For those who don't know me, I'm blown away with the Klingon, Federation wars time period and have done some extensive work on Perimeter Action ships as well as support vessels and now lately, older, lesser known Klingon vessels. What follows is the latest WIP on the Klingons side. A D5 Battle-cruiser. The D5-class battlecruiser was a type of starship introduced by the Klingon Empire in the 2120s that served for over a century and a half. Some of the first Klingon ships fitted with cloaking devices were D5 battlecruisers serving in the 23rd century. These ships appeared to have been in common use by the Klingon Defense Force at the time and were much more advanced than the United Earth Starfleet NX class vessels though the Human ships were capable of surviving battle for a short amount of time. (ENT episodes: "Judgment", "Divergence") They were armed with two large disruptor cannons located at the bottom of the central section of the main hull. These weapons were mounted on a type of turret platform which allowed the weapon to rotate and fire at enemy targets regardless of direction. I've been revamping my PA ships lately and on a lark, decided to look at the older Klingon ships. After a brief Google I came up with the same ol stuff, boring BOP's and D7's. Where's the talent, much less the creativity in redrawing the same Enterprise for the 5,000,000th time? But then I came across an Axanar D6 and some variations on the D5 and I was suddenly motivated to put a D5 together that would fit into the current Axanar realm. So here's the 1st, WIP image of the bridge. I'm starting to get excited about this so I'm planning a D5 bridge set as well.
For what it's worth, in the game Star Fleet Battles, the early Klingon battle cruisers were the D-4, later replaced by the D-6, which was very similar to the later D-7. The D-5 was a "war cruiser" designed for cheap, fast construction with limited peacetime capabilities (e.g. smaller crew, fewer science labs) created long after the D-7 became the primary ship in the Klingon fleet..
Ok. I like that. Thank you. I like the small crew, lone wolf scenarios. Vorg is overjoyed with his "given and forgotten" command. Granted a D5 from the council (to get rid of him), he has taken his command seriously and wages his wars single handed. He doesn't dream of D7's or council seats. To Vorg, peacetime is a waste of good war ships and diplomacy is best delivered from the back side of the biggest guns. He lives for the small skirmishes. Fast in, hit hard and fast out. He has become the thorn in the back end of his adversaries, both Klingon and other but he has also won himself honor and a name that is talked about in the council unbeknownst to him. He dreams of facing off with the Federation but hasn't yet.
Added some new detail to the nose section. Still working around the neck tube. I need to find some more images or prints of it to figure out how thick much less what it's purpose is other than supporting the bridge nose section.
I think I'm basically happy with the bridgehead section but I'm not happy with the neck. It needs adjusting. She has a slightly longer bridgehead section than the original because I think it needs more room to house the weapons, crew and bridge than the original has available. I'm also not happy with the gun hard point locations. They leave a huge, forward blind spot. Might be that the rear cannons make up for that. I'll have to look at that later.