The USS Achernar was the lead ship of a sub-class of the Constitution, the class to which the original USS Enterprise belonged. The Achernar Class ships had updated engines and weapons, and had newly-designed warp nacelles. The ship also had a redesigned navigational deflector, which was later seen on the Enterprise Refit from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. One of the biggest advantages was that the ship was lighter in overall tonnage when compared to the previous designs. One major drawback, however, was that the class was slow, with a top speed of only Warp 6. First launched in 2256, the class was finally mothballed in the mid-2290's, when the last active ship, a training vessel, was retired.

The McDaniel’s Models kit is a mixture of vacuform and resin parts. Vacuform parts are provided for: the upper and lower primary hull, port and starboard secondary hull with integrated interconnecting dorsal, four (4) warp nacelle pylon halves, four (4) warp nacelle halves, and a sheet of styrene.

The resin parts include: navigational deflector, internal warp nacelle pylon support brace, shuttlebay hangar entrance, phaser mounts (25), warp nacelle front caps (2), front cap mounts (2), warp nacelle end caps (2), end cap mounts (2), bridge cap, planetary sensor dome, warp engine intercoolers (2), the “rib” on the top of the primary hull running back to the impulse deck, and the impulse engine deck. The parts are cast in beige resin and appear to be mostly free of flash.

A detailed 7-page instruction sheet is provided, and includes decal call-outs for locations. Also provided is a 2-page model instruction sheet with information about how to build vacuform kits.

The completed kit is in scale with the AMT/Ertl TOS Enterprise kit and measures about 16 inches long.

Review by: Rich “Lonewolf” Dula

Entry created: November 24, 2011