Three Faction Fleet: Updating Attack Wing Reviews

Deep in the depths of the internet you can still hear them... the lost expansion packs...the last ones roaming free in the wild...

Problem is that most of those aren't exactly super collectible and if you do want one of those rarer than rocking horse doo doo ones you'll be waiting for a delivery from Australia.

Anyway, I've caught three more to fill out the collection this month and all of them are fairly ancient in Attack Wing terms.

The classic Romulan Bird-of-Prey from Balance of Terror (plus the remastered The Enterprise Incident) is a real gem and one I’ve wanted for a while to be able to run TOS themed games with more than just Federation and Klingon ships.

The model itself retains the simple grey paint job of the Wah Chang design plus that stunning bird decal across the bottom. This might be basic, but it’s a nice model that works because there aren’t any complex details. 

So to the cards and the IRW Gal Gath'Thong sports two attack points, two for defence, three hull and two shield points placing as quite a fragile ship if you play it against any of the 24th Century armada. Equipped with Evade, Target Lock, Cloak and Sensor Echo Actions, the Bird of Prey can also add up to two Crew and two Weapon slots. On big benefit here is the ability to fire Plasma Torpedoes while cloaked without the need for a Target Lock. This saves an Action to use for something else (I'd suggest Evade!) while also packing a four dice attack which we will come to shortly.

Movement wise she's not too difficult to swing about with a full set of turns and banks at speed two and three plus a Come About (red) manoeuvre at speed three. Top speed maxes out at fur and you can also bank at speed one. Given the cloaking ability and the use of the torpedoes I think this is well balanced.

If you choose the generic version you'll lose the Unique Action as well as a Shield point and a Weapon slot for a cost of 16 points versus 18 for the named ship.

There's only one named Captain with this expansion in the form of Marc Lenard's Romulan Commander. Costing five points, he does offer up an unusual two Elite Action slots as part of his seven Skill. As an Action the Romulan Commander will allow you to attack first but with the charge of an Auxiliary Power Token. Very costly when it comes to moves since you'll have to perform something at speed one or a straight two to get that removed.

Plasma Torpedoes can be target locked to a target if you don't have the Unique Action of the Gal Gath'Thong and at ranges one and two this can hit an opponent with four attack dice. This costs three points as does Nuclear Warhead. 

The expectation would be for this to provide a kick-ass dice roll of five but instead it launches the Minefield token at the end of the Activation Phase and any ship that runs into it rolls three attack dice and receives Damage or Critical Damage as normal without defending. Brutal and also an ongoing effect, I would want to have both this and the Torpedoes aboard the Bird of Prey given their ferocity and ease of use.

As for Crew the Centurion is oddly cheaper (four points) than the Romulan Officer (five points). However his ability is only to be discarded if another Crew or the Captain were to be removed from play - effectively a sacrificial card if you have something better available not to lose!

The Romulan Officer is also a discard and adds two die to your attack if it is begun while cloaked. A great card to use in conjunction with the Gal Gath'Thong itself and the Torpedoes card however it removes any chance to defend so it might be a final, big offensive move if you do.

As there are two Elite Action slots with the Romulan Commander there are also two Elite Action cards in the pack. The five point Double Back (not a reference to ZZ Top's single) Allows players to perform a one or two reverse move after performing a Sensor Echo at the cost of discarding it. This is a neat chance to get out of trouble especially if you're planning on a big attack.

Decoy (four points) gets discarded along with ne Weapon or Tech upgrade to force an opponent to roll three less attack dice in the round but it has to be played before any rolls have been made. I expected the discard here to be a Crew card which would bring the Centurion into play so having a Tech option on there is odd since this pack doesn't have one. 

The Destroy the Outposts mission recreates the classic Balance of Terror story with the Romulans tasked with destroying two Federation Neutral Zone outposts while all the opposing player needs to do is destroy the Bird of Play. It's a solid one versus one scenario that will really test the pack and see if you can outwit a Starfleet ship.

Now to our second arrival and the Bajoran Interceptor Five. First seen in the capable hands of Kira Nerys in DS9's The Siege, the small fighter is a tiny but well painted up miniature with the panelling distinctly marked up. It's not super pretty however the result and the work on this one are decent enough given the size of the playing piece. In fact it's easily the best looking Bajoran item in the game but that's not saying a lot.

Rocking a less than boot shaking 16 point cost, the Interceptor boasts two Attack, three Defence, three Hull...and no Shields so don't expect to have this one around too long in a game. Operating with the Evade, Target Lock, Scan and Battle Station Actions, the ship also has slots for one Weapon, Crew and Tech upgrade. As for its Unique Action, it's one that will only come into play in very, very specific circumstances. The Interceptor takes no damage overlapping planets, obstacles or ship bases so a great ship to use in tight skirmishes and asteroid fields but not necessarily in lots of open space. Maybe with the Bajorans as a subset of the Federation now, this would be ideal to use as a minor support ship.

The generic version loses no Shields but doesn't have Scan or a Crew slot - however it still costs 16 points which makes using the generic version pretty pointless unless you're equipping a fleet of these things.

Nor is it the fastest craft you'll play but it makes up for that with stunning manoeuvrability at speeds one and two with no penalty for Come Abouts. At speed three it can only bank and move forwards so don't expect to get out of anything sticky too quickly.

Building on the close combat and obstacle-friendly nature of the Interceptor, Hazar would be your first Captain option (four points). Skilled to seven and with an Elite Action slot, he forces enemy ships to attack with one less die if your ship is within range one of a planet or an obstacle. This mirrors the Interceptor's better manoeuvrability in atmosphere where it can strike back harder with less consequences.   Option two for Captain is the two point Lenaris Holem. With a skill level of three, Lenaris allows you to re-roll a defence die if you have an Evade token in play. Brilliantly this again builds on the smaller, nippier nature of the Interceptor and makes this pack one that may well be very underrated and under estimated. 

Fitting into the tight second seat for the Bajoran ship can be either Neela (five points) or Anara (three points). Neela is the big attack card of the set. Targeting a ship at range one to three, three dice are rolled and if at least one Critical Damage comes up then the opposing craft receives that result. If the attack works the card is discarded but if not then it's only disabled allowing an odd second shot!

Anara does shore up the defences of this ship. Remember that it's got minimal hull to begin with and ZERO Shields so her ability to repair a Hull point is nigh-on essential to the longevity of the Interceptor. Given it's more about moves, there's only one Weapon upgrade with Phaser Strike which increases your firepower to 3 attack dice. 

It also acts as though your Captain is skilled to ten and works up to range three. Fortunately it's a card which is disabled after use and so can be reused repeatedly. It can only be attached to a ship with a Hull of three or less and costs four points to install. If it's not the Interceptor you fit it to, Phaser Strike costs an additional five points (that's a silly nine!!!)

Over with the Tech, Maneuverability is a hefty five points to purchase which is just to pay off the amount of text on the card. It also explains why there's an additional move template in the pack. If you reveal a one sharp left or right or a Come About, you can implement the new move but it is treated as a Red Maneuver although if it overlaps a planet there are no penalties and you GAIN a die in defence. As with Phaser Strike, the cost is an extra five points if you fit this to anything but an Interceptor. However , what a move to pull off and one that has no downside or need to be disabled or discarded!

Warp Drive Refit is, to be fair, almost as good and costs two points in comparison. If you reveal a three maneuver you can up it to a four. Unsurprisingly it can only be purchased for a ship that doesn't have a four as one of its speeds. 

Finally there's the Elite Action, Militia (three points). A discard, it allows you to place a Battle Station token into play even if the ship already has one in play at the start of Combat. If it's on a Bajoran ship then that craft gains an extra two attack dice on the first attack using this ability. 

The Interceptor pack abilities are surprisingly good and certainly make it useful in close combat and scenarios where obstacles and planets come into play as it will be unheeded by these items. 

As for the mission, Blockade recreates the Bajoran face off with the Romulans as featured in DS9's seventh season Shadows and Symbols. Each player has a maximum point spend of 100 while the Bajorans cannot field a ship with a Hull of greater than three. The Romulan player is tasked with placing three mission tokens (representing Launch Sequencers) onto the Bajoran moon. The Bajorans cannot attack until one of the mission tokens from the Romulans is placed on the moon. Nor can the Romulans attack until they are themselves attacked.

To win, the Bajorans must prevent three sequencers from being placed while the Romulans win by completing the task and then exiting the playing field via their starting spot. Sound easy? You've got eight rounds to do it in!

Third and last for this time is the D'Kyr Vulcan starship. After first acquiring the Ni'Var and then the Vulcan Faction Pack, I've developed quite a liking for this group. The D'Kyr itself is a decent kick-ass ship attacking with three dice, defending with one with five Hull points and four Shields for a cost of 26 points. Now in my opinion that's a decent base to start with only increased by the fact that if you attack from range three with this ship you can add an extra attack die. Why would you not want something that offers exceptional long range?

Coming stocked with the standard Evade, Battle Stations, Target Lock and Scan, the D'Kyr can also include two Tech slots plus a Weapon and a Crew upgrade. This is one decent pack just from the off!

The generic version loses a Shield, a Tech upgrade and the Unique Action for only a two point reduction at 24 points. Where she does fall a little is in the movement ability. Maxing out at speed four, the D'Kyr suffers from red hard left and rights at speeds two and three although it does offer full banking at these speeds plus a one reverse (although that's also red).

The shallow banking can be a challenge if you're looking to spin for a quick attack meaning your aft will be vulnerable as there is no rear firing arc. 

Soval is your top pick for Captain with a skill of seven and costing four points. He can also, as you might expect, field an Elite Action. Soval's ability lets him remove a Scan or Battle Station token from an enemy ship at range one although given the weapon abilities on the D'Kyr it might be wise to use him on another ship in your fleet - maybe a small support ship to cause havoc amongst the lines. This action will incur an Auxiliary Power Token when used however, potentially stilting your moves even more to regain the Action ability.

Tavek is a dull "Add a Crew upgrade" card but only costs two points with a skill of three so nothing much to see here. For your Crew, T'Pol will let you reroll up to two defence die if you have a Scan token in play that will certainly slow down any damage. and costs a mere three points. Muroc is little more expensive at four points and is discarded to activate. 

Targetting a ship at range one or two players roll two attack dice and for every Damage or Critical Damage result you can disable an active Shield and if it's a Cloaked ship then a Damage result flips its token. 

As for Weapons, the D'Kyr comes laden with Photonic Weapon for three points which increases the ship's attack to four at ranges two and three. Acting like a Photon Torpedo, it does require the spending of a Target Lock but can be fired forward or back and even provides a re-roll of one blank result. That's a lot more flexibility than Torpedoes ever provide and it can be reused. Aft Particle Beam is significantly cheaper at just one point and allows for a rear firing attack with three dice. It works at any range and doesn't require the use of a Target Lock which I think makes this a brilliant addition to any Vulcan craft capable of firing backwards.

On the Tech front, the five point Sensor Grid can be discarded to target a friendly ship within range three and both you and the target ship receive a Scan and an Auxiliary Power Token. But what's the point? Well, every cloaked ship within range one or two of your ship must then flip its cloak to the red side, effectively making them a much easier target. Another must have card but only if Cloak is a feature of your opponent!

Auxiliary Control Room costs three points and would work nicely with Sensor Grid seeing as it can be disabled to remove an Auxiliary Power Token at any time (those three key words).  Not much more to say on that as it's useful to keep you in the action and able to perform, well, Actions.

Finally the sole Elite Action is Vulcan High Command. Pumping an extra two Upgrade slots onto your ship (Crew or Tech; your call), it can only be equipped to a Vulcan Captain on a Vulcan ship. If the captain is lost then you have to discard any excess upgrades until it comes within the restrictions of the ship itself. Honest opinion on this; I wouldn't bother. Five points is a lot to add slots on when you're playing points capped games. If you were maxing out a ship then yes, but it's rare that situation would come around.

As a bonus, the D'Kyr comes with a single player scenario in which it must find out what happened to an Earth ship with a Vulcan crewmember and rescue it. On arrival the Vulcans discover that the Suliban are to blame and it's a race to save the Earth ship and get it back to safety with any evidence it might carry. For those of us with few opportunities to play, this is a great chance to be able to test out strategies and dust off a few ships. Well worth an investment!

The D'Kyr is a strong ship especially considering it's from the Enterprise era and outclasses both the Romulan and Bajoran ships here by some distance even before using the upgrades. However, there's something very tempting about pulling out the Gal Gath'Thong for  bit of classic Star Trek battle action. In fact it would go well against the Gorn, Tholians or even a D-7 or NCC-1701 - lots of options for an Original Series face off!

Next up we'll be retro-reviewing the Gor Portas, IRW Haakona and the IKS Somraw...

You can check out all our Attack Wing reviews over on the Gaming Section!

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Scavengers: Discovery S03 E06

Halfway through and nothing is any clearer - but at least Book is back this week!

Having located a blackbox which we must assume is from a Federation ship, Book has disappeared and without much thought, Burnham conscripts Georgiou and the pair use the trader's own transforming ship to break him out of an Emerald Chain work camp along with his stolen information.

But let's first of all send all our calls to voicemail and take a break here because the opening few minutes of Scavengers is all about change. New funky Starfleet badges with built in transporter tech, head-up display, communicator and tricorder are the rage plus the ship has had its controls flipped over to that programmable matter to become more intuitive. The nacelles are now detached and someone for some absolutely batsarse crackers reason has slapped an "A" on the registry.

Ok, in a convoluted way Discovery from the 22nd Century is classed as destroyed so adding the "A" sort of recommissions it if we stretch the truth a little. Aside from that grumble it's amazing to see the "old" ship adapted to its new environment with the recurring Linus transporter joke running through the episode.

Michael's thinking behind disobeying Saru's orders and gong after Book is fairly sound but there's a severe lack of communication between the chain of command which just highlights how risky it is having Burnham as an officer and let alone, Number One. She's very high maintenance and although her plan and end goal do result in a positive outcome, it's all done the wrong way. You'd have thought by now Michael might've learnt lessons from her past but apparently not - even Georgiou reminds her and Saru comments on it so there's no hiding from the facts.

The return of Book was inevitable given the importance placed on him in episodes one and three but some might be happier to see his cat, Grudge than they are of David Ajala. 

Captured and under virtual slave labour conditions he's scavenging through ship parts from a vast wrecked fleet in orbit of the planet which is a remnant of The Burn that Burnham has encountered all over the shop. The big news this week is that her findings have discovered that the moment it happened was not precisely the same for everyone indicating that there was an epicentre and it wasn't a galactic event. Something caused The Burn but where exactly is still undetermined.

Some of this week does seem a bit cliched - the work camp, the fleeing prisoner (a Bajoran no less) who is there as the example and even Burnham and Book's bit of passion all seem very signposted. There's even a (SPOILER AHEAD) moment of action movie self-sacrifice that made me wince when it's telegraphed. Indeed, after the opening five minutes of "Q Time" where the Discovery's new tech is all displayed it descends into a very average hour.

Ok, not true because the B story surrounding Adira's acclimatization to the ship and crew are well handled and you can see that the writers have already hooked onto the relationship they are building with Stamets. Good too in this arc that Adira's conversations with Gray aren't being handled as some form of mental breakdown but instead being understood and welcomed. It's something different which Stamets acknowledges and he himself is more fascinated with the closeness with their boyfriend following the joining and unfogging of memories in Forget Me Not.

Blu del Barrio's performance is once more incredibly understated and downplayed which plays well against the drier Stamets and I hope that this pairing is continued across the season.

As a sub-plot to the main line as well there is more going on with Georgiou but this feels a little bit like a re-tread of the Ash Tyler plot with some suitably bloody flashbacks to what I assume is the Terran Universe. There isn't any direct correlation to anything but it all seems to have stemmed from the interrogation conducted by David Cronenberg in his unnamed role last week. Bets have to be off that this is to do with Section 31 given what we know of the imminent Georgiou spin-off from Discovery that is planned post-season three. Clearly it's causing her some anguish even leading the former emperor to collapse at a crucial moment.

Scavengers however probably falls at the bottom of my preference order for Discovery this year and I think it makes some horrible, horrible mistakes that changed my feelings towards the show and one person in particular. Burnham's insubordination may be for what she sees as the greater good but there's no communication, she borrows a ship (that no-one notices for some time apparently) and takes a known Terran with her on a foolish(?) rescue mission and for the second time in her career (with a 930 year reoffending gap) once again gets a well-deserved slapdown. 

Is this what Star Trek is coming to? Is this really who we want to see as a lead character? I get that we should be there understanding the complexities of humanity, our fallibility but Michael has learn precisely zip and even after recommitting to Starfleet can't hold her end of the bargain. Thing is we get our weekly show of tears but in this case I don't believe that Michael is sorry. She would have done it whatever and the chain of command can go do one. In previous series we've had an exception where a main character has bent or broken the rules for a greater good but in Discovery I'm starting to expect it on a weekly basis. Maybe it's a way of analgising current events and showing that the Federation (the US?) is no longer that big, solid force with that slightly smug sense of arrogance and self-belief. Instead it's crumbling and can't even control what's going on inside its own ranks.

Vance is coming across as one of the best admirals we've seen in any iteration of the franchise and to get this from Burnham is unacceptable. Perhaps as he himself notes she had actually communicated what's going on then the reaction might have been different but crucially Burnham didn't. He makes a sound explanation of what he expected and didn't receive from Burnham but ultimately places the decision on her punishment to her captain - I've warmed to this guy after last week and on reflection he was doing the right things then too.

In comparison to this, the "A" suffix and those wifi nacelles are a drop in the ocean. Season three was about offering up some optimism and while there are cracks showing through with the Stamets/Adira arc that's building nicely, the Georgiou and Burnham threads seem to be pulling us further into darkness. 

This is in no way me berating Discovery because I like the show and the direction the story has headed and the choice to jump into the distant future. What I am questioning (not hating on) is how these threads are being played out. Is Discovery adhering to Star Trek's principles and motivations because in its formative years and for many after it offered both an optimistic view on humanity plus social commentary within the sci-fi framework. In this show right now it's feeling very much that the social commentary is overwhelming that positive future...but then isn't that the point.......???

What are your thoughts? Has Discovery struck the balance right with Scavengers or is it seriously derailing? Is this the right direction for the 32nd Century?

Track back on our season three Discovery reviews HERE

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The Original: The Official Starships Collection Issues 100 and 101

So we come to the 100th issue of the Starships Collection. A point many expected but one few have space to display. By mere coincidence this is the 600th Some Kind of Star Trek post!!!

Fittingly this centennial edition, just as the 50th did, takes us right back to the show's origins and perhaps even more so than NCC-1701.

Back in the day, Matt Jeffries designed the USS Enterprise but what first spewed forth onto the page wasn't the familiar shape we know today from The Original Series but this, what is now known as the Daedalus Class.

Jeffries original sketches suggested a more cylindrical secondary hull and a spherical primary hull to get away from the cliched 'flying saucer' however we know how that turned out!

What we have with issue 100 is an amalgamation - a fusion of Jefferies design, the enhancements Mike Okuda made for the colour and black and white editions of the Star Trek Chronology and updates included for this collection. 

Let's get down to it. You know this is one of those essential models. One that you have to have because of its place in franchise history and it will entice discussion since it's the first ship that hasn't really appeared on screen aside from a model in Sisko's office.

Labelled up as the USS Horizon, the ship firmly placed its links to The Original Series and specifically A Piece of the Action in which this craft was mentioned. At the front the spherical primary hull sits bold and proud emblazoned with the ships name - but it actually seems to be lacking in any finer detail. There's the grey colour scheme all over but when it comes to windows and definition that can be clearly seen on the magazine it's oddly devoid of such precision. The mould is a good quality finish with the metallic ball joining to the secondary hull through the spindly, horizontal neck section which seems better finished than the 'head'. Horribly - and most evident in the headline picture are the window alignments on the hull - they're a mile out and honestly, the deflector looks a bit cheap. Comparing it to the plan views it should be a more subtle colour shade of grey rather than an emblazoned blue.

Given that this is an interpretation of a classic design/sketch I'm going to go a little easy on this one but in some ways it does feel uncomfortably unfinished. The panel lines fee washed out and faint, almost over-simplistic which provides a very severe opposite to the back end.

Moving back to the cylindrical secondary hull the detailing does increase noticeably. Panel lines are more clearly etched in and form is given much more shape and finery. While you could probably push to say that the primary hull has nice impulse engines and no bad join lines, the rear section feels like a ship and looks like a ship. It's complete, worked and feels like they didn't give up halfway through. 

For example there is much more structure to the additional airlocks on either side and fortunately the registry decals are perfectly aligned unlike we saw on the early prototype. Oddly the back end looks like a crisp metal finish while the sphere feels like a half-assed plastic blob. 

What is really nice about the secondary hull is the way in which the rear is properly finished with ship registry and, significantly, a shuttle bay and navigation lights. It makes the Horizon a complete 'thing' from every angle and makes her functional. 

Now head out sideways from the barrel-shaped hull to the parallel warp nacelles. As with the secondary hull there is much more definition and the lines provide something of a primitive and industrial visualisation to the class. The rear exhausts are open as opposed to the grilles or 'balls' of the later Constitution Class and once more evoke a more basic sense of space exploration in the 22nd Century. 

The great thing with the Horizon (second ship in the collection with that name ladies and gents), is the percentage of metal over plastic. The whole of the sphere plus the neck, pylons and top half of the secondary hull is all metal. Yes, honestly, that's a lot of metal and a half. Only the lower half of the barrel-shaped engineering section plus the nacelles and the shuttlebay doors are plastic. Given the way that production has come on, the difference in surface quality is pretty good and at one point I couldn't tell if the whole of the secondary hull was metal or not.

What does seem over basic are the bussard collectors. The finish on the Mirror ISS Enterprise engines had smaller spikes to the front but here they are moulded into the caps and seem ridiculously out of place. Definitely oversized for the ship and certainly lacking in the subtlety that we saw on the ISS Enterprise. 

Stand fitting is straightforward slipping right over the warp pylons and holding the USS Horizon firmly in place. No movement today people and she's nice and level for display.

The magazine does offer some general background to the fictional class of starship including their introduction to the fleet as well as the influence of at least three of the class - Horizon, Essex and Archon on the galaxy and therefore a few episodes of the Star Trek franchise. Nicely though this issue does spread its coverage of The Return of the Archons, A Piece of the Action and The Next Generation's Power Play throughout rather than having a heavy focus on just one of the stories. 

The views of the ship are lovely and crisp although we still, one hundred issues in, still point out just the minimal basics. Have to admit that the renderings here are really good so at least they're not over labelled!!!

The Designing the Daedalus Class section misses a trick I think, choosing to focus more on the redesigning of the ship for the Chronology and this publication. Of course that's not something that will have been extensively documented but the omission of the original Matt Jefferies sketches in a piece about something he was ultimately responsible for envisioning is glaring.

Yet this still remains a good read as you get more of a grip on what was altered and how the class came to look as it does now in the Starships Collection. Particularly nice to understand how some of the smaller detail was incorporated such as the navigational deflector and impulse engines which weren't considered back in those original drawings.

As the collection has now surpassed another milestone the articles in the magazine are spreading the wings too with this issue covering The Star Trek History of Space Exploration. A fairly daunting title since that's effectively what the show - and the franchise - are about but Eaglemoss have managed to condense this down to exploration prior to Enterprise. This does allow the article to delve into First Contact and the Vulcans, the Botany Bay and Khan as well as diverting into other elements seen in the series such as the NASA ship from The Royale and early explorers such as the Ares IV from One Small Step in Voyager and the Mariposa DY-500 Class craft from The Next Generation's Up the Long Ladder. When you get into this piece you realise just how much the show managed to cover!

Issue 101 was a bloody good surprise. I genuinely lined myself up to give this one a bashing as I expected it to be just as 'brilliant' as the other Bajoran ships of which we have had three to daye including the magically unstable and home-movers nightmare, the Bajoran Solar Sailer. I mean, you can package this one till hell freezes and it'll still break. 

The Bajoran Antares Class freighter is a right chunky wedge of a starship and possibly the best offering from the nasally ridged humanoids. A ship of this shape may not immediately seem like the biggest draw but there's a good deal going for it here. 

The solid brown tone on the hull help to back the aged craft and make it feel fairly rustic. It is a very basic paint scheme with only a few sporadic grey panels to relieve the single shade. Right across the surface there are a considerable number of windows/portholes clearly visible although there does seem to be a discrepancy between the number on the ship and the number of the CG model in the magazine. 

What helps to set it apart is the external detail bolted onto the freighter's skin. There is trunking, machinery and general macguffins to help build up the detail and enhance the overall look of the craft. It might in essence be a single hulled slab but the finishing intricacies help pull it towards being something more interesting. The upper half of the ship is a chunk of metalwork with the exception of the dorsal sensor array while the underside is a single piece of plastic.

This is a really solidly constructed craft and there is a bit of weight behind it too because of that huge metal topside. The joins between metal and plastic are pretty smooth and the hull detail seems to be aligned pretty perfectly. It's not the most glamourous of ships by a long shot but Eaglemoss have managed to construct something decent from a very average model and one I'm oddly impressed with. 

The outer layers here make this ship something interesting because of the undulation and the surface intricacies both top and bottom. The machining for this one is fantastic and there's no mould bleed or fade from one raised element into the main hull of the ship. It feels like there's substance to this one and imagine if there had been a little more of the effort displayed here on the rather super-bland Federation Holoship then that release might have been a completely different story.

On the underside as well the model retains this superb attention to detail continuing the layered hull effect and multiple windows to give strength to the depth of the design. The differentiation in surface height provides a certain realistic impression to the cumbersome freighter. Perhaps my only negative observation is that the nose 'fan' does appear slightly washed over with its finishing detail more smoothly edged than the rest of the ship.  

Actually the underside (in plastic) is far more detailed than the top with a few outward protrusions at the mid-point and also to the back. At the rear where the two different materials meet there's no evident difference in the quality around the engines nor as your eye follows the hull around the horizontal join. It is a very clean, well finished ship with almost no variant quality. Ok, there are a few details missing such as on the support struts to the sensor array and in some of the fin-work just behind the polaron beam weapon yet it still is a great model.

To the all important stand fit and the wide-angle clip slides easily over the rear of the freighter. No movement, easy grip and a stable model all round. Just keep in mind that it is heavier than some others so I'll be keeping an eye on how the stand copes in the next few months.

The issue 102 magazine recounts the freighter's appearances and uses within Deep Space Nine's corner of the Alpha Quadrant and then turns itself onto the history of it just this ship but the model itself. Fascinatingly this is one of the franchise's most reused models appearing as eight craft from the third season of The Next Generation right though to the third year of Enterprise. In fact we will be seeing another of its incarnations - the Smugglers' Ship from Unification - in an upcoming issue. 

Nice plan views from all angles included with this one which means you can pick out all the errors at close range. Note for one that there are some panels in a lighter brown colour and that the greys have a hint of blue to them. The views do highlight some of the slighter details around the edge of the hull and the dorsal sensor array. I mean there is a lot fitted in already but there are one or two glaring omissions which have to be down to overloading the model.

This magazine also includes six pages on the creation of Deep Space Nine. It's not providing much, if any, new info because there have been a ton of books and previous works on the subject but as an overview this is more than fitting. In fact most of the section deals with the inclusion of Ro before being morphed into Major Kira once Michelle Forbes ruled herself out of the production. 

Closing out the mag are the On Screen appearances in Ensign Ro from The Next Generation and A Man Alone from the early part of Deep Space Nine's first season. Spot the pic of the Xhosa and try not to start thinking what issue number that's going to be...

OK, to the next two issues and we'll be discussing the Klingon D5 from Enterprise and the Vidiian Warship from the first couple of seasons of Voyager.

Pleased with issue 100? Impressed by the Bajoran Freighter?

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Delta Blues: The Official Starships Collection Issues 82 and 83

September drew to a close and with it came our latest starship additions with the Warp Delta featured in Enterprise and the Bajoran Troop Transport from Deep Space Nine.    

Receiving these out of sequence meant I actually had hold of issues 84 and 85 two days before these finally dropped on the doorstep and after the disappointment of the Holoship this was a welcome relief in both boxes. 

Firstly the United Earth Starfleet Warp Delta. It's a classic devolution of the recognisable starship design from the prequel series and ultimately the iconic NCC-1701 USS Enterprise herself. A smaller 30-person crewed vessel the single 'delta' hull and stubby warp engines belay a craft from a previous era and in terms of Enterprise it shows how antiquated some of the ships were in comparison even to the Intrepid let alone the warp five capable NX class. Eaglemoss have brought this incredibly basic craft to life in superb detail. While, like so many of the ships in Enterprise, the Deltas were confined to a background role, the ship here displays the patchwork, layered hull plating extremely well. 

It also carries the silver/metallic finish more aligned to the NX class than the later greys of the Constitution Class or the duck egg blues of the Galaxy Class ships from The Next Generation. Having had the chance to look over the NX-Alpha first you can see how the show kept that basic finish concept alive through these early craft, keeping them grounded in basic techniques for functionality rather than aesthetic quality. That style also helps reinforce the more defensive activities of this class because of its limited warp capabilities and deep space functionality.

As a model the Warp Delta is beautifully finished from every angle with the dorsal and ventral planes of the hull bursting with that embossed hull plating. There's no hull registry here so decal-wise she's totally unmarked but that just adds to the simplistic beauty of the mini-hulled spacecraft. The metal underbelly extends out to the swept warp nacelle pylons again well finished and onto the pair of stumpy warp three engines. Line this up with the issue 84 NX-Alpha and you'll see the similarities right away between the engine design - quality bit of continuity there!

On the upper hull you can easily make out the lines of the very forward sitting bridge. Defensively this has to be just about the worst placed Starfleet command centre ever (set forward Holoship for this as well) especially when considering the major role they were expected to take in defending Earth. Obviously different times and different requirements were involved at the time of their construction!

At the rear of the Delta there's a very cramped Engineering 'area' marked out by the warp core dome. Note here that the rear is aligned to the episodes with the impulse engines present rather than the rocket engines seen in the title sequence. Hopefully Eaglemoss will provide us with the more basic Delta in future editions or as a web special since I can see collectors wanting to get their hands on this significant variant.  PS if you're waiting for the review of the SS Yorktown you'll be waiting a while as I'm not getting that one for just a change of a few stickers.

Stand attachment is a firm success here, locking to the rear of the ship over the warp pylons and then onto a small piece of the hull. No movement and a steady grip which is just what we like.

Issue 82 contains a broad overview of the construction and evolution of the Warp Delta design from its days powered by rocket engines through to the impulse refits and then into the role in which the class played during the Xindi threat and also in a couple of alternative timelines (Twilight, In a Mirror, Darkly). 

The development of the design for the Warp Delta is a great section given it was only originally designed at the back and later appearances in Enterprise meant that the rest was added at a later time compounding changes to the title sequence riding back end.

Next up; our third Bajoran ship after the Solar Sailor and the Bajoran Raider with the Bajoran Troop Transport. Not w when it was originally announced we all thought that the transport was the more wedge-shaped ship seen depositing Kai Winn at Deep Space Nine and used to board the station during season two's The Siege. However it turned out to be another more distinct design that had its most prominent role as Kira's command ship facing off against the Romulans in Shadows and Symbols from season seven.  

The Bajoran Troop Transport visually offers a break from the round of metallic Starfleet ships of late instead providing our eyes with a more subtlety coloured and relaxing ship with sweeping curves and a less 'blunt' look than we have seen for a while. Even with those forward swept wings it doesn't seem as threatening as the Xindi Reptilian Warship and has an almost spiritual feel to its smooth lines which I turn lies well with its creators' more religious background. 

The colours themselves do a lot to alleviate a dark and dangerous nature being more greens and browns than greys and blacks. Surface finishing touches are a lot less packed onto the surface with distinct colour differences marking out access panels, engine details and cockpit windows. It is a very precise piece and the concern I had was that the end product might have been a bit ragged at the edges however the end product is as smooth and defined as I could have hoped. 

Eaglemoss chose to carve the rear of the upper hull and wings in metal with the bottom of the Transport and the forward section of the hull made from plastic. Looking ahead maybe the choice to make the Holoship 100% plastic was due to the high metal use in this one(!). One important feature that wasn't just blacked out are the engine intake cowls on either side of the fuselage. Instead we have arched intakes with depth to them fitted over the hull rather than formed as a single lump with the rest of the craft. The clever use of the two regular construction materials is a work of genius here as the two almost meld together and initially it was quite hard to tell what was what. This makes a big difference to the overall effect and this attention to detail certainly lifts the Troop Transport out of the average.

It is easily the best of the three Bajoran entries to the collection ahead of the Solar Sailor and the Sub-Impulse Fighter and by some distance at that. It just works in all visual aspects and really the only thing I could push to criticise is the lack of weathering to give it some perspective of age as I suspect it would not be a particularly new craft and is used both in and out of planetary atmospheres. 

Again a rear grip stand clasps firmly around the spreading wings of the Bajoran ship providing that false flight illusion. I was truly prepared to be utterly disinterested by this one but have been pleasantly surprised because of the end result and the way in which these more unusual greens and soft browns have been used to highlight sections. For me this is actually a highlight of the last few months because it's so different. The two tone colour scheme works a treat lifting out different sections of the upper hull while the gold pieces on the bottom do the same to that face of the vessel. Every surface has some kind of patterning to it or structure and it feels very, very complete on every side. Some other ships have, in the past, felt a bit unfinished because the detail has not been 360 degrees - here it most certainly is, even to the tip of the wings.

The magazine veers into some interesting territory after the standard coverage of the craft history and use within Deep Space Nine from early season two appearances to season seven. There's a great designing section which looks over how the information about the Bajorans we learned in season one was pretty much the data used to give the Troop Transport a sense of belonging to the spiritual race. Have to note that the CG version is an incredible reproduction of the model as you'll see. 

What the issue does do differently is provide a step by step guide to Bajoran history and the key events which have changed and shaped their society for thousands of years right up to the end of Deep Space Nine.

OK - two great issues here both in magazine content and in model quality. Both craft have had fleeting appearances in their respective series and while we didn't get the best of looks at either of them on the TV, these models provide an excellent opportunity to laud over two ships that have slipped under the main radar for many years. These later issues have offered up more and more single episode and background starships but it has only helped enhance the franchise as we get to experience the weird and wonderful first hand. 

In other news, we also got a first glimpse of the new shuttles due out at the end of 2016 or perhaps the beginning of 2017 thanks to Ben Robinson on Twitter. We still have to see the executive shuttle from The Undiscovered Country but Ben dropped a great shot of the shuttlepod and Type-7 from The Next Generation and the NX-Class Shuttlepod One from Enterprise. 

These aren't final versions but the results here look great. Seems the shuttlepod from the Enterprise-D is labelled as Aldrin while the Type-7 is named Copernicus. Note it's a variant on the Type-7 with the window strip heading almost all the way to the rear rather than the shorter portals on the 01 Sakharov. There were a lot of changes!!!

Of the three we got to see (plus the graphic for the travel pod), Pod One is definitely getting me most excited. The detail on her looks stunning and while the craft from The Next Generation are all sleek and refined, it's the lumps and bumps on this one that make it. Really looking forward to this set being available.

Fan of the Bajoran Troop Transport or leaning more towards the Warp Delta?

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