A Voyager in Shining Armour and Deep Space Truckers: The Official Starships Collection Issues 48 and 49

Having debated the missing impulse engine on the Enterprise-C last month we were sure to avoid any such intrigue in June.

Nope. Because this month's hot topic with issue 48 is whether or not the deflector dish on the ablative armour-clad USS Voyager should be red rather than the standard blue or yellow. It was a nice little exchange with @bobmat343 on Instagram over this and we're convinced it was never red nor can I find any images where it is that colour. In fact even in a couple of blurry screenshots from the show finale it's most definitely blue.

So this might be a big misstep on an otherwise fantastic model because, although simple it's a well reproduced starship. 

Seen in the Voyager finale Endgame for the last few scenes, the armoured starship is the first repeat of a vessel already featured (issue six in the UK) but with a significant spin although whether this will convince casual buyers to part with their cash will be interesting to see.

So onto the model. Virtually the same size, width etc etc as the issue six Voyager, it's all about the finish here. Top to toe in silver, the ablative armour only leaves the glimpse of a bussard collector, warp engine vent and deflector dish to colour the surface. Otherwise this is certainly Voyager+, fully encased in it's Borg-beating battle-suit. It's a little shame too that the whole of this model wasn't "metalised" considering what it represents however the majority of the saucer and the nacelle struts have the familiar cold touch while the 

She is perhaps a little smoother than you might have expected with raised detail highlighting the panel separations and weapon ports as well as a rather cool Starfleet insignia on each side of the secondary hull. That surface detail is faithfully reproduced in virtually every way and I think the only way it might have been improved is through the differences in the depth of the panels and some of the deeper recesses which don't quite get carried off here. Given the scale though this is forgiveable however that red deflector dish (also blue in the magazine!!!) is still bugging me. In fact I'm sure one pic on the views also shows the armour fully closed around the deflector dish. Still. Bugging. Me.

Effectively telling the story of Endgame, the magazine this month does have some great shots of the armoured Intrepid Class vessel (but not from the front too often) including one of the ship mid-transformation. Add in the expected plan views with which you can compare the model and her onscreen appearances and you have a nice complimentary section for your new ship. 

This publication does keep in-episode with a whole section devoted to the two actresses who portrayed the Borg Queen from First Contact right through to the explosive Voyager series finale. It's a good view into the production world that is rarely experienced and with the point that the armoured starship only featured for fifteen minutes at most, it's credit to Eaglemoss that they turned issue 48 into a companion to a Voyager episode. 

To issue 49 in Star Trek's 49th year and we have the ECS Fortunate. Featured in the season one Enterprise episode, Fortunate Son, it's the workhorse of the 22nd Century, delivering cargo to here, there and everywhere. Here's something to note as well. Although armoured Voyager was in the final episode of its series and Fortunate Son was set 200 years earlier right at the start of the prequel show, these two models were created within 12 months of each other in production terms. Fact.

Each Enterprise model is like a treasure waiting to be unwrapped because they sound dull when announced but I always have to back-track. It's a stone-cold fact. Our last Enterprise arrival was the Intrepid just five issues ago and again this one is another precision creation. 

The first challenge you actually face is with the stand for the Fortunate. While Voyager's slips nicely over the rear section between her nacelles, the guidance for the placement on the freighter is to drop it between the second and third pairs of cargo pods with the clip sliding over the arms connecting  the second pair onto the main spine of the ship. My recommendation is to do this BEFORE attaching the stem to the stand since the warp nacelles on the underbelly make it a tight squeeze and near-vertical angle to get it into place.

Once you've performed this feat it has to be said that the Fortunate is very well secured and no amount of day-by-day vibration in your home will shift her off the stand (for bad examples please see Romulan Warbird; issue five). When I did open the box my mind was already on the oh-really-not-fussed-over-this attitude but in about five seconds I utterly changed my opinion. This is a great ship. In fact it's better than Voyager. 

Gasp. I'm not blaspheming here, just doing what SKoST does best and telling the truth; the Fortunate is a more satisfying model than the armoured Voyager and not just because of that annoying red deflector dish. Every surface here is finely detailed from the numbering of each individual cargo pod and the ship name through to the  panelling and windows. There's not a lot of surface but what there is has been well-crafted however there are a couple of fitting issues with the plastic to metal. 

The lower fun on the bridge unit is slightly off-centre and the underbelly aerial set is also a bit bent but the pods and the warp nacelles are perfectly parallel and that's a more important point. There are some minor details that don't make the model due to the scale of the Fortunate and are evident when comparing the magazine cover to her. Eaglemoss have even managed a little bit of aztec paint scheme across the top of the central spine as well as some colour differentiation across the pods (note that they are all absolutely identical except for the numbering!). 

The full 360 degree detailing here is some of the best in the series on a ship I would never have expected to like. Sadly given the scale we do lose the blue deflector hue from the bridge module and I can let it go basically due to that scaling point - who knows how fiddly that might have been to paint in. The nacelles do retain their "blue-ness" in paint rather than transparent plastic and I would think that it's, once again, due to the scale which restricts. Saying that, the larger details are covered and it's only those minute details which get omitted. However, I can't complain since she looks very fine.

Issue 49 itself is a bit blah. Why so?  Because we've trodden the Fortunate Son path once before with the Nausicaan Fighter almost 20 issues ago. There are littered facts on the freighter although I did feel I'd read some of this before. Passing over that you do get into a good design section analysing the creation of the Fortunate with some great sketches from the process. I think there's only one picture duplicated from the Nausicaan Fighter issue but I got the sense it was a bit of a scramble for new info here. 

Finishing off the issue is an in universe article on space travel in the 22nd Century. A more unusual entry it's one more aspect of the Star Trek universe that has managed to be covered in the collection and does remain linked to the starships theme of the collection. You'll get a good refresher on some of those killer journeys at warp 1.8 as well as a high level info splurge on Federation travel history up to the arrival of that warp five engine on the Enterprise. A nice addition and just relevant enough to the ship given how trips could take months that the NX Class could do in weeks or even days.

Which brings us to the end of this time's coverage. This month's offerings, bar one blip, do make up for the errors of the Enterprise-C and the Negh'Var and although I didn't need my faith restoring, these two have been a bit of a revelation and an unexpectedly good pairing - perhaps moreso than the last (???) and certainly prepare us for the eagerly awaited 50th issue which will be in shops on 9th July 2015 in the UK and potentially with subscribers as early as the 4th July. For those who have been living under a rock or on a distant asteroid, issue 50 will see the legendary NCC-1701 in it's original glory followed by issue 51 featuring one of my favourite races, the Hirogen from Voyager. A big month and one not to miss.

In other news, Ben Robinson has revealed via Twitter that we can expect the Borg ship from Descent at issue 73, the Insurrection Captain's Yacht (and by default the scoutship), possibly the Gorn ship and Orion ships from the remastered The Original Series and that they may well do the Voyager aeroshuttle as well as a few one and two man ships that have been dotted through the series. Plus via a conversation with @Theirishtrekkie we now know the Mirror Universe ISS Enterprise will have Pike-era nacelles. No news on when we in the UK will get to see the elusive and dribble-icious shuttle collection which do include some nice cutaways from Star Trek legend Mike Okuda...Can we get these soon please Ben???!!!

What were your thoughts on this month's ships? Let us know below! You can also subscribe by dropping onto the link in our sidebar.

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Another Two Ends of the Spectrum: The Official Starships Collection Issues 30 and 31

Eh?

The first one of these two really had me stumped y'know.

For the first time in 30 issues I had to look up where this squat piece of brown plastic and metal had first appeared when I saw it on the official release list. I mentally narrowed it to Enterprise but beyond that, hey, anyone's guess.

With a little bit of online research (how did we ever manage with books?!) this craft first appeared in Fortunate Son which was very memorable as you can tell. Actually I'm being quite harsh there because the ECS Fortunate was recently announced as being one of the issues between 41 - 50 which makes it a bumper ep for ships.

Digression over. With the Nausicaan Fighter restraint is key. I returned home, opened the box and then handed it over to my dad who was dogsitting. Just as he was about to lever the ship out of its plastic I remembered a comment from Nicholas Garratt on Facebook this morning that underneath the rear of the ship is a little gun turret - and I'm glad I did remember because that's the natural point your hand goes to when you attempt to pop the fighter out of its packaging.

So what do I think to this one? As a one episode ship it does fall into a category also filled by the Dauntless in that all we have to go in is 44 minutes of screentime and with this fighter it's much less than that I expect. As with all Enterprise releases the detail is precise and it's certainly more unusual in that there are no transparent plastic sections - even on the inboard warp engines which are painted greeny/yellow. Nice to see that the hull is marked and worn sporadically which adds to the effect. I seriously believed this would be the weaker of the two releases in October however I seem to have been in error as the finished result holds up well and looks better than the marketing image on the website - unlike last time's Maquis Raider.

Comparing the ship to the image in the magazine there's more detail on the model than there is on the pictures with the ship showing up more hull plating lines although it does appear darker in the flesh than on the page. While it's not the most popular of models judging from the feedback on the collection's Facebook page, you can't help but (again) be impressed with this new Enterprise release (again).

The entire top section of the Nausicaan fighter is metal while the underside insert comes in plastic with the only minor disappointment being the thickness of the aerials and cannons which are moulded in that section. However, from a breakage and safety point of view I can see why they are a little more bulked out than the magazine views show. She is a bit of a lump but the finish is superb and with the rear-locking stand being one of the best fits, there's no concern that gravity might play a part in those antennae becoming a lot shorter very quickly.

It's aquatic origins are fairly glaring in the shape of the hull but there's also a somewhat retro feel through the flaring and excesses on the hull shaping. Nice to note that Eaglemoss managed to mark the cockpit windows in the right place this month. There is a bit of flash around the antennae and cannons on close inspection but this doesn't detract from the solid quality of the issue 30 starship. Mind, there has been a spate of fighters recently (Jem'Hadar, Maquis and now this one) although that looks to be over for the foreseeable future.

Over to the literature and with this being a "one-off" content was most certainly going toswing slightly off topic. The background on the ship is good but more reliant on information about the Nausicaans themselves than the fighter craft they used and also has only Fortunate Son to use as reference material onscreen. Indeed the Nausicaans, as you soon realise, were not big players which is probably why there's a nice section talking about the visual effects of Enterprise rather than stringing out and watering down the appropriate material. As it is, there's a picture of two fighters close to their base asteroid which is repeated on two separate pages. Whoops.

The VFX section is a great addition this month and not an area of the show I was ever familiar with. It is brief and could do with its own book (publishers take note) but there are a couple of trade secrets revealed and you realise that Enterprise was a very different beast to the other four series that preceded it at least in this respect. My question for the issue on ECS Fortunate Son is how are you going to fill those pages without repeating some of the material we've got here? By the way, I won't ruin the surprise of which episode is listed in the Key Appearances section.

The second release which will be hitting shelves mid-October is the Romulan Valdore from Star Trek Nemesis - just about as far at the other end of the Star Trek universe as you can go seeing as this ship appeared in the closing scenes of the tenth movie. 

My dad did the "where the heck is this from?" furrowed brow when I said it was coming out but then got quite excited as he realised it was a Romulan design and would probably look pretty sweet alongside his Warbird from issue six. I may rent it out. Possibly.

The Valdore is an elegant vessel and, like the Enterprise-D to the Enterprise-E there's hints at a stretched D'deridex class minus that lower hull section. Looking at her now it also does suggest a close relationship with the Klingon Bird of Prey through the style of wings and lengthy neck/head section. That said, the familiar darker green hull and more rounded features does remind you of the familiar Romulan style. For once we have a "later era" ship that features some incredible hull detail in every possible orifice from prow to stern. Every surface has a marking, a line, a recess or a window both ventral and dorsal and matches up well with the narrative in the issue 31 magazine.


The lines of the hull and the double-wing are absolutely meticulous in their construction, retaining both the open hull trademark of the D'deridex class as well as the legendary lines of the should-have-been-Romulan Bird of Prey from Star Trek III. Those double warp nacelles are a great touch and pretty well attached - as is the stand when you dock the Valdore. This is another one that won't have to worry about the Fall of Fate from you display shelves with a mightily snugg fit around her rear end. This warbird is definitely one of the more stunning - and wide - releases but has been presented in a far superior manner to the Enterprise-E which is a shame although scale has a deft hand to play in that I'm certain.

She's also fairly light in comparison to the Nausicaan fighter with only the forward neck section and top central hull rendered in metal. There is a joint slightly out of alignment at the back of the neck where it meets the engineering hull but that's hidden underneath. Overall though I have given it the official SKoST nod of approval and now suggests that if a ship is from a less adored piece of the franchise the model will be better than you expected - and better than some of the ones you did want.

Turning to the pages of issue 31 it's like a whole new story covering one of the lesser featured starships. If you recall, the Valdore makes it's appearance almost at the end of Nemesis and then only to get pummelled by the Schimitar and buy the Enterprise some time. This issue does fill out the details on its design but as with the Nausicaan fighter the overview of the ship is very limited in parallel with its screentime. There's a note on the reason behind those two pairs of warp nacelles but the section does fall into the plot of Nemesis very easily once this more unusual feature is explained.

There is a first within this edition though in that we're treated (if that's the right turn of phrase) to an interview with writer John Logan who penned Star Trek Nemesis with assistance from, among others, Rick Berman, Brent Spiner and Patrick Stewart. Regarded by many as the worst The Next Generation movie and possibly one of the worst of the ten films in the Prime Universe, I was fascinated to see Logan's thought processes even if, as always, the interview was confined to four (half) pages and some big pictures to space fill. I think I'd like to speak to Logan and get a lot more in depth about what actually happened as here we only get the lightest touch of the surface. Aside from a couple of gorgeous CGI shots the pictures are a bit disappointing, coming as you would expect, from Nemesis alone.

As both of this month's ships were 100% CGI creations the Valdore doesn't get a filming section but there is a superb piece which tells of how two separate designers were tasked with bringing something new to the game for the Romulans to use. When you consider that it was 1988 when the D'deridex class first appeared in The Neutral Zone it was a long time coming. Examining the CGI render here and comparing it to the model really does show how precise the Eaglemoss production has been. Now all I need is a second one in bronze and the Schimitar...not much to ask.

Perhaps even bigger news was the additional in some deliveries this month of the flyer for the USS Vengeance which we'll be seeing around the 30th October. Thanks to Chris Warnes on Facebook for posting this up! This is massive news and for some reason either it's got into a few deliveries by error or most of us missed it?!

For those of you who might not have noticed, the collection website got an update on Thursday 2nd October with a whole new selection of 360 degree virtual tours of every ship up to issue 35 which is the Klingon Bird of Prey from Enterprise. I've included the four we have yet to see in stills below for reference. This means that next month we'll be getting two Deep Space Nine releases (yay!) with the Runabout and the Cardassian Hideki class.

Also remember that if you're heading along to Destination Star Trek this weekend you'll get to see the new models for issues 50 through to 55 on Stand Three!

Starfleet Runabout

Cardassian Hideki Class

Vulcan Surok Class

Klingon Bird of Prey 2252

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Renegades and Rhinos: The Official Starships Collection Issues 28 and 29

After last month's domination by Enterprise,  September kicks off with a trip to the other end of the Star Trek timeline,  namely my beloved Deep Space Nine and Voyager.

Out of the gate first is the Maquis raider used by,  erm,  the Maquis. Actually a replica of the Val Jean from Voyager's Caretaker,  I am really impressed with the level of hull detail on this 60-something metre long ship. The scale works in its favour meaning we get a lot clearer map of the skin of this small craft but when you compare it to the crisp promo pictures there does seem to be some element of colour difference. Ok,  that's why it's called a promo image because things can change however it has kicked up a fair bit of dust with some fans respraying their models for a more 'authentic'  look. The real fist-biting moment though is the fact that the windows at the front are incorrectly marked and should be in the strip above, not the segmented sections as you can see in the pics of the model here and the image of the cockpit I've also included. Whoops. Thanks to the AVForum regulars for drawing my attention to that one.

The raider is almost totally rendered in metal which strikes it out over numerous other included releases and is very striking when you sit her on the rear-clip stand.  The raider was pretty well used through Deep Space Nine as the Maquis found themselves a more conflict - welcoming environment there once the two crews on Voyager had kissed and made up after Parallax.

Clear plastic detail is minimal,  being contained to just the small engine outlets to the rear of the ship however the remainder of the ship is much more eye-catching. While fans may want to see the Enterprise-D or a Klingon D-7, this is one of the models which shouts out Eaglemoss' attention to detail and the hard work they have put in the recreate these ships using the available archives from CBS. I was a fan of the Maquis when they dropped into the Deep Space Nine sphere of influence, especially the Eddington episode, For the Uniform which is among my favorites. 

It was also an outing for the raider but on screen you don't get to see the level of detail set into the metallic hull plating. The metallic paint finish does have a great sparkle in the light however when you compare the finished model to the apparent high definition promotional image from Eaglemoss, the panelling highlights don't stand out as well and it does seem to be a slightly different shade of grey. The odd thing is that in every image you see it doesn't look metallic at all and a fair bit more matt in its finish and in certain magazine pictures (page 10) there's a patch more detail around the nose section.

I'm pretty happy with the final result due to the level of detail which wraps fully around the hull and isn't limited to certain spots - probably benefitting from the unusually high metal to plastic ratio.  I tend to take these teaser images with a pinch of salt since we can't guarantee that they are the final version and you can do a lot with photoshop(!)

There's minimal plastic on the raider, limited to warp engines at the sides and impulse engines to the rear which are very, very small even on this larger scale model. I do like it but the promo images have made this ship look a lot cleaner than it did when it turned up. Even the cockpit windows seemed to be brighter on the page.

The opening profile pages are much less an episode synopsis this time around since the raider featured in a lot of stories but was never a key player if you will.  Covering the raider's origins as a modified transport it does focus more on its use by Eddington and Chakotay and key operations. The standard low-info views come with some additional highlighted views of the ship and the usual data feed side points before delving into the behind-the-scenes detail.

What marks this ship out is that it's not an original design unlike every single ship thus far and was actually a modification of a ship we saw back in Pre-Emptive Strike, the penultimate The Next Generation episode from 1994. No filming story this time as we're treated to a potted history of the Maquis (saw this coming) from their origins in Journey's End through to their total annihilation by the Jem'Hadar as revealed in Blaze of Glory. What really amazes me here is that while they were planted as a seed to grow for Voyager in the later The Next Generation episodes, they were much more effective in the conflict-rich environment of Deep Space Nine. Voyager on the other hand chose to tone down the dissent and conflict relatively early in its lifespan meaning later years could focus on marriage, 50's retro sci-fi, Borg babies and Jerry Ryan. 

Turning to the Jem'Hadar fighter - the first proper Deep Space Nine edition since issue 18's Solar Sailor - we have an unusual double in that both these ships are approximately 68 metres in length. The fighter though is the Dominion's second entry into the Starships Collection following the Jem'Hadar Battlecruiser in issue 14. That was a great model and the attack ship from the Gamma Quadrant is no different. There's a little bit more plastic than the Maquis raider with both the rear "beetle shell" and warp nacelles made from the lighter material.

The scarab beetle concept is very clear from the shape of the hull, especially from the underside. It's much smoother in profile than the raider with much less raised detail to see although I think the final product is more pleasing to the eye. The paint scheme too, which was toned down for the screen is also one of the more unusual using a shade of purple against the silvers and blues of the hull.  One thing I would have liked to see would have been the clear plastic sections used in the underside as my mind is telling me that this area was illuminated in the show and is then backed up by more than one shot of the pulsing strips at the rear. Why the engine pods don't have purple colouring in their transparent pieces is also puzzling me.

Construction is very good again with the larger scale allowing for more detail which means every panel and vent is perfectly marked out. Neither of this month's releases have any glaring mold lines or gaps where they're fitted together. The front end of the Jem'Hadar fighter for one is a single solid piece with the thorax/abdomen section a single plastic block. Only only on the raider can you see the separation line where the top and bottom have been joined.

For once the cover art on the magazine doesn't do the model justice, portraying it as a much smoother design and a lot less purple than is evident even in those wonderful silver tones. Bizarrely every other CGI image in the magazine then tends to make the fighter look overly purple as if trying to make up for it.

As becomes clear reading the magazine, which I didn enjoy this time since it didn't have any of the shocking printing errors that appeared in the Maquis Fighter issue (spacesbetweenwordshelps) and again the story of the ship and its appearances in Deep Space Nine are actually enhanced by the fact it wasn't a "key" ship in a particular story or the Enterprise. 

OK, so there is a fair bit handed over to the episodes The Ship and Time to Stand which featured the captured fighter  I never could work out why the upside down hatch looked like it did when it never matched any part of the fighter - nor why they all climb the wrong way through the ship.

I won't hide the fact that the Dominion were my preferred nemesis to Voyager's Borg so this magazine is a welcome addition to the library and the information on the "history" of the fighter brings together a lot from their first appearance in The Jem'Hadar through to Tears of the Prophets. There are episodic notes but also data on aspects of the craft and upgrades that took place during the war. The plan views seem even more sparsely labelled than ever and again, like the cover, are less detailed than the physical model.

The magazine also reminds us that the Jem'Hadar are unusual in the realms of major enemies that the crews met during their adventures in that they were never humanised, shown to have a weakness or allowed to grow beyond their origins. Nor did any of this change when they were viewed as individuals. They truly were developed purely as a force to be reckoned with.

Issue 29 does have a considerable amount of info not only on that but also on the development of the ship itself and it's angular origins. There's a great picture of the original filming model - which looks even more blue and purple than any other image. The thing with this issue is that there's no clear image of the fighter among the chosen images aside from the new CGI reproductions. Jim Martin's drawings are magnificent but what the quality of the pictures does reinforce is the need for Deep Space Nine in HD - the final image used on the On Screen section from A Time to Stand is the best example for this.

This month's offerings have certainly caused some rumbles in fandom - more with the Maquis raider than the fighter. What we do see is that Eaglemoss are going to town on this collection and doing as much as they can to recreate the ships exactly and it shows nowhere better than here in the smallest ships so far released. 

Speaking to +Nils W. recently it's also become apparent that Eaglemoss are cracking down on their replacements. Both his Nebula Class and Xindi-Insectoid ships came damaged and had to be returned before he could have them replaced. Me thinks that this could be because people are getting extra "replacements" to sell on a certain auction site beginning with an "e"? Or perhaps I'm being cynical. I can understand the need to get these damaged ones back if only to understand what's happened in transit or production but why has it taken this long? One of the Contingent still has a second Excelsior with two left nacelles. Is this a change in policy? What's your experience of getting replacements? Are you having to send wrecked ships back first? Let us know below.

Also we had a subscriber question sent out to see if anyone fancied some limited edition binders. Three designs were suggested featuring adversaries, the first ten issues and back cover images of some earlier Starfleet ships. I've included one of the promo shots from Eaglemoss here for reference. Anyone have a preference? I was more inclined to the green "enemy" one.

October brings us the Nausicaan raider and the third Romulan entry, the Valdore from Nemesis. The raider is another Enterprise release so we can expect sublime detail but very little general interest while the Valdore will be (timewise) the latest ship to grace the collection. I know a few people who are looking forward to that one and I can see a Romulan photoshoot coming on alongside the Warbird and the Bird-of-Prey. Oh and while we're at it, here's a gratuitous shot of the lesser-spotted Starfleet Runabout. This one's been in hiding for a while but finally we got some shots of the one ship that seemed to get skipped over. She's a beauty and definitely one I can't wait to get my hands on. Nice to see the addition of the weapons pod too although if it was detachable that would have been an extra tick.

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