When “Star Trek” first hit television in the 1960s, I doubt even its creator, Gene Roddenberry, thought it would become the worldwide phenomena that is the Star Trek universe.
Now, Revell Germany, having received the European license to produce Star Trek kits, has released a new kit of the original series Enterprise NCC-1701. Molded in light gray plastic, the kit features engraved panel lines. This may cause a few purists to balk, as the original special-effects models did not have engraved lines; they were painted. But, if you wanted, you could easily fill in the lines.
There is a huge, clear sprue that provides windows for the primary and secondary hull as well as the usual Bussard collectors and domes — a real boon to those who light their models. A large decal sheet provides all of the markings for three ships: Constellation, Enterprise, and Potemkin.
The thought of masking all of those clear windows made me shudder, so I tried something a little different: I painted and decaled all of the parts before assembly, except for the warp engine nacelles, which had no windows. These I assembled first. After painting the insides of the inner Bussard collector (A30, A45) with clear orange and covering the ribs with Bare-Metal Foil, I trapped them between the halves of the warp engines. The seams fit well — only a little Mr. Surfacer 500 was needed to make them disappear.
For the main color of my Enterprise I followed Paul Newitt’s research, found on the Cult TV Man website (culttvman.com) and mixed Tamiya JN gray (XF-12) with 10 percent flat white. I covered the Bussard collectors with paper tubes made from Post-it notes. The ribbed area just behind the Bussard collectors is designated to be painted dark gray, but if you look at the decal diagrams you’ll see a decal for this.
I painted the rest of the main parts with my Enterprise-gray mix. Once dry, they were given a couple of coats of Pledge Future floor polish, then decaled.
The decals are the best I have ever found in a stock Trek kit; thin and opaque. They responded well to Micro Sol, settling into the recessed lines. The only decals I did not put on at this time were the ones that had to go over the seams of the secondary hull. Once the decals had dried, I shot a coat of Polly Scale clear flat and the decal film disappeared.
The instructions are unclear about whether to paint the clear window parts on the outside or the inside. It didn’t make much sense to me to paint the outside, so I went ahead and installed them on the hulls using a touch of Weld-On 3 at the corners to hold them in place. It is difficult to read the part numbers on the clear sprue, so take your time installing them. The black windows painted on the inside looked great, but the white ones show the thickness of the clear part. This looked OK to me, but you might want to try a sample first to see how they look and possibly paint the exterior of the clear parts instead.
Once the windows were painted, I assembled the primary and secondary hulls. Instructions are to add 90 grams (a little more than 3 oz.) to the rear of the secondary hull. I glued in lead fishing weights with 5-minute epoxy; there was just enough space for them without interfering with the warp-engine pylon assembly.
Once the secondary hull halves were joined, I carefully worked the seams, then repainted the damaged areas, being careful not to overspray the windows or decals. I then added the decals along the center line of the secondary hull.
The warp-engine pylon attachments to the warp nacelles needed to be thinned a bit with a file for a smooth fit. I attached the primary hull to the secondary hull using a small amount of super glue on the tabs on the support column. Once this set, I applied Weld-On 3 to the seams with a touch-and-flow applicator to add strength. I attached the warp engines to the secondary hull in similar fashion.
I painted the stand gloss black. When it had dried, I masked off the Starfleet emblem and shot that with SnJ gold. The nameplate decal for the stand is too big to fit as shown on the decal diagram; I turned it 90 degrees and it fit just fine.
I have to say that this is the best Star Trek kit I have ever built. The fit and engineering of the parts is excellent, and the decals are a dream. Compared with the published dimensions of the “real” ship, the kit is exactly 1/600 scale.
I spent about 23 hours building my Enterprise. Any beginner could probably build this kit, but it takes an experienced modeler to make it shine.
The biggest problem may be its availability. Since Revell Germany has only the European Star Trek license, the kit probably won’t be readily available in the United States.
Note: A version of this review appeared in the October 2012 FineScale Modeler.