Scale: 1/35 - about 7.5" long assembled

Parts: Approx. 50 resin, brass and styrene.

Instructions: 1 page, pictorial

Decals: Waterslide (inkjet on coated paper); markings for one craft.

Molding Quality: 5 - Average, with plenty of cleanup required.

Detail: 8 - What's there is faithfully reproduced and reasonably sharp, though some is marred by casting flaws.

Accuracy: 9 - far superior to the ERTL kit.

MSRP: $80 US, available from Resin Ranger

Overall Rating: 8 - worth the effort if you want an accurate TOS shuttle on your shelf.

What You Get

The kit comes in a plastic bag closed tightly with a header card. All the smaller parts are safely enclosed in bags inside the two-piece hull, to help prevent breakage. The original was not overly detailed; the detail molded on the kit appears acceptable. Casting quality is typical for sci-fi garage kits. Most parts are pockmarket with small pits and bubbles, and several have prominent mold seams. Just about every one of the smaller pieces has a rough texture, which will be a challenge to deal with. Both the warp nacelles in my sample are warped, but that should be easily fixed with hot water and patience. Harder to fix will be the prominent mold seam on the parts, the mis-shapen warp "balls", and the grill details on the side. The latter two will almost certainly have to be replaced, in fact. The rear wall on the top half of the hull is curved inward at one corner - a problem with the master, it appears.

The instructions are generally adequate, but there are several ambiguous points where good references will be helpful. No painting or marking guide was supplied with this kit. No matter - between the Franz Joseph book and Starfleet Mechanics, there's plenty of references available.

Decals are provided for both the interior (consoles) and exterior markings. They appear to be printed with an inkjet on special paper, then overcoated with a carrier film. The bits I tried slid off the paper easily enough, and are not overly thin. Still, I think one would be better off using the exterior decals from the ERTL kit, or the old Webgames sheet for the 18" Enterprise if you can find it.

Assembly & Finish

Assembly appears straightforward. The biggest chore will be filling in all the bubbles and sanding down excess resin and bumps - and that's just tedious, not hard. Fit of the major parts appears to be fine. Perhaps the biggest challenge will be hiding the seam between top and bottom hull halves - on the inside. There is no seam visible on the TV show; if one elects to cut the door open and use clear window panes (they were shown open and closed at various times in the series), a false wall will need to be built up from 5 thou sheet. That is, of course, only if you can't live with a visible join there (I can). One nice extra is a recess is already provided for Lightsheet on the roof of the cabin. The space between the rear wall and the impulse engines is just big enough to take an LDX-5 driver to power the light.

Conclusions