Federation Commander

I'm working on a kitbashed Klingon cruiser, and have (at least some initial) ideas about how to make each part (or buy it) except the boom section.

A simple piece of plastic tubing just seems too simple and kinda lame to me since the boom on all Klingon ships tapers. And I'm not thrilled with covering the thing with green stuff and sanding it down into a roughly conical shape, since that seems like A TON of work for such a small part.

Does anyone have any ideas?

If it was me (and it might be real soon), I'd buy some brass rod stock, chuck it into a Dremel and hold a file and/or sandpaper to it to get the taper I want. It would be better in a battery-powered (lower speed) Dremel. If the brass is too soft and bends under the pressure of the sanding, I would switch to steel pins.

Been there - done that.
The Dremel is what I used - but a multi-speed, electric Dremel set to low speed works even better than a battery operated one does.

I like the even-lower RPM's my battery-powered Dremel at low-speed delivers. The plug-in one is over-speed for a lot of delicate things like this.

I intend to do this method for a Romulan JayHawk's third engine. It will be easier to make a new one out of "lathed" brass rod than try to cut and attach one from a Snipe mini.

Thanks for the tips guys. Gotta find a Dremel now.

Then it's on to fabricating the rest of the new ship!

New question now:

Is there a good/better type of file to use for brass than the standard type that I've used for plastic and pewter to this point??

My probelm with the battery powered one was always the life of the battery. It never seems to last long enough to even shape a small piece of brass.

Maybe the newer ones (with the lithium-ion batteries) are better, but my old Dremel cordless was always weaker than a $5 box of wine...

Paul/OG - Without knowing what kind of file you are using, it's hard to say. If they are the standard "hobby file", they're steel and they should be fine for both brass and the usual plastic, etc.

Paul: I've got a selection of "hobby files" I got at the local Hobbytown USA. They didn't have a brand name - but they work just fine on brass, aluminum, epoxy, plastic , etc.

I think they were about $2.99 each and came in various shapes... i.e., round, half round, square, triangular, rectangular, and so on...

OK. I've got a small kit of 12 or so that I got from an ACE Hardware Hobby store. I'll give them a try and see what happens. Gotta get the brass rod now, since all I have at the moment is tubing.

Would plastic be worse for any specific reason? Not as forgiving and easy to flatten?

Plastic will have more tendency to sag, particularly when it heats up from being worked (if you do the Dremel thing). Even still, for a Klingon boom, that bulb on the end will try to make a plastic rod sag.

Nobody is intimidated by a saggy Klingon.

djdood wrote: Nobody is intimidated by a saggy Klingon.

Unless he's carrying a bat'leth and robbing a convenience store...