After 125 days in construction, numerous bouts of near-insanity, and an overall feeling of satisfaction, I can report that my first exploration in the SciFi Genre - The NX-01 Enterprise - is complete and ready to leave Spacedock.
Let me start by giving a quick overview of my impressions of the Polar Lights kit.
The overall impression of this kit from the first day was one of awe. Everything about this kit was daunting to an armor modeler who had never dabbled in a SciFi subject. The finished model measures 25 inches long, 15 inches wide, and 5 inches tall (10 inches with the base).
The molding and sprue arrangements were good, but no more. This is not completely unexpected for a kit of this size. Several details are rather soft and some of the bigger parts had minor molding flaws. However, there were virtually no ejector pin marks and the seams were fairly easy to clean up.
Construction was straight forward with the instructions being very well presented and easy to follow (with one exception - more later). There is a very well published problem with a "twist" in the aft hull that is corrected by removing selected mounting pins during construction. I followed this correction and found that while the aft hull and engines are
close, there is still a slight twist remaining that puts the engines a tad out of parallel. If this is a big concern for some, additional corrections would need to be made.
There are a ton of clear parts in this kit and if you choose to build yours with lights, it will make an awesome display. I elected to build mine as a representation of the CGI ship from a distance and therefore painted over some of the clear parts.
Painting was the hardest part of this build. I did all of my own masking to simulate the Aztec pattern from the ship. Although tedious, I'm happy with the way the overall look came out.
The decals - all 418 of them! - were only fair at best. There is a problem with the register being off and in a few cases, the decals do not match up to the contours of the model as needed. Additonally, there are 4 decals that must be applied BEHIND the aft thrusters of the ship. If you are going to use these decals, you must leave the aft thrusters off until nearly the end of the build...needless to say, I did not use them.
For a mere $50.00 (and only $25.00 at a 50% off sale), this model is worth every penny. Athough extremely time-consuming, I would definitely recommend this model to anyone who wishes to tackle it.
The finished model is massive and I unforetunately do not have a proper photography area to do it justice. However, here are a few pictures:
First an overhead view:
Then a front view:
Looking over the saucer to the bridge:
A profile of the saucer section:
A profile look at the engines and rear:
An overhead view of the aft hull and saucer:
That's all for now, the NX-01 Enterprise:
Hope you all enjoy...