Star Trek Danube Class, RUBICON

**silveroxide** · #1 07-18-2009, 07:50 PM

I downloaded this ship from Ninjatoes. I reworked the lines and made some changes to the layout but overall it stayed true to Ninjatoes schematics. I printed one sheet as a test page and found it to be too large, so I reduced it to 75%. Even at this size it is the length of a twelve inch ruler (30.5 cm). I started with the nose section and quickly found out that I should have constructed some formers/bulkheads to give it some rigidity. Even at 110lbs paper, it tended to buckle slightly while handling. I assumed that at this size is scaled to approximately 1/48th. There were some fit problems but none that could not be fixed.

I was hoping that someone had done this ship before and done a build thread. I could not find a build thread, so I started from the beginning and followed the numbered sequence on the parts. in some instance I jumped ahead on some parts but it all came together nicely. There are some more details to be done but the first pic is where I am now. I could leave it as is but I will add some more details as well as a stand.

So on with the show and enjoy

**silveroxide** · #2 07-18-2009, 10:15 PM

The Danube Class were named after famous rivers, like the Yangtze, Rio Grande, Shenandoah and so on. While looking at Star Command history, a whole mess of the Danube Class were destroyed in battle.

This ship if done to the original size, can be enhanced with interiors and internal lights. It is big enough for a lot of modifications. But it needs to be built of a heavier gauge if that is to be accomplished. this was a fast build of two days but the slow down now is that I want to put in some details of raised panels and hatches. Here are a few more pics.

You can see the bulkheads/formers to give strength. I should have strengthen the nose a little bit more. I went ahead of myself as usual but I did not want to start over. If you use a lighter weight paper, you will see the nose curve inward. To avoid this glue some heavy carton. posterboard to the nose section to avoid the inward curve.

On the front cockpit area, do not score the line but bend it gently to give the round edge instead of the hard edge made by scoring. Plus it will avoid any white lines from showing.

**Sumato** · #3 07-18-2009, 11:00 PM

I like this thing! I clearly remember it from several DS9 episodes. I think the current wave of tech-savy Star Trek designer/modelers is a welcome addition, and their enthusiasm is really helping our hobby grow.

**silveroxide** · #4 07-19-2009, 10:02 AM

More on the build. Make sure that the yellow part #8 has that curved fold in the middle and the folded out parts from #9 is attached to the inside of the box parts of #8.

**silveroxide** · #5 07-19-2009, 04:32 PM

Here is more on the build. Again I used stiffeners/bulkheads to give strength to the fuselage. One part #16, make sure the walls are 90% or the fuselage will warp. I had to compensate as you will see later on and had to cover the gap caused by the front wall being less than 90%.

In the rear cabin windows a light paper will lead to an inside curvature. Need to laminate this section first then glue the skin onto it. Again, here is another area I had to compensate for later in the build. No great problems. I hope that this build will help someone else when it comes time for them to build it.

The model is done but I have not yet found a build sequence to compare my build to.

**bf109** · #6 07-20-2009, 11:08 AM

looking great silveroxide , thanks for the build thread got to do 1 myself sometime

**redd9** · #7 07-20-2009, 11:11 AM

According to the Star Fleet tech manual what you have called side Lights/Steps are Phasers.

**silveroxide** · #8 07-20-2009, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redd9

According to the Star Fleet tech manual what you have called side Lights/Steps are Phasers.

OOPS!!! I got a case of hot feet. It just looked like a foot rest!:D:D:D:D

**silveroxide** · #9 07-20-2009, 08:07 PM

More on the build. On the warp nacelle cover wings, I placed a block of foam board at the critical corners and build it up with paper shims to the width of the rounded corner and top corner. This took away those pesky tabs and made it easier to skin the rounded edge and multi fold edges.

On the second pic, I finally found where part 30a and 30b went.

On pic 3 I had a big fit problem. to remedy this, I built it up with raised panels/crossbeams.

On pic 4, I cut a piece of foam board as a stiffner/support where the sub roof would be placed. With this in place, it made it easier to glue the roof in place with a section of support to put pressure on for gluing.

On pic 5 you see the areas that I need to remedy for the earlier mistake of the midsection. One area is in the rear and the other is in the forward mid section in dark grey. This areas will not be visible in the final phase. When I redid the lines I forgot to correct the star ship number, but not to worry, this will be covered up later with another skin wrap to cover the gap in the nacelles later on.

**redd9** · #10 07-21-2009, 05:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silveroxide

OOPS!!! I got a case of hot feet. It just looked like a foot rest!:D:D:D:D

Not to worry, When I built the ermmmm P*****c Kit I forgot to put them on!!!