Scale: 1/1000 - about 5" long with a 7" wingspan in cruising mode (127mm x 179mm)

Parts: 13 resin (no stand).

Instructions: Drawings with English text

Decals: Waterslide for the 4 major markings

Molding Quality: 9 - only a few sub-dermal air bubbles

Detail: 10 - all the detail that could be packed into a model of this scale

Accuracy: 8 - but the flaws are hard to notice

MSRP: $49.95 USD (~$50.65 CAN/ € 36.27 EUR) available from Starship Modeler

Overall Rating: 9 - It's VERY good, and almost correct.

The Klingon Bird of Prey is easily one of the most recognizable and iconic ships from the Star Trek universe. Since its first appearance in Star Trek 3 over 20 years ago, it has become a fan favorite.

What You Get

The kit is comprised of 13 resin parts and a small decal sheet.

The engineering on this kit is amazing. The kit parts are designed exceptionally well and can be painted and finished prior to assembly. The part fit is so precise that it’s almost the equivalent of a resin snap kit. As proof for this review, the kit is friction fit in all of the photos, holding itself together with no glue or tape. The part fit is that good! This is something rarely seen in a full resin kit.

Additionally, this kit comes with 2 pair of wing binders so you can build the wings in the relatively straight across cruising configuration or the down attack configuration. It wouldn’t take much for an enterprising modeler to trim down the wing binders and scratch build the landing legs for a wing up/landing version.

Detail on all of the parts is very crisp and clean with only the smallest about of thin flashing to trim. The master was CG with additional details added after clean up. The quality in the detail really shows through. The ability to assemble the kit after the parts are painted and finished really comes in handy on a design with so much painted detailing and weathering to reproduce.

The casting at first appeared flawless, but upon closer inspection revealed a tiny 1mm sub-dermal air bubble just below the surface, one each on six of the 13 parts. Nothing a little Mr. Dissolve Putty and a toothpick couldn’t fix in minutes.

Accuracy is really the only place this kits takes a hit. The vast majority of the major detail is reproduced perfectly for this scale. However, there are a few notable areas that stand out. First off the little segmented circular ring that glows red around the outside of the torpedo tube in the movie is missing. The Double square ‘zipper’ pattern that separates the top and bottom of the aft hull should continue on the rear of the hull and bisect the engine piece. And lastly, the feather pattern on at least the top of the wing does not match the studio model.

How much this impacts your decision to purchase really depends on how much of a purist you are. The ring around the photon tube could be added with some careful painting. The missing ‘zipper’ pattern could be added with styrene strip. And to be honest I really didn’t notice the feather pattern didn’t match the studio model at all until I pull reference photos of the studio model to start mapping out what shade of green went on what feather. So depending upon how picky you are this could be considered the SciFi modeler equivalent of rivet counting.

The decals cover the Klingon text on the rear top trailing edge of the wings and the symbols just above the outboard side of the guns on the tips of the wings.

Conclusions

A kit of this quality is a great buy at the $50 MSRP price. With Round 2’s 1/1000 refit Enterprise out now, this kit will make an excellent in scale companion kit. The kit did take a hit on accuracy, but for me it was hardly a show stopper given the quality and superb modeler friendly engineering behind it. I look forward to completing my pair of kits and do not regret acquiring them.

Highly recommended.

Many thanks to Duncan's wallet for providing the review sample. Manufacturers and retailers, interested in getting your wares reviewed and publicized on a site averaging 6000+ readers a day? Contact us!