This design appeared in Eric Kristiansen’s original Jackill’s Star Fleet Reference Manual Volume 1 (released in 1992 and reissued in 2006) and also released in 2009 as part of the Jackill’s Starfleet Data Sheets A-Era Volume 1 Technical Readouts.

The Hatfield design is a strange merging of a Miranda/Reliant class primary hull with a Constitution/Enterprise class secondary hull, lowering the nacelles even with the secondary hull (pylons run horizontally across the spine of the ship), and adding a third nacelle on the upper centerline of the secondary hull, so that the third nacelle rests just below the level of the impulse engines.

The VA Miniatures kit of this design was cast in VA’s standard light tan resin. The kit’s seven parts were cleanly cast, and didn’t have any bubbles or voids.

One very nice feature of the kit is that it has a secondary hull with a wire reinforcement running straight through the warp nacelle pylons. All I had to do to place the warp nacelles was determine where the wire would connect to the nacelle, mark the location with a pencil, drill a small hole in the nacelle, and then attach it to the pylon.

The kit’s decal sheet didn’t include the nice Aztec patterning present on other decal sheets (Gizmotron’s in particular). I could have modified one of the Gizmotron sheets to fit, but I decided I didn’t feel like dealing with it. The decals supplied included: phaser banks, RCS thrusters, pylon flush vents, windows (primary hull, secondary hull, and connecting dorsal), impulse drive vents, and name and registry numbers.

I washed the kit parts in a solution of warm water and dish soap, then left the parts to air-dry overnight. Test-fitting revealed that I needed to sand the connecting dorsal and the third nacelle mount a little in order to get them to fit properly.

After I assembled the ship, I primed with light gray sandable acrylic auto primer, airbrushed with my pre-mixed Tamiya white/sky gray paint that I use for all TMP-era ships. Detail painting involved using a custom-mixed blue for the impulse deflection crystal and the navigational deflector, Model Master Aluminum for the upper and lower domes on the primary hull and the hangar bay doors, and Tamiya Sky Gray for the primary hull bay doors and upper hull details over the hangar bay.

After spraying on a couple coats of Future, I applied the decals. One more coat of Future to seal the decals, followed by a black acrylic wash to bring out some details, and a final top-coating with DullCote finished the ship.

I would classify this model as appropriate for the Intermediate level modeler, based on the number of resin parts and the alignment issues.

The third nacelle is a bit tricky to properly balance along the centerline of the ship’s spine, and also maintain the horizontal plane in relation to the port and starboard nacelles. The megaphaser mounts on the top of the primary hull are also difficult to align and the slightest bump moves them around before the super glue has a chance to fully set, even with accelerator.

This is a neat kit, and it makes a nice addition to my 1:2500 scale fleet. The completed kit is about 4.5 inches long, 2.25 inches wide, and 1.5 inches high.

Starboard Bow
Flyby - starboard side
Stern view - high
Stern view - lower angle
Bottom view

Review by: Rich "Lonewolf" Dula

Entry created: 05/31/09