The only New Orleans Class ship that ever appeared on-screen was the USS Kyushu (NCC-65491), which was in the Wolf 359 graveyard. It is seen floating in space, with the crap beat out of it, and battle-damaged seemingly beyond repair. However, it was a different enough design to make it distinctive, and it’s a nice addition to a fleet. Other known ships include the USS Renegade (NCC-63102), USS Rutledge (NCC-57295) and USS Thomas Paine (NCC-65530).

The new kit released by Gmeister/Kratok JV (or GKJV, as I’m going to shorten it for review purposes) is cast in smooth white resin. There are several pour stubs which will have to be carefully removed, including at the base of the interconnecting dorsal. There are also stubs on the front ends of the warp nacelles, and on the weapons pods. One nice feature is that the nacelle pylons are cast as a single piece. My kit included a second set of warp nacelles, but I’m not sure why.

The kit also includes full wallpaper decals, including the blue sections for the warp nacelles. The saucer sections are divided into left and right halves, to make application of the decals easier. One very nice feature is that separate names and registry numbers are provided for the four known ships in the class. These are applied over the top of the wallpaper decals. A set of optional decals is provided for the section behind the shuttle bay on top of the primary hull.

It looks like the completed kit will be about 6.25 inches long and 4.25 inches wide.

This is a nice kit, and one that I look forward to building sometime this year.

Review by: Rich “Lonewolf” Dula

Entry created: January 5, 2013