AMT Romulan BOP

Modeling Subjects Science Fiction
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This is the R2 repop of the '70s AMT Romulan Bird of Prey. It was a bad kit back in it’s day and is still a bad kit. They did fix the nacelle caps and add the plasma weapon to the new release!

The fit of this kit is really, truly terrible. Large gaps show up wherever parts mate. The worst is the bottom hull, The gaps are as large as 1/8 in in some places.

I fixed the gaps and tried to address some of the more obnoxious errors.

First I added the bevel to the front of the hull, This was done with auto filler putty. I glued a section of .060 sheet styrene to the top of the hull to make the step, leaving it open in the back also allowed me to use putty to create the concave section on the top/rear hull. Lastly I cut a triangle section of the lower hull, and inverted it to create the bottom/rear concave section. Then the fun began! putty, sand, putty, sand, putty, sand, prime, putty,sand,putty,sand, etc……

I finally got an acceptable surface. The end color is light ghost grey. I did the clear nacelle caps in Tamiya clear yellow.

The decals are kind of a pain. Like all recent R2/AMT decals they tend to be very brittle and like to shatter. They did not respond well to Microsol or Microset, also once they were down they really did not want to move. I still have some touch up to do to fix some cracks. Then it will get a good coat of future to finish it up.

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Some more:

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Nice work !

I built that kit as a first release and feel your pain.

You have been very busy correcting the hull faults.

The Praetor would be pleased to have such as model.

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So, In short , you are telling me that the only good part if this model kit was the box. lol. I have had this conversation with a number of people. and it all seems the same, ertl, amt,polar lights, round 2 seems to have dropped the ball once again. good come back. nice build, wonderfull ship sll

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Looks good.

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To be honest, if it’s promoted as a “re-pop” from R2 of a previous kit, I expect maybe a few added details and corrected decals, but nothing to correct any fit issues and such from the original.

Great job with that kit! You have a lot more patience for puttying etc. than I do.

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Nicely done! [B] How big is the finished model? I’ve been wanting to pick up that kit, but haven’t seen it on the shelf lately.

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nice job enjoyed the pics.

Ron

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[:D] you’re not so far from the original quality from models used in original series

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That is a very nice build. Thank you for sharing.

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Very cool…as a life long Trekker, I love it!

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Thanks guys very much for the kind words!

After all the work I am happy with how it turned out.

Mark

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Looking great. That’s a big piece of decal, luckily the surface is relatively flat. The simplicity of the BoP is striking. Still have a micro machine toy of the ship somewhere.

I’ve only built the cloaked version of this ship and since it’s cloaked, it is not really visible to the naked eye but rest assured it is there.[:D]

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LOL…post a photo some time…[whstl]

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Really? You Too!!! I built the cloaked BOP too!

It’s not too hard to find the model though…with a 1/4 inch layer of dust outlining it.

I keep meaning to dust I just don’t get around to it.