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Home > Star Trek > 1/1000 > USS Enterprise - NCC-1701 Refit

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USS Enterprise - NCC-1701 Refit

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Category: Star Trek
Subcategory: 1/1000

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Manufacturer:Round 2
Medium: Styrene
Parts: 25
Status: Available
Release Date: 2010
Skill Level: Beginner
With the success of the 1/1000 scale Star Trek kits from Polar Lights, Round2 (the successor to Polar Lights) has seen fit to continue with this scale in the new 1K Refit Enterprise. This iconic ship, as seen in the Star Trek films TMP to VI, is arguably one of the most beautiful sci-fi ship designs of all time.

This new kit has all the hallmarks of a Polar Lights kit. Everything is fantastically well designed and goes together like a dream. It is designed as a “snap” kit, and it does snap together very solidly, but advanced modelers will still probably want to put a few spots of glue in places to help avoid some of the gaps that are almost unavoidable with most snap kits. Unique to this kit is the included sheet of Aztec decals. These decals cover nearly the entire ship and provide the hull pattern seen in close-up shots of the ship in the movies. Some modelers prefer to paint the Aztec on to the ship to keep the effect very subtle, but many (including me) just don’t have the painting skill to make it work right and these decals are a Godsend for us.

I built the entire ship (minus the clear parts) and then gave it a spray of pearl white as a base coat. I sprayed the clear parts for the deflector and nacelle grills with a clear blue at the same time and when everything was dry, final assembly happened. This, I realized latter, was a mistake. There are a few pieces that really need to be painted before assembly; most notably, the smaller parts for the nacelles. The black for the front bits that are sandwiched between the main two halves of the nacelles and the coppery-bronze chiller grills on the forward sides are a major pain to try to paint after assembly.

Once I began putting the decals on the ship, I realized that they too were designed to go on before final assembly. Some decals just will not fit right if you try to put them on after building the ship. The biggest problem with this will be the area where the saucer meets the neck, and where the neck meets the secondary hull. A lot of careful trimming of the decals will be needed to make them look right.

If I were to build a second 1K Refit, I would work more in sub-assemblies than with a complete ship. Building the saucer, neck, secondary hull with pylons and the nacelles separately will allow for the decals to go on much cleaner and easier and give a cleaner look when the parts are finally assembled. I would also consider lighting the kit were I to build another one. Were the inside coated with a reflective paint or foil, a few strategically placed LEDs could do the job nicely. The most difficult part would be the many windows that are not molded into the ship, but only represented on the decals. Scanning those decals and printing them on paper to use as a guide to drill out the plastic with a pin-vice would probably be the best way to do it.

One odd omission from this kit is the letter “A” for the ship as seen starting in ST IV: The Voyage Home. With all the various options for building in past kits, the relatively few decals necessary to build the Refit as the Enterprise 1701–A are a strange thing to leave out. I understand from those at Round2 that the decision was a monetary one as it would have required another decal sheet and that would have pushed the kit cost above the companies target. Still, it is a minor thing that has already been corrected with aftermarket decal sheets, and the kit is otherwise fantastic and well worth every dime.

Review by: Chad "Cygaramond" Fopma

Entry created: March 25, 2010
Comments: 1 | Rating (1-5): | MSRP: $24.99

Product Comments
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Rich Dula - 01:13 15/06/2010
I agree with pretty much all of what Chad has said about this kit. I built mine in subassemblies, but I attached the nacelles to the pylons and it was a bear to apply some of the decals. Next time I will be leaving the nacelles off until after the decals are applied.

There is one glaring error on the decal sheet. On the Saucer Bottom - Step 1B, decals 33 and 35 are shown in reversed positions. Decal 35, the Rec Deck, should be on the right side of the impulse deck vents, not on the left side as shown in the instructions. When viewing the ship from aft, the Rec Deck is on the Starboard side. The instructions have them on the Port side.

One other thing. On the bottom of the saucer section, leave off the lower dome (part 4) until after the decals are applied. This makes it easier to put the decal wedges in place.

This is a very nice kit, and I have four of them in my stockpile so I can build other variants. I need to buy some of the supplemental decal sheets from Starship Modeler, including the "-A" sheet and the TWOK battle damage sheet.

I highly recommend this kit as an addition to your 1:1000 scale fleet.

 

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