battleship Yamato (Be Forever Yamato). There are some good photos from one of the auctions from a few years back.
 
I'd have preferred if the Constellation class had used a Miranda class primary hull, with the vertical pylons and engines from the refit Enterprise, no extra greeblies. Don't know if there was a Reliant model kit available back in 1987 when the episode was created.

@Forbin, robots? Where are those on the filming miniature?
IIRC, the Reliant kit wasn't released until 1994ish.
Yes, they used Gundam kit parts for greeblies. I think Greg Jein made it, but I may be wrong. Just plain silly, IMHO, but I guess even in the 80s they didn't think it would be so closely examined.
 
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