Galactic Proportions: USS Enterprise NCC-1701-J XL

 The largest Enterprise never to grace the screen works to a degree as an XL replica.

As with all the preceeding XLs, this started life in the regular size collection but is well known for its fragile nacelles and pylons. As a gigantic starship - that only appeared on a background display - the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-J could do with being an XXL to allow some of the details on the hull to really breath.

The largest ship to date to be sized up, the Enterprise-J model is beautiful but just seems to hit the mark because even this scale doesn't really suit it.

Formed almost entirely in metal, the J looks great and Eaglemoss have tried to push the envelope further with it, raising the window blockings and adding much more surface aztec detailing on the base layer of the elliptical primary hull. The centre marking does look like a sticker and perhaps cheapens the finish over all. Nor do all of the window markings line up with

One issue I have faced with mine is that the hammerhead piece that sweeps out to the front and carries the ship registry is loose ad wobbles a bit. I'm hoping this is limited to just this model and not the whole production run. There are also a couple of surface blemishes on that piece which are noticeable only because it's such a smooth section of the ship.

It's also really hard to properly judge the model versus the "actual" ship since it's only on a LCARS display but it feels as good a reproduction to Doug Drexler's concept as it could be. The usual images of the J do suggest it's darker but that's space for you, after all, it's black.

Tracing back along the hull, the J has a distinct spine that leads back to the warp field generator (blue dot) and then forks out to the warp engines. While the front of this model is sold and metal as indicated, the rear still looks incredibly fragile. The central supporting structure is fully connected into the primary hull but the pylons are still almost non-existent.

Their attachment to the equally threadbare engines is better than on the regular sized edition but the scale again doesn't seem to be super strong. But - the upper sections of the engines are actually a moulded part of the metal frame with translucent warp grilles and bussard collectors attached into them. 

This works 100 times better but it still all looks scarily haphazard. Yes, I know if it was scaled up more we would see that it's probably the chunkiest and most well constructed Enterprise ever but when you shrink it, not everything works perfectly.

However, frustrations of scale aside, this is decently finished aside from the piece of loose bodywork. I can live with that and a blob of glue will no doubt erase the problem completely. The design is revolutionary, very forward thinking although not enough to have detached nacelles (that's not a point to debate here!!!). Lined up with her predecessors you do lose something because of the variances in scale. 

Yes, there are inherent design similarities most directly between the NX-01 and the J and this is a canon Enterprise yet it still feels oddly - and perhaps should - out of place. I kind of like the design and Eaglemoss have done the ship a lot more justice and respect for choosing to upscale her. Maybe the only issue is that at full price there isn't a lot of ship there for your money as you would expect from a C or a D but that's the nature of the game I guess.

There's a good chunk in the magazine covering the design of the Universe Class starship. From initial sketches through to unused concepts, it's followed with a decent write up on Doug Drexler's ship designs. Drexler' work covered here but isn't limited to, the NX-01, Voyager, the Romulan Shuttle and Borg Tactical Cube. The interesting part here is the mix of sketches and early CG work plus some final images from Drexler's work that has been used in the Ships of the Line calendar.

The NCC-1701-J Special Issue is ok at best. Suitably bigger but for a design that was never actually onscreen it's  not one I would have said was a necessity. Aside from one slight build issue this is however a well-constructed replica yet not one of the finest in the XLs.

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