Kit: No. 6326
Scale: approximately 1/1350
Manufacturer: AMT/Ertl, P.O. Box 500, Dyersville, IA 52040-0500, 800-553-4886
Price: $22
Comments: Injection molded, 39 parts, decals.
With the destruction of the Enterprise-D in “Star Trek: Generations,” it came as no surprise that Star Fleet would have a new Enterprise ready for the following movie, “Star Trek: First Contact.”
According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia, the Enterprise-E is a Sovereign-class ship slightly longer than the D, but narrower and not as tall. The Enterprise-E has a retro look with the return of the swept-back warp nacelles, but it has a more pointed saucer section. Also the saucer blends into the hull, lacking the prominent “neck” of earlier designs.
Like most kits in this line, AMT’s new Enterprise-E features a few large pieces, ideal for youngsters. At first the detail looked soft, but a coat of paint sharpened it. A large, well-molded clear sprue provides pieces for the warp nacelles, impulse engines, and main deflector. One large sheet of instructions provides six clear assembly diagrams on one side, and a detailed painting and decaling guide on the other.
I started my Enterprise by painting the insides of the clear parts. To reproduce the blue glow on the main warp engine parts (Nos. 301 and 302), I first airbrushed the edges with dark blue, and filled in the rest with light blue acrylic paint. The forward warp engine clear parts were first airbrushed with spots of yellow, then red was sprayed on. A similar technique was used on the impulse engine parts (305 and 306) and the main deflector (307). The instructions suggest painting the main deflector part light blue, but after watching the movie, I think yellow would be more accurate. I left off the main warp engine panels until painting was complete, but masked the other clear parts with Testor Para-Film and glued them in place.
The fit of the main saucer parts was good, requiring only a little filler. Before gluing together the warp engine nacelle halves, add 1 gram (about 1/4 oz.) of weight to the rear as shown in the instructions – this helps the finished model balance on the stand.
The fit of the engine nacelle halves is good, but removing the seam in the recessed part of the nose is difficult. Also, the rear parts (24) fit poorly, requiring delicate filling and sanding to avoid removing detail.
The locating pins on the hull halves interfered with the fit, so I removed them. The hull halves fit well, with only a little filler required around the main deflector housing (9). The rear panel (20) fit poorly and required most of the filling.
Most of the center seams on the hull are covered by other parts. I laid styrene strip over the small area on the bottom that wasn’t covered, eliminating sanding and avoiding damage to the hull detail. The warp engine pylons fit well to the hull.
The fit of the saucer section to the hull is poor. It’s supposed to be removable, but I glued it in place and filled the gaps with epoxy putty.
The three-gray paint scheme in the instructions is less complicated than the rectangular patchwork scheme shown on the box top (a photo of the movie model). Even this simplified scheme took a while to paint due to the complex masking required. When paint was dry, I gave the model a couple of coats of Future floor polish before decaling.
AMT provides a large, well-printed decal sheet. The markings appear accurate, but the name and registration numbers for the warp engines nacelles are too large. The decals are thick and glossy, and none of the solvents I tried had any effect on them. Fortunately, most of the decals go on flat surfaces. All of the escape-pod hatches are supplied as decals. I sealed the decals with another coat of Future, picked out the windows with white and black ink, then overcoated with Testor Dullcote.
My Enterprise-E took only about 15 hours to complete, with about half of the time building, and half painting and decaling. Beginners will find the kit easy to build, but difficult to paint.
According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia the “real” Enterprise-E is 680 meters long making this 19 1/2-inches-long model about 1/1350 scale (the box reports it as 1/1400 scale). It captures the look of the ship from the movie.
While the Enterprise-E survived in “First Contact,” I suspect that another starship named Enterprise will come along. As Capt. Picard said, “There are still an awful lot of letters left in the alphabet.”
– John Plzak