Scale: 1/650 (same as ERTL TOS Enterprise)

Parts: 8 vacuum-formed styrene parts, 26 resin parts

Instructions: General guide (2 page), Detailed assembly manual (5 page), and color decal placement/painting guide

Decals: Waterslide (inkjet printed - see review)

Molding Quality: 7 - Acceptable, both vac and resin

Detail: 6 - Acceptable in this scale

Accuracy: Not rated (see review)

MSRP: $35 USD (model) $8 (decals), available from McDaniel Models

Overall Rating: 8 - neat subject, should be another good introduction to vac kits

^ Decal sheet

What You Get

Inside the sturdy mailing carton, nestled in newsprint, were several sheets of vacuformed styrene, two small bags of resin bits, a separate bag with the decal sheet, and instructions. Again, lots of instructions.

The eight vacuformed parts make up the saucer (upper and lower halves, plus back plate), secondary hull and warp nacelle bodies. Also included is a slab of plastic to make tabs and gussets with which to support parts and increase the area available for mating them together. They are made of 80 thou styrene, and the improvement over the first generation kits is dramatic. Raised and engraved detail is better than the first model I reviewed - not as soft or as crooked overall. Panel lines and the deflector grid are scribed. These lines are still deep and wide, like on a Matchbox kit, but sharper than their first releases. The deflector grid on the saucer is more regular, but the panel lines on the warp nacelles are still not perfectly straight. It's hard to see without a coat of paint, but there is a definite texture to the plastic as well - I'm not sure how much of that will show up under a coat of paint, but the plastic is soft enough that a few minutes with 400 grit wet-n-dry will take care of that. (Thank the Master for sandy paper!)

The resin bits make up the bussard collectors, nacelle end caps and exterior detailing, support for the nacelle pylons, nav deflector, phaser banks and nav lights. The phaser banks and lights come on one big wafer, and need to be shaved off with a razor blade or similar cutting tool. All the rest are separate parts. Again, casting is pretty good - there are few noticeable pits, bubbles or other flaws, and only a small amount of flash. The bissard collectors and field restoration caps look to be casts of the ERTL 18" Enterprise parts, but after were glued together. They're nicely done - certainly look better than the ones on the 18"-er I did!

Once again, the decal sheet shines. The markings are sharp, perfectly registered, and the colors look right. Decal sheets are sold seaparately, available for any of the ships listed in the book, or you can get a custom-made sheet with a name and registry number you specify.

OK, it looks good in pieces, but are those pieces accurate? From the drawings I've seen, it looks good. It's a non-canon ship, so I certainly won't be getting bent out of shape if the nacelles are supposed to taper 1% over their lengths, but the kit parts don't.

Assembly & Finish

One needs to have a visible reference line around the parts, so after they are cut from the backing, one knows where to stop sanding. This can be done by drawing a line with pencil or marker around the base of the parts, or (as McDaniels suggest) by spraying the sheet with a primer coat of paint. Use a new No. 11 blade and lightly (and rep[eatedly) score around the base of the parts at about a 45 degree angle, and very shortly you can snap the parts from the backing. Then, it's just a matter of wet sanding on a flat surface down to where the line/paint begins.

The thicker styrene used in this kit will take a bit more effort to score, but it will definitely aid in building the kit - more surface for gluing surfaces together. It'll also make the model more sturdy, even without foam or other interior support.

Conclusions

McDaniels second release is a definite improvement in quality over their first, though the deep/wide panel lines are still a bit of a downer. It should not be too difficult to build - even if you've never built a vacuformed model before. The price is not too bad, especially considering what it would have cost to make this completely of resin. Recommended to those who have the interest, a few models under their belt, and plenty of patience. It should make a good introduction to building vacuformed kits. I