Sovereign Replicas Enterprise 1701-E 1/650th Scale



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Well troops and troopettes, back again and this time...it's a bit bigger than the last Enterprise !
It's Large...And That's Good Enough For Starters
Now i say large, how does 40" of starship grab ya ? Well after shelling out the best part of £600 it still grabs me very nicely indeed. Granted some of that cost was due to Parcelforce and the Customs & Excise taking thier cut (£95) but that's par for the course when you order things from outside the EU. A fact known to me so i ain't going to whinge about it...onward!
Right then, after securing my large box and running like the clappers for the hellhole, this is what i ended up with...
Several large bits of epoxy/fiberglass moulded doo-dads...For starters the warp nacelles.

The secondary hull parts.

A pair of resin cast pylons. With, i might add moulded in brass rod and a hollow conduit for the warp plasma...sorry, wiring for lighting.

The large bottom of the primary/sorta saucer section.

And the last of the big bits, the top of the afore mentioned sorta saucer section.

Have to note here, all the main parts came wrapped in plastic film binding them to foam boards to keep them flat and the box had enough ploy chips in to make a decent crash mat for a stuntman. Thoughtful packing like that makes a difference as to me, it not only shows consideration by the fella who supplies these rather outstanding bits o' work but also helps to proof it from the, at times, rather destructive tendancies of the various postal services around the world.

So it's all good and at least you can be reasonably certain that some of the gorilla like inhabitants of the postal services would be very hard pushed to damage the parts in this box. Don't get me wrong, they ain't all bad but some of them could use a lesson that parcels are for delivering, not using as a trampoline...rant over, onward my modeling muckers !
Some crisply cast small resin detail parts and a somewhat splendid fret of etched brass to finish of the bits and pieces dept.

A pack of documentation and decals finishes this wee bit, namely the very needy assembly instructions.
Not a lot of info but with the small amount of parts that's to be expected.
Concise and to the point instructions, so then we have three colour pages of decal placement instructions...

Yep did say three pages of decal placement instructions and here's why you need three...

See? i wasn't kidding. All about A4 size and beautifully done !.
First Impressions
Well now, here's the thing... Straight out of thre box it don't look much except big. Now here's where the medium it's moulded in can really put some people off because it's difficult to see any details. Granted the clear epoxy resin makes it an ideal candidate for them modelers who love to build lighting into thier models...which would be a modeler like me but can lead to a 'where's all the surface detail?' kinda thing.

Belive me though, the surface detailing is there. The things i'm talking mostly about here are the windows. They are there...all of them.





The surface detail is very sharp as well.



So...more than a few airbubbles but only a very few actually breaking the surface and all can be sorted out with a wee dab of filler and some careful work

Costly kit? you bet it is but if you have the dosh and want a quality item, this is it.

This is certainly NO kit for anyone who's never worked on this sorta thing before. Forget mating pins/holes, they do not really exist on this beastie. If your looking for perfection with no work other than straight assembly involved then spend thy hard earned cash elsewhere because this lass ain't for you.

This is certainly one for those with more than a few models under thier belt and not for the timid.

All in all i have no problem with this kit in production quality, from what i can tell this kit is accurate, no strike that, it's bloody accurate and then some. How it stacks up to the ArtAsylum toy or the small AMT/ERTL Sov class accuracy wise i have no idea as i have never seen either in the flesh so to speak.

All i can tell you is to my peepers, it's on the nail. Nuff said and the build will be comencing in earnest or at least commencing in the hellhole sometime soon. Keep thine eyes on the main home page for them updates but like i said, not really anytime soon as i have some other things to do, major boring stuff but still of a need to get it done 'fore i lay into this beauty.
If however, your one of them impatient types who would like to see what this girl looks when all dolled up proper, get thee hence to this page.
It's the fella who makes these kits and this is his build. While your at it, have poke about the rest of his site, this bloke knows his stuff for certain!
So you lot take care and i'll catch thee when the next update happeneth, go easy folks!



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