by Todd Fargo

How could a Klingon ship be a “Hero” ship? Why, when it's used by the famous Captain James T. Kirk and the valiant crew of the Enterprise, of course. This was the case in the film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. The Klingon Bird of Prey was taken by Kirk and his crew after the destruction of the Enterprise, then flown to Vulcan to reunite Spock with his katra, his life essence. After being renamed the HMS Bounty by Dr McCoy, Kirk and crew headed back to Earth, only to find it under attack by a mysterious (and really ugly) alien probe. Only a journey back in time and the rescue of a pair of humpback whales saved the planet. Pretty heroic, huh.

The kit (purchased from the SSM store, of course) is from AMT/ERTL. The only modification to the kit itself is the addition of some styrene pieces to fill in the gap between the wings and the bottom of the ship body.

The base color is a specialty Rustoleum paint for farm equipment that matches John Deere green. Panels are painted randomly with Testors 1164 Flat Green, 1165 Flat Olive and 1103 Red. The ship was weathered using Liquitex acrylic paints, Black and Burnt Sienna. The name of the ship was painted by hand with a tiny brush on the port side, near the bottom, as shown in the movie. It is difficult to see, but it's the only way to tell that this is indeed the Bounty.

The model went together fairly quickly. As usual, the painting took much longer.

Image: Behind

Image: Port side

Image: Underneath