USS Tepren
I got the inspiration to make the USS Tepren from a modeling competition that was held on Starship Modeler. I wanted to enter it in, but I didn't have a good enough camera and I didn't finish it on time. I didn't think I'd win, but I wanted to throw this one in as mostly for the fun of it.
I got the design from the Deep Space Nine Technical Manual. It's the Constitution variant that is listed in the back of the book. I only had the side view, so I had to interpolate the design. I also didn't have a lot of parts to work with, so I didn't want to make it too complicated. I figured that the warp engines wouldn't be too far apart, so I eventually came out with this design.
It's 1/2500 scale and I made it from left over parts that came from the 3-Enterprise set that I used to make the USS Honshu. I got the name and registry bumber from left over decals too. Just like in the original series when they rearranged the decals to make the Constellation (NCC-1017). I didn't have any other decals to work with, so this is what came out. I don't think it turned out to bad though.
Not Too Bad
As it turns out, the design I made is actually pretty close to the model the drawing was based on. The warp engines were spaced about the same, and they connected just about the same too. I just lucked out, but it's nice to know that I was on the right track then I built it.
The painting on this one is pretty straight forward. A light gray base coat with light ghost gray, aggressor gray, and black details. The dirt look is done using artist pastels, which was something of a more advanced technique for me at the time. It's not easy to do right, and easy to mess up. It was one of the first times I tried it, but it turned out well here and makes the ship look like it's seen it's better days.
This was an easy little model, and a good test for me. Spare parts are a great way to experiment. I usually keep a bunch of spares laying around so I can either grab a useful part or make a model that's kicking around in my head. In fact, I don't know a modeler that doesn't have a stock of spares laying around.