Notes about this kit.
1. It is made by Monsters in Motion.
2. It is resin casted. As such a person should not expect a perfect cast. However, this is my second copy of the kit. The first had some pretty serious flaws. The long of it is that MIM offered a return or exchange. If exchanged I'd have to wait for it. They decided that the mold needed fixing. I opted for the latter. The replacement is from the repaired mold.
3. MIM is providing me a 10% discount for my troubles. It is worth noting that MIM treated me well throughout this process.
First looks
Below: This is what you get. It includes a stand, top right. I did not get plastic for the windows. I don't know if they forgot to include it. The first kit came with a piece of clear stock. To be honest... I wouldn't have used it. In my opinion it was poor quality. Since I'd have to cut and fit it, I'd find some better plastic to do it with.
There is some cleanup work to do. Overall, it is not terrible.
On the first kit the nose of the ship came in two pieces. The very tip of it had to be shaped and attached. I was already planning on how I'd have to anchor it with pins. I was happily surprised that the replacement came in one piece. I have a little shaping to do, but the work should be minimal.
Below:
I am not too happy about how these two pieces fit. This is the best alignment that I can conjure up. This will take some careful sanding to bring those body lines into alignment. Filling work as well.
Below: This is the view from the bottom. You can see how you get a very nice view when the bulkhead is removed. It will be kind of odd to lift the dio over your head to see in. But... it is what it is. Btw. This is not my brainstorm idea. I came across another build that did this. I thought it was genius, and that person gets the credit. The rear bulkhead will be removable when so inclined.
The red arrows point to the cryosleep chambers. They are wrong in comparison to the actual prop, and useless for my purposes. The easiest way to tackle this is to remove them and fabricate my own. I will do a study of what material I should keep, and what should go. Before I bother though. I need to make sure that I have enough room to fit scaled humans in those spaces. I might scrap the idea if it is too small. I think it will be okay though.
The design of this kit is such that it offers serious customization options. Also, IMO--it is a decent representation of the movie prop. The cryochambers are wrong. But-- I think that they were shooting for a representation of them, and not a precise copy.
I am happy with it. It beats building one from scratch! I was considering that until I found this. To that point... There have been several kits available over the years from various sources. All of them are discontinued. This is the only kit available to buy.
Where do I go from here. I suppose I will start with some cleanup work. After that--tackle the windows and how I will anchor them without globs of glue being visible from the inside or out. Still muddling that. I will probably make some kind of frame.