More from the Yard: The Official Online Starships Collection Issues 13 and 14

Time for a second Romulan starship in the STO Collection with the RRW Aelahl. 

A more striking design than the Vastam, the Aelahl displays the speed, grace and agility that you would expect from the Romulans.

In their signature green, this advanced design is the first to come from the Republic following its formation after the destruction of Romulus. Most prominent is the fact that it resembles a squat and stretched D'Deridex Warbird with the continuation of the use of negative space around the elliptical hull shape and the distinctive beak at the nose.

The Aelahl does also have a distinct physical comparison to the White Star from Babylon 5 but that's probably more of a coincidence than anything else!

This is one of the most slender Romulan ships out there, almost streamlined from nose to tail. Eaglemoss have once more recreated the complex bodywork patterning to a tee on this vessel. The two tone scheme almost looks like dirty panels against clean from one angle while simultaneously highlighting the meticulous panel lines across the hull. 

The surface levels on the Aelahl are just as impressive to behold with sunken segments on the nose most prominent. Wisely again around that section the windows have been spot painted on after rather than any attempt to align then with recesses on the metal body. The forward section and the main structural spine here are metal with the surrounding wings in plastic. The joint lines are more noticable than on previous entries as is the discernible weight prominence towards the front. 

That said, the wings are solid as anything and there's no movement even from the lower, thinner strip that arcs into the underneath of the central ship body. On the underside of the upper arcing piece we do have two weapons pods symmetrically placed either side of the spine denoting the aggressive nature of this front line craft. If anything, the warp engines are the most flexible piece of the model puzzle here and they're not especially bendable. What the design size does mean is that some smaller and perhaps translucent engine detailing is lost but that's negligible given the clean reproduction of this starship.

Clearly a Romulan design, the Aelahl keeps a lot of the crumbled Empire's physical hallmarks in its design but has stepped a little into a new age. Flatter, more defendable and sized for effectiveness not for the dominant presence that the immense D'Deridex Class would have provided. These are lighter, faster and a strong signal that the Republic is prepared to defend itself and look damn good while doing it. 

The mini-mag in the box for issue 13 ticks your expectations with the in-universe history of the Aelahl Class and its evolution as part of the Republic Navy before heading into depth about the establishment of New Romulus which was a key part to the early set up and success of the game. Indeed there's a significant episode that sees you running around the colony a lot - and repeatedly from memory.

Another of the STO revamps brought back from Yard 22 is the Shran. Originally a Discovery design from the 22nd Century, STO has retooled and polished up the flying saucer homage into a 25th Century craft complete with all the Online whistles and bells.

I'm not one for the circular craft-of-all-trades because it looks like either it's missing pieces or it's a cast off Xindi design but once more Eaglemoss have done a cracking job of translating pixels into plastic and metal. Sporting the distinctive black and white STO Starfleet paintjob, the USS Shran NCC-91413 has to be the most compact design to leave a drawing board. Even the oversized warp nacelles are tucked into the saucer shape to maximise power in a small space.

The compact Shran does manage a few things within its circular impression. Notable straight off are the translucent bussard collectors to the front and  warp grilles at the back. The scale has doen a lot of favours and that's one of them. 

It also continues the standard light and dark/white and black trademark paint scheme of Federation ships from the game. Rather than going for the classic aztec though, the white hull has a finely speckled effect that adds a bit of grain and depth to the hull. To the front there's a patch of well executed black hull panelling which is continued right across both dorsal and ventral. 

Actually this is a pretty decent model to give it its dues. The decalling especially is crisply applied with the Starfleet pennants prominently striped down the inboard nacelles. There's also red trim around the bridge as well as more on the underside. 

As a full model all of the parts work really well on the Shran with the ventral portions of the ship looking as good if not better than the top. What you do see on the flipside (so to speak) are the warp field generators to the rear as well as some more inset panels for the warp engine. It is incredibly detailed in its execution and looking back over the pictures as well as the model itself there seems to be more and more I'm picking up on. Just goes to prove that a starship doesn't have to have pylons, two hulls and stringy engines to be a great looking piece of kit.

The lower hull is filled out with grilles, inset vents, phaser strips along with their bookend red decals, a rather psychedelic sensor array in the centre and more of that segmented black hull plating. Also well worth a good look around the edge of the saucer which not only has some reaction control thrusters marked out but manages to have a series of windows painted in (along with a black encircling stripe) to add to the sense of scale. 

I admit this is a class starship. The model perhaps is let down a fraction by the baby blue painted deflector dish but the smaller details that can be amplified on this ship because of its scale work wonders to enhance the product. Even the stand is a good fit into the base and holds the Shran steady from the back. 

Issue 14's magazine treads the standard waters of in-game use and design features of the Shran with the usual unprecedented array of photos and first hand info on bringing the ship to life for STO. Interestingly the in-game topic of this magazine is squadron tactics. This is a step away from the usual history lesson but does provide more of the explanations behind STO which ship fans (but not regular players) may benefit from in the long run.

Check out all our Online Starships posts HERE

You can find out more on the Star Trek Online Official Starships Collection by visiting the Hero Collector website HERE

Enjoyed this article? Why not like and share to spread the word!

Like our page on Facebook 

Follow us on Twitter