A Fury-ous Entry: The Official Starships Collection Issues 168 and 169

A second Suliban ship joins The Official Starships Collection with the spiky freighter arriving as issue 168.

 

The freighter is a really cool bit of modelwork overall. The strong metal core here works a treat to support what initially looks like a rather fragile structure but cleverly only two sets of the cargo spines - those to the sides - are plastic add-ons to the hull although on just an first observation you'd be very hard pressed to figure out which were metal and which were not.

With only a forked tail section to determine which way is the front, the Suliban Freighter has a similar structure for all of its spine pieces. Each is coloured with a two-tone brown paint scheme with some blue detailing at the edges and a very strong panel formation on each section. All 12 of the modules are identical with only the front and back pieces being slightly longer.

The spines do give a one-off look to this freighter but the central "body" is the most impressive element. Almost wrapped in the brown painted hull, the centre of the Suliban ship is a network of supporting struts to which the cargo elements are then attached. The detail on this black metalwork is just as good and clean as that on the spines and you can see each segmented piece that makes the whole. Even more impressive is that this detail isn't restricted to just the outside but you can see into the core of the freighter and there's even more to the metalwork than is immediately obvious.

What initially looks like a fairly repetitive structure is one that has a great deal of visual depth and detail that's certainly more than hull deep. Face palm however for the fact that some of the recesses in the hull don't line up with the blue window sections which are then lying just ahead of where they should be. In fact this is every single recess on the whole ship not just on the forward section.

Issue 168's magazine explores the purpose of the freighter and it's role within Suliban society before discussing the process of designing the geometric nature of the ship which is in keeping with the Suliban's established simplistic style. The magazine also talks about the return of the Tholians and the odd homage to Doctor Who through the time-bending Future Tense.

One of Star Trek's 90's recycled designs makes it into issue 169 with Kes' Shuttle from the Voyager sixth season story, Fury. A compact little design, the shuttle carries some fantastic weathering all over. It's a "proper" spaceship design with the sweeping cockpit leading back to those impressive twin engines. Eaglemoss have really gone to town on the look of this one so while the panelling and overall look is, of course, in line with the appearance of the ship in Fury, the dirt wash across the hull which follows the hull shape is spectacular.  Eaglemoss have really aged this one, caked it in grime with particular attention around the tail fin which is almost black. 

Strangely around the engine exhausts there appears to be a lack of dirt with the pair painted metallic and oddly looking as though they have just come from the production line. That might sound as if I’m dissing the shuttle while its actually because this is a great, aged finish for a starship and a look that we are rarely treated to as part of the Collection.

In general the smaller the ship, the better the scaling when it's converted and this one does feel very solidly constructed, nicely opposing the spindly design of the Suliban Freighter also sent out this week. The detail actually seems to be more vivid towards the back and also on the underside which is jam packed with panels and further dirt washing at all points. The twin engines under the wings are more weathered to the rear than the pair on the top so there's a full, wraparound completion to the model that we don't get often enough in this series. 

The plastic/metal split here is pretty well concealed through the contours of the shuttle with the engines as well as the recesses utilised to line the pieces up. It's a clever build and one that brings the parts together seamlessly and where there are join lines near the cockpit and to the back, they are easy to ignore since the majority are not in plain sight.

This time in the magazine we look over the shuttle but focus much more on the story of Fury since the craft is only onscreen for a matter of moments. 

The episode is recounted in extensive detail to be honest with some good screenshots and new CG of the ship alongside. Skip past the sprinkling of call-outs on the plan views and also note that it's becoming more frequent that the boxes to the right are devoid of any story factoids. We do have the coverage of just what the model turned up as five episodes of Voyager that's an eye-opener and one to look out for in future viewings.

Bryan Fuller's recollections of writing Fury are handed just two pages (one page if you take out all the pictures) and we're treated to four pages exploring David Lombardi's work on Fury as well as a reminder of some of his other influences on the series for Deep Space Nine and Voyager when the franchise began to embrace the use of CG more, bringing in the talents of Digital Muse.

I'm not picking a "winner" this month because, well, these two just didn't float my boat in any big respect. They're ok and that's it - and key because it probably tells you how we've just come to accept these models and because of the quality we've seen elsewhere these just end up middle of the road and easily forgettable. Had these been earlier in the series the bar would have been well set because they are, like it or not, actually well constructed and finished, Their build gives me zero niggles but that "Wow" factor has definitely passed by.

Read all our other reviews of The Official Starships Collection from issue ONE here.

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