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Kobberman- Class Transport

By Jacques Duquet

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U.S.S. Koben NCC-8253
Kobberman -class Transport
Commissioned 2247 McKinley Station - Bentler Division

The Kobberman class vessels were constructed from damaged or surplus primary hulls of the Constitution class. The warp nacelles and cooling spars were attached at the joint were the Constitution class "neck" met the primary hull. This allowed the ship to retain a similar warp field characteristic of a constitution class vessel while acquiring the ability to use a class-1A Modular Attachment Support System. (M.A.S.S.)

The ships' primary mission is the bulk movement of necessary Starfleet materials, including hazardous material and the bulky infrastructure of a forward repair dock. They have a secondary mission of wartime troop ferrying and peacetime science and engineering support. They also may be used for Troop-Assault support and Convoy escort, and may use the new mobile field hospital containers to help in planetary crisis or war. The MASS system allows all of these missions to be met with a specific module for the task at hand.

The Model:

This is a Enterprise saucer, warp engines/struts, "neck" piece, and deflector dish from TOS 3 piece set with the Klingon D7 and Romulan Bird of Prey. The original model was in bad shape and was irrepairable. I received inspiration from a simple conversion in a Fine Scale Modeler article for a Fleet Tug. About the only difference is the MASS system and the arrangement of the warp engine spars.

I used a piece of copper tube to attach the deflector to the primary hull. The MASS system is two piece of Evergreen styrene glued together, cut to length, and small styrene bits for attachment points.

This is attached to the "neck" piece from the kit. The cargo container is a plastic tube from a paper roll for a calculator with the ends capped with styrene.

The ship was painted with Testors Model Master Acrylic Flat White. I then used a small brush and added the most prominent shadows (strut attachment, bridge...etc.) with a fine line of Testors acrylic black paint. Hand brushed Testors Flat Red to the warp engines and Flat Black for the cooling vents, rear area of the nacelles, the vents on the struts, and various windows on the saucer. The deflector dish is Testors silver.

The decals are from the set by Web Games for the Galaxy/Excelsior. Final finish was an Testors acrylic gloss coat.

Presented to a huge Trekkie friend of mine on his 25th birthday.





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