Scale: 1:864 - about 3"/ 76 mm diameter

Parts: 4 styrene, plus styrene base, light kit and magnets

Instructions: 1 sheet, no painting guide

Decals: N/A

Molding Quality: 8 - 9 - no molding blemishes, but a fine structure all over the surface

Detail: 9 - mostly repeating patterns in a remarkable constant quality

Accuracy: 10 - no "original“ to compare because it is a design developed by Lightforce

MSRP: $9.50 USD (~$13.64 CAN/ € 7.83 EUR) available from the LightForce.

Overall Rating: 9-10 - highly recommended for those who like classic style saucers

Hear, hear...

Let me tell you one thing before I come to the review: I love "non-mainstream“-kits. Things you can`t find in every hobbyshop. Rare items. Kits which have their own story - like this one:

The E.V.E.-saucer (Exploration Vessel of Earth) made by Lightforce is a ship inspired by those classic icons like the JUPITER 2 or C-57-D. A saucer-shaped vessel, flown by the "earthlings“. Ok, in my eyes its obviously an alien flying saucer, but this is just my personal opinion and backstory...

What You Get

The kit contains just two parts for the ship, the upper and lower saucer half. Besides from that a little (but a bit uninspired) stand is there too, and the stuff that makes it really beautifull: a cleverly-designed lighting kit, made with a round cell battery, a LED-part with rotating lights (you can see the effect in a short video sequence I made), a magnet and some fixing parts.

The scale is given with 1:864 - I have no idea why, but that`s what the producer and designer is saying, so its canon. The result is a diameter of 76 mm.

The molding is amazing; the two saucer parts fits together very, very well (and they have to because the final assembly will only be made with the magnet!). The styrene is very strong and doesn`t tend to warp. There are only two areas that have to be sanded, where the molding gate (which has been removed for you) was connected.

There is a very slight structure visible all over the surface of the kit, it looks like a result of the molding process. But this is not a problem, in my opinion it gives the model a nice detailed look - a bit "organic“.

Building

To build this kit you`ll nothing else to do then to glue the lighting kit into the saucer halves. The instructions are easy to understand, even for absolute beginners. Let those parts dry well, and all that`s left to do is to put the two halves together. The magnet is very strong (I guess its one of those Neodymium-ones) and will hold the parts in place just like magic. To switch the light on and off you have to take the halves apart, turn the battery, and put the parts back together. Not an elegant way, but it works very well.

The included base is just a small tripod to put the model on. This doesn`t do justice to the nice kit, so I made a complete new one by my own from a printed background, a wire with a magnet and an acrylic block. The caption on the front says "Look who`s coming to dinner!“ (in german, there is the english one too, but only visible when you look at the model from the top). As I wrote above, in my eyes its an alien vessel, and it's coming to make a close encounter...

Painting

What brings this model to life is definitely the paintjob you will do. The styrene used is an unusual milky stuff, enabling the light to shine through just everywhere. You have to decide which areas should be opaque instead, painting these at least twice. The instructions tell nothing about how to paint, so it's your choice. Be creative! No one will have a reason to nitpick.

I have used metallic colors only (for the classic look), mostly from Games Workshop (Bolt Gun metal as the basecolor, Chainmail and Mithril silver for details). Two coats have been enough to block the light. I didn`t paint the "reactor core“ on the lower saucer and the feather-detail at the upper saucer. The light at the top side is only very subtle visible, but this is a very nice effect: You see that there is something, but you don`t recognize what exactly until you look closer.

Conclusion

This is a model I recommend to just everyone. It is clever designed, the price is more than fair, and even such electronic fools as I am can lit it without the smallest possibility to screw it up. So its a nice one for beginners, but also a nice rainy weekend project for those of us who are infected by the AMS (advanced modeler syndrom). Lightforce will offer more kits of the same design-line in the future, and I`m really looking forward to enlarge my UFO fleet with them.