Star Trek NX-01, Polar Lights, #4201 : good kit?

The Bandai kit can benefit greatly from upgrades, detail painting, and seam filling.  I added a flasher unit, several flashing position lights, LED running lights, additional scratchbuilt styrene and brass details, and hours of detail painting, shading, and washes.

It sounds like you did a lot of extra work!  Fantastic!  Do you have any pictures?  I applaud you for the extra work.  Things like that will make it unique & make it "your" kit.

a6m5zerosen wrote:

Perhaps you're one of those modelers who simply builds "out of the box"-I'm not.If you build any kit straight out of the box, with just glue, they'd all be identical, with no personality. For a beginning modeler it can be a great inspiration and learning tool, and is worth every penny.

That is true, for a psuedo-beginner who wants to do more, it can be a confidence builder.  And granted, I do tend to not be an out-of-the-box guy, but I have built plenty that are.  Sometimes it will be simply a different paint job & that's all that it takes for it to be "mine".  The Bandai kits, while I admit that they build up nice, all build up the same.  With the prepaint, they're all identical.  For me, it's just a very disturbing thought to spend so much money & time on a kit & then not be able to pick it out of a lineup with five others.

Perhaps you're one of those modelers who simply builds "out of the box"-I'm not.  If you build any kit straight out of the box, with just glue, they'd all be identical, with no personality. The Bandai kit can benefit greatly from upgrades, detail painting, and seam filling.  I added a flasher unit, several flashing position lights, LED running lights, additional scratchbuilt styrene and brass details, and hours of detail painting, shading, and washes.  Out of the box, it's a great kit, but can be a lot better, and is much better than the Polar Lights offering. For a beginning modeler it can be a great inspiration and learning tool, and is worth every penny.  The Bandai Enterprise-A and -E are fine kits as well, and the Voyager is outstanding.

a6m5zerosen wrote:

By far the best NX-01 kit out there is the Bandai version with the lights.

Yea, if you don't want anything original.  They all build up the exact same way & there's no personality of the builder in them.  It's a snap.  Literally.  My 7 year old daughter could build it, & she's already got a dozen kits on her shelf, a couple being glue kits.

By far the best NX-01 kit out there is the Bandai version with the lights.  It's not cheap, but builds up into a beautiful model with near perfect fit, all parts are prepainted, and it looks great on its stand all lit up.  The Bandai's are the coolest Trek models ever, and are a great inspiriation to those wanting to light up the bigger models.

Arts and crafts Hobby Lobby, the one that gets me in trouble every couple of weeks with their 40% off coupons.

Would that be the arts & crafts Hobby Lobby (http://www.hobbylobby.com/) or the RC Hobby Lobby (http://www.hobby-lobby.com/)?

ski4jeepin wrote:

If you're really interested in getting the 1/350 scale kit, shop around before plunking down your cash. If memory serves me (and it sometimes doesn't) culttvman.com was asking $99.00 on their site. I picked up the same kit about three months ago on clearance at Hobbly Lobby for $18.00! My local HobbyTown has one that's been sitting on their shelf for months with a price of $49.00. Just my .

Jup my Hobby Lobby had several just a couple of weeks ago too and they were all on clearance too. I picked one up because of the price and I don't even do those kinds of models. Good luck on your quest.

Just remember, there's two kits.  Cult doesn't have the 1/1000 scale kits, but he does have the 350s.  Here's a good rule of thumb- rectangle box=1/1000.  Square box=1/350.

$18.00!! Wow, that's quite a snag. I haven't even been able to find that kit around here. Even on eBay it's going for obnoxious prices...

If you're really interested in getting the 1/350 scale kit, shop around before plunking down your cash. If memory serves me (and it sometimes doesn't) culttvman.com was asking $99.00 on their site. I picked up the same kit about three months ago on clearance at Hobbly Lobby for $18.00! My local HobbyTown has one that's been sitting on their shelf for months with a price of $49.00. Just my .

If you're looking for one, try this site:

 

www.culttvman.com 

D'oh! Just missed it.

Cosmic J wrote:

That was a pretty good review. I might have to get one of these now. Are they still widely available?

Sadly, no.  PL went out of business (They were sold to RC2 by the owner) about four years ago, so all PL kits are getting rare.  I checked some of my local internet haunts, but they're out of stock.  Sometimes a hobbyshop will have them in stock, but your best bet nowdays is probably ebay.  I found one while just doing a search.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Polar-Lights-STAR-TREK-ENTERPRISE-NX-01-1-1000-OOP-MISB_W0QQitemZ360057936201QQihZ023QQcategoryZ49211QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

POS II:

If you're interested in something smaller, the 1/1000 kit measures out to about 10.5" long: http://www.starshipmodeler.com/trek/plnx_01.htm I have both kits, though I've only really delt with the 1/1000 kit.  Both are very nice kits, as is anything by Polar Lights.

That was a pretty good review. I might have to get one of these now. Are they still widely available?

I assume your talking about the 1/350 kit, which measures out to be about 2 feet long.  This review might be a better one:

http://www.starshipmodeler.com/trek/lj_nx01_preview.htm

 

If you're interested in something smaller, the 1/1000 kit measures out to about 10.5" long:

http://www.starshipmodeler.com/trek/plnx_01.htm

I have both kits, though I've only really delt with the 1/1000 kit.  Both are very nice kits, as is anything by Polar Lights.

Looks like a well liked kit. thanks!

 Scroll down to the NX-01 Reviews there.

 

Hope this helps 

 

 

 

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