Three Eras for Attack Wing Wave 23

Attack Wing Wave 23 dropped rather suddenly and I wasn't expecting it.

With 21 and 22 only just coming out, I was thinking there might be some breathing space but here we are looking at three new arrivals which cover three very different periods of Star Trek history. It's also the first wave since 19 to comprise of a Federation, Romulan and Klingon trio (in that case Delta Flyer, IKS Rotarran and the RIS Talvath science vessel).

Taking them in time order means we get to go Romulan first with the IRW Jazkal. It's a 22nd Century Bird of Prey with those vicious forward-sweeping warp nacelles but, alas, only an optional cloaking device and no rear firing arc.

Decked out in a fetching metallic green, this miniature game piece is astoundingly eye-catching with only a couple of darker highlights on the nacelles to indicate the warp coils. Wizkids attention to detail here is cracking with some beautiful panel work on a tiny playing piece. It's also well-crafted and potentially one of the nicest game ships I've seen them produce since the very beginning. I actually think the paint job works wonders on this one.

Just another note, I realised this time (and probably missed it last time) that they are no longer including Target Lock tokens with the sets. I'd also consider reducing the number of Time Tokens in the near future as mine seem to be multiplying.

So to the first set of new cards and the Jazkal rocks a rather surprising 14 points out of the box. OK so this is the Enterprise era but woah that's almost Solar Sailor territory. Carrying two for attack and in agility the Bird-of-Prey has only three hull points and no shields so putting this out against the Borg is probably a big no-no. Standard actions here are Evade, Target Lock and Scan with slots open for one Tech, Crew and Weapon upgrade. If you do utilise the Scan action then the ship cannot be targeted by an Elite Action and any Weapon upgrade that attacks allows you to add a defence die - so that'll be one then. Seeing as how you're starting low, even the generic version of the class is at 14 points but sacrifices not just a unique action but also Scan and your Crew upgrade slot.

Movement is getting fairly generic too recently with the Jazkal packing exactly (and I mean exactly) the same set of moves as both the IKS Amar and the USS Montgolfier packs in this wave; maximum of four speed with a full set of turns at three and two, forward and the banks at one plus a red 180 Come About at three. I'll save talking about those again and just refer back to this paragraph for the rest of the wave. Very disappointing set and I would actually have liked to see the Jazkal slower but with a full range of moves at speed one.

Captaining this green goblin of a ship is Vrax. A stern little Romulan, he costs a budget two points for a skill of three. While he is inexpensive, Vrax does allow you to pop the Reman Bodyguards upgrade on your ship for two points less than its cost (five) and you can do so even if it exceeds the ship restrictions on upgrade slots. Bonus. There is of course the generic captain (this time the phased Romulan from The Next Phase in The Next Generation - erm...really?) and just a single Elite Action to add to your pack.

Destabilized Relations costs five points and offers a tactical advantage if you're having a shot right at the edge of your range. If the ship you're aiming for has a friendly ship within range two of it, the target ship rolls two less defence dice. A big opportunity if ever there was one but I still feel that this ship will see limited flight time with its diminished stats unless you're playing a specific game of Enterprise era combat.

Crewing the Jazkal is Nijil, another slightly less stern Romulan who actually costs more than the captain. He does add a second Tech slot to your bar and reduces its cost by one point. Note that the upgrade has to be Romulan however. Secondary to that, Nijil and one of your Tech upgrades can be disabled to provide an additional defence die. Very useful given your starting points and essential to be used with the Scan feature noted on the ship card.

In a rare appearance the Reman Bodyguards crew card lets you trade the card in for the benefit of increasing your primary weapon attack by one die and reducing the opponent's defence by the same number. A cunning little move and one worth adding to any ship in your fleet given the advantage it offers even against the Borg since there are no restrictions. Five points definitely well spent there.

Your singular Weapon card in the Jazkal expansion is Disruptor Banks and it's not just a renamed Photon Torpedoes before you say anything. Yes it does incur the Time Token penalty (three) but it can also be discarded if needs be to force the enemy to roll two less attack dice when you're in their sights. I like the twist here. Double feature cards always seem to excite me a lot more because it. Disruptor Banks can be used up to range three and charges your attack from two to three die at a cost of four points. Again, a fair deal for a double bubble.

Finally and almost the elephant in the pack is Prototype Cloaking Device. Conspicuously absent from the ship cards, its addition as a bought feature reinforces the more simplistic nature of the era. Costing four points the Tech card has to be disabled but it can be used as a Free Action even without Active Shields. However, due to its unstable and basic nature there is a hitch in that you have to roll an attack die when you cloak. A Battle Stations result will cause one point of hull damage. Yucky luck on that which again makes me not too keen on the Jazkal as a part of my fleet.

Non-Romulan ships can use the cloak but it'll cost nine points and when active you can also activate the Sensor Echo feature.

Closing out with the mission we Escape the Minefield in a two player game which sees two 50 point Romulan ships chasing a 35 point Federation ship through floating explosives. A neat scenario where the Federation player has two things to worry about in order to win and survive.

Second and taking us forward from Enterprise into the classic movie era is the IKS Amar which has the notable fact that it was the first starship to be seen in The Motion Picture and welcomed the arrival of the "bumpy forehead" Klingons that paved the way for their look for decades thereafter. Now in the past I've lambasted the model-makers over the K't'inga Class because either the bridge module has been aligned correctly or the warp engines have been the wrong way round. 

I'm not sure what they're drinking at Wizkids this month but this model is a big improvement with all of the issues fixed and a sexy new paint scheme to match. I did fear we might get a translucent cruiser but those can be set quickly aside. I really like the work here. It looks clean, well painted and "realistically" presented in more franchise-relevant colours not some of the bright shades we've seen in their "pimped up" attempts of the last few waves.

Firing a four in attack, one in defence, four hull points and three shields it's a breath of fresh air in comparison to the Jazkal and man, would I love to see those two head to head (bit one sided?). The Amar has the usual loadout of Evade, Target Lock, Cloak and Sensor Echo plus two Weapon and two Crew slots for a respectable 24 points. Why choose the Amar? Well, she allows you to drop an Evade token if you fail to make a successful attack and hey, that's happened a lot especially against my Dad. Problem is that he's usually playing as the Klingons which means I'll never get a shot at using this.

As per previous versions the standard K't'inga loses a shield and a Crew slot plus the unique action for 22 points. Note also that standard movement formation I mentioned with the Jazkal.

Captain here is Barak as played by Mark "Sarek" Lenard in the movie. A rather torrid three points for this captain's skill and a lowly cost of two which is not in keeping with the majority of the Klingon command options and did surprise me a little. His action is fairly useful but it does mean unusually chucking your captain away to gain an additional die on your Photon Torpedo attack. No note of what happens to your captain skill should this take place. Quick note too that Barak does not have an Elite Action medal on his card nor is there one included with the Amar.

I've berated other expansions in the past for their propensity to avoid using "generic" crew cards but in this one we get three (must be making up for the last few waves). The two point Klingon Navigator lets you ignore your chosen manoeuvre during the Activation Phase and choose any other with a speed of three or less but it will be treated as a red manoeuvre and the crew card will be discarded. It's a bold move and really one that will only pay off if your captain skill is a lot higher than Barak otherwise you'll be pre-empting others and that might be counter-productive.  Linked with a captain skill of seven or above this could be effective in pulling the right move at the right time against a lesser opponent. With Barak it's just finger in the wind guessing.


For three points Klingon Helmsman is also a discard but lets you perform a Come About at either speeds one or two. Not one we see very often - if ever - and offers the chance t put some distance between you and a pursuing craft before turning to blow her away. 

Luckily this isn't a Klingon exclusive card if you're a fan of playing mixed fleets although it will cost five more points (eight) and can't be put onto a ship that can't already do the Come About move. Finally there's Klingon Tactical Officer who helps out when it comes to bettering the battle scores. Costing three points, this crew option is only a disable but lets you spend an Evade token to convert a Battle Stations into a damage result. Very unique and would work well with a captain or feature that offers Evade as a free action during the Activation Phase.

All three of the crew upgrades in the IKS Amar pack are well thought out and very different. It seems the levels of imagination really picked up this time round. Even the Weapons cards have a new spin with Stand By Torpedoes as a bolt on feature to the now-standard Photon Torpedoes included here.

Stand By Torpedoes can be disabled instead of using the Target Lock which effectively gives the chance to use that on your primary weapon straight on the next turn and fire off those five dice for Photon Torpedoes. For just three points its a good card to have ready if the chance for a double assault comes to hand.

After the one player mission disappointment of the Bajoran Solar Sailor, the Amar handles the first encounter with V'Ger from The Motion Picture a heck of a lot more successfully. Instead of straight copying the scenario included with the refit movie Enterprise pack, here you get to command three Klingon ships as they attempt to scan a strange oncoming entity. The plan is to scan the entity and then do a runner but once you attack/scan it gets to fire back and the amount of dice it can use dependant on distance to your ships ranges up to 12! Very excited to try this out asap and I'll let you know how it plays out.

Third and finally, bringing us to another movie and the battle sequence at the beginning of First Contact is the Sabre Class USS Montgolfier. The wah? OK, this is a non-canon, totally made up ship and the first time this type of vessel has been available in retail. The Yeager was an OP prize some time back but for those of us who rely on hitting the shops, this is our first time of getting to grips with the chunky little craft. I'd seen some stuff which indicated it had a shoddy paintjob but that wasn't to be. I'm not a lover of the metallic silver Federation ships seem to be coming in these days but it does mean they are a little more interesting than the bland (but more accurate) duck egg blue for example. The model is a little clunky and oversized against some of the ships which are supposed to be bigger than it by some distance but it's OK and certainly playable.

Lining up with three attack, two in agility, three hull and three shield points, the Montgolfier is a fairly bog standard mid-range Starfleet ship carrying the usual actions of Evade, Target Lock, Scan and Battle Stations plus one Tech, two Weapons and one Crew slot for 22 points basic. It does carry a cunning litte unique action that allows it to move your Target Lock onto another in-range ship during the Activation Phase. I'm impressed with this because there are times when something you have locked gets away and you can't remove the lock. This removes that obstacle and keeps you very much in the game.

Generically the Sabre Class ship loses that brilliant action, a shield point and the Tech upgrade slot to cost players just 20 points.

The issue I have with the Montgolfier is how much of a mish-mash this pack is when you get into the bones of it. The captain option of Orfil Quinteros was an officer featured in The Next Generation's first season episode 11001001 and was never seen with a captain rank. Somehow he's been availed of a captain skill of five for a cost of three points. Orfil lets you roll three defence dice as an Action and for each Evade result you get to repair one hull point. However that does in turn mean accumulating one Auxiliary Power Token for each point recovered. Useful to get you back into a strong place in the game but it will remove a lot of your options aside from move and fire.

Having avoided a Wesley Crusher option for many, many waves we now have a second in only a short period of time. The last was with the Hathaway but now this five point Wes has a double action option which makes him a darn sight more charming to players.

Considering that Orfil will be stacking up your Auxiliary Power Tokens and therefore stopping you from performing any actions full stop, deactivating Wesley will let you perform one of the standard actions from the Action Bar if that situation occurs. Even better his second option means you can use an Action listed as a Tech upgrade as a free action again if he's disabled. Wow - double disable? For five points? Winner.

Wesley is your only crew option but what a great one to have around huh? In the case of Weapons we have ol' faithful Photon Torpedoes for the standard five point cost and five die attack at range two to three plus a new option with Heavy Graviton Beam.

On first glance it's nothing special - three attack (same as the primary weapon) and only effective at range one to two. Look more closely at the detail though and you find that this one time use card reduces the defence of your opponent by one die but also is mega, mega, MEGA useful against the Borg, adding three dice to your attack nor can they defend against it.

How good is that? Maybe more effective on something like the Defiant or Voyager but heck this is a real game changer against the biggest elephant in the game. For a cost of four points this is a real must have if you're going against the Borg otherwise I wouldn't get too excited. Stick with torpedoes.

The Montgolfier also comes with two Tech upgrades. The three point Thruster Array allows you to perform a reverse one or two speed move with apparently no requirement to have any reverse motion already available. A nice to have but not an essential if you're point limited. Last up is Subspace Transmitter which lets you drop a Scan token next to both your ship and a friendly ship within range three. You are stopped from using Scan as a free action for the round. The card is a disable hence the five point cost but comparing its usefulness against the five points of Wesley Crusher it's a bit puzzling. Again a nice to have but not a big advantage.


The scenario for the Montgolfier is just as cobbled together as the pack which takes its leads from The Next Generation's first season on a ship from First Contact that actually never existed. This time its from Deep Space Nine as you fight to destroy an orbital weapons platform a la Tears of the Prophets and the battle in the Chin'toka system. In essence a standard two player "objective destroy" game. 

Sadly this really is the first pack where there hasn't been a consistent thread running through it and although this is a better wave overall the Federation expansion is a little bit deflating. Both the Jazkal and the Amar are superb additions for your fleets and I can see my Klingon-playing dad loving some of the features he'll be able to use going forward.

Almost a perfect return to form I would say with just a tinge of disappointment in some of the Montgolfier elements - really looking forward to seeing how wave 24 measures up.

Invested in wave 23? What did you think to the new arrivals in this "core" trio?

Wave 23 is available now with all ships recommended to retail at £11.99 each. You can track down your local stockist HERE

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A True Classic Returns: The Official Starships Collection Issues 60 and 61

It's only the third ship we've seen from The Original Series but without question the SS Botany Bay is going to please a lot of fans.

Marking 60 issues of the series, the aging DY-100 freighter "lost in space from the year 1996" is perhaps as legendary as the original USS Enterprise of the Kirk era. One of the few starships built for the '60's show, it marked the arrival of one of Star Trek's greatest villains, Khan Noonien Singh (and not that one from Into Darkness).

So in my mind the image I had of this one was a plain, grey design with minimal detail as per the ship we saw (or think we saw) in Space Seed. Now fortunately the Eaglemoss team have avoided pimping her out to the level that we saw in the remastered episodes from a few years ago so there aren't any multiple panelling tones, a tanning of the hull or an excess of fiddly details. What we have here is a close reproduction of the original in all it's grey glory.

The length of the hull (to the top of the rear fins) as well as the top of the cargo pods is rendered in metal while the pods and the rear stabilisers are in the less weighty plastic. The basic colour is that one-tone grey with some of the upper hull panels highlighted in a darker grey but that's as far as colouring goes and it's a massive contrast against the Norway Class we'll come to shortly. Aside from the colouring the only other detailing that does exist on the Botany Bay is the name tag just beneath the submarine-esque conning tower.

The underside is particularly sparce on detail; no darker greys, no marking, no, well, anything to be fair. It's probably the easiest "bottom" review of all time (please no jokes) but that's not the real winner here. The overall weathering effect is exemplary, more-so coming so close to the equally well-weathered USS Kelvin special. The effect of nearly three centuries of space dust and debris has been well captured on the model on every surface and makes up for that spartan undercarriage very easily. 

One thing I was disappointed about on my model which might not be on all those produced was the fitting of the pods to their metallic lid piece. There's a bit of a gap between the two sections which is noticeable as is the space between the tail-fin section and its metallic top section. That's also the point where the stand clips in and it's very sturdy considering it's rear-clipping position that slides around three little raised hull blips. Nice fit, good position and well held so no worries of collision with this one.

What I do suspect is that there could be a second version of this one made in the future (Ben Robinson, take note) to replicate the remastered version which is featured equally as prominently in the magazine. The colour scheme and detailing is different enough that I think fans would jump to have a second freighter highlighting the change in technology between the model and the CG. 

The magazine is pretty good too. Acting as a companion more to the Khan story than the ship itself we do have the usual opening section exploring ship features, the story of the Botany Bay and Space Seed itself before launching into an excellent design section and then finally the evolution of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and the origins of the landmark movie. One note I do have is that the plan views included here seem to be a mash-up of the CG and original versions of the Botany Bay so we have a brown colouring with minimal detailing - I think it would have been better to keep the images aligned with the model rather than the wonders of 21st Century computer tech. Also, the choice of the image for the back cover is lacking this time. Better to have picked a top view?

Our next ship from The Original Series will be the Antares and to date these original ships are turning out to be a revelation. The USS Enterprise was more hit than miss but still looks damn fine. The Bird-of-Prey was amazing and this third arrival has firmed up my belief that these are just as exciting to receive as the ships from Enterprise. Just an FYI to all collectors if you've not already looked, the ISS Enterprise from Mirror, Mirror is now in the Eaglemoss shop. Priced £9.99 just be aware that the addition of postage will bump it up to at least £12.94 if you don't select same day dispatch.

OK so onto the last of the First Contact Alex Yaeger-designed ships, the Norway Class USS Budapest. As fans will know it's the only one of the four designs from the movie that doesn't appear anywhere else because the CG model was corrupted at sometime after production. As things go this makes the ship a real Star Trek rarity due to its lone appearance but that hasn't meant any less attention to detail on the 61st model in the series.

For note the model of the Botany Bay actually appeared more times on screen (as the Woden in The Ultimate Computer) but that was reused footage so they both only made one proper turn on the screen. I wasn't looking forward to the Norway Class that much and I recall that Ben Robinson said this was his least favourite of the four and I can't see why because it's potentially the most impressive of them all.

As surface detail goes it's almost on overload. Every inch of the surface has something to look at, to examine and to take in and we mean every single inch. The metal versus plastic unity means only the engines and underside of the saucer/wedge are in the lighter material but the two work really well here and are fitted very snuggly. The wedge top could do with a little more definition around the escape pods and the Voyager-esque recess at the front but it does carry the hull panel lining and some well-defined windows. My only other dislike is the lack of detail on the (tiny) deflector dish buried in the centre of the primary hull. 

That very hull also bears a two-tone scheme of grey and a green/grey/yellow in certain parts. We do have the thrusters and the phaser banks clearly marked and at the centre, protected by the "claws" of the engineering hull, the tiny bridge module. I almost overlooked it on first glance because it's so well hidden but look even more closely and you'll spot that the windows of the observation lounge have been painted in.

There's also two impulse engines to the rear of the wedge, painted rather than translucent however but the real top detail here is on the underside of that primary hull. With an interesting concave curve, two hidden shuttle-bays and a surface which reveals a lot of hidden intricacies on the medium cruiser. 

I've said a few times that this underside detail has been neglected and that there are only a few where it's truly on par but here it's the best bit of the whole ship and wonderfully recreated. The markings on that underside are crisp, well defined and give it a very unique finish that I've not seen on any other Starfleet ship.

Edging out the primary hull through to the raised engineering section and onto the pylons we have some red Starfleet pennants and trimming that extends out onto the pylons and onto the twin warp engines tipped with translucent bussard collectors. Two engines that are precisely parallel and well built I might care to add. Good to see these have been applied straight and true and there's no horrific bubbling or even a slight kink to raise a Vulcan eyebrow in dismay. 

But if you want to have a grumble it has to be the delta symbols on the engines. Take a closer look, compare them to the plan views and you'll spot that two of them are mirrored. Now the plan view has them all the "standard" way if viewed from above or below but if you think about other ships they do point to the front with the thinner leg of the delta to the outer edge. Which is right? I'd say the ship.

That engineering section is small and does lose some panelling definition for the sake of window markings which is a little disappointing given that the rest of the hull maintained the structure lines. I can see that it would have been horribly cluttered with the red trimming as well as those windows so it was probably a good call to make.

Truth be told there's quite a bit of decalling right across the already packed hull surface here whether it's ship registry or just hull marking,  it must have been one of the more difficult to implement in the factory. Just note too that there's no ship registry on the top of the wedge. The only identification of it being the Budapest comes from the dual names and numbers on the pylons, the two names on the underside of the hull and the large registry which sits, unusually, within a darker arc of hull plating to the front of the ship. 

Comparing to the plan views the ship is damn close on accuracy with even the port and starboard red/green lights marked out. There are some minor markings on the warp engines missing but they're so insignificant to the overall effect it's barely worth a mention.

Stand positioning is again to the rear and very stable since the clip rests around the metal pylons for the warp engines so no issue of them bending after a few years on display. Actually it's very sturdy indeed given that the warp engines project back and sideways on two struts that sprout away from the main hull. 

The magazine offers zero surprises in the way of the ship overview and can only ever regurgitate the story of First Contact and some of the details already noted with the other three ships established in that movie. Keeping with that theme the magazine dives into eight pages of costuming which seems very relevant given a recent Titan Books release and it means that First Contact is probably the most detailed live production the collection has covered in 61 issues. Not just by magazine pages either, I think it may be the single production which has provided the most models too. Those pages on the costuming are OK but the book does it at a much higher level of detail.

So bye bye November and two A grade entries. To be fair I wasn't excited by the news of the Norway Class because I already had Steamrunner which is in my top three of all time for starship design. However I've been very pleasantly surprised by the result, perhaps a bit more due to the fact it was seen only once due to a corrupt computer file.

So what's up next? Well for December we'll be seeing the Voth Research Vessel from Voyager's Distant Origin and then back to The Original Series and a ship that may well be unique in the collection as it first properly appeared in The Animated Series and then returned in the remastered Charlie X, the Antares. Given how great those older ships are looking it's definitely the one I'm most interested to see in a month's time.

A good month for the Starships Collection? What do you think?

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Simple Originality: The Official Starships Collection Issues 56 and 57

The question as to whether the earlier than usual delivery is an apology for last month's delay was quickly forgotten when I cut open this month's package.

Continuing the First Contact fleet releases we have the Saber Class USS Yeager. One of the smallest Starfleet vessels even seen with a crew of just 40, it's one of those ships that fans have been waiting for. Coming just a month after the Steamrunner Class release we didn't have to wait long to add another to the group.

I'm still a bigger fan of the chunky Steamrunner ahead of this month's Yeager but that doesn't mean this one is a poor result. A purposely compact design from Alex Jaeger, the light cruiser does away with struts, connecting pylons and neck sections, bringing the main components of the "expected" Starfleet design into a much smaller package that delivers a far smaller profile.

Clipping onto the stand from the rear of the primary hull, it's a solid grip and a stable stand. For once the pedestal didn't want to fall off every time I moved her around to take another photo angle, I think that may well be a first especially as both this and the following issue's model stands were solid from out-of-the-box.

Aside from the upper hull which is of a metal construction, the rest of the ship is moulded in plastic and marvellously detailed. Given that the Yeager is a small ship to begin with does mean we get a close-up on a lot of piping and hardware that's exposed on the hull as well as the usual lifeboat hatches and windows. Sore point but every single one of the painted windows was a mile off the hull "dip" it was supposed to correspond to. I'd love to understand why this happens every single time and is yet to be corrected at the factory.

Anyway, a plethora of hull-work dominates the central section from the unusually placed bridge at the front of the primary hull all the way to the stumpy rear and shows just how much effort has gone into recreating that screen model. Just ahead of that bridge is the recessed pit with the two shuttlebay doors. Sadly even with the larger scale for this small ship it seems that numbering the doors as per the magazine cover just wasn't something the factory could manage nor are they coloured differently to the rest of the hull.

The two-tone grey aztec paintwork is one of the more intricate we've seen too; less blocky, thinner and a lot more varied. The replication of the screen ship is exemplary with something at every point that is worth taking some time to examine, even if it's down to the shape of the phaser banks, the fleet pennant or the tiny "United Federation of Planets" script on the side of the ship.

The underside of the Yeager is as good. The aztec pattern fully wraps around along with the window and lifeboat hatches and we get to examine the triangular-shaped deflector dish. Now everything we see of this in the magazine has it fully "bronzed" however for some reason it's painted blue around the centre with a translucent blob at the core again in blue. This does hark back to the blue for warp, yellow for impulse of the movie Enterprise but does go against all the material we're given alongside the finished ship.

Talking of finish (OK that was a pretty rubbish segue), it's another winner for Eaglemoss with my Saber Class showing no bendy joints, hull gaps or glue splodges. Double score for the fact the nacelles line up which is something WizKids could learn from on their Attack Wing line. The engines themselves are semi-encased in that slimline primary hull but do have the benefit of the translucent blue venting, the red bussard collectors and a lot of finishing fins and panelling. I kinda get upset now if I don't see those translucent features on the models, especially the Federation ones. 

Don't go expecting the same treatment for the impulse engines which are sadly just painted on red lines at the rear of the main hull - so insignificant I actually forgot about them until I was asked the question what they looked like on Instagram. We do also get the port/starboard red/green lights but the crimson illumination to the rear of the bridge stack - and visible in the magazine - is absent.

Now we have the Akira, the Steamrunner and the Saber Classes ticked off it's just issue 61's Norway Class to complete the awesome foursome. Now according to Ben Robinson that's his least favourite but given the previous two and now the Yeager, I don't think we're going to be upset in the slightest. This mini-collection originally designed by Alex Jaeger has been a highlight of a damn good series that even now is just getting better each month. Yes, there are blips (more on that in a bit) but overall I remain very impressed - just need to get their customer service a little tighter on a few points but otherwise good work.

Of course with this model there's the customary magazine which has it's usual spread of movie screencaps and CGI creations for us all to examine and compare extensively with the model now sitting just to your right hand side. We get an overview of the ship features as well as key engagements which saw the class on the front lines against the Borg and the Dominion as well as being glimpsed in Voyager a couple of times. Oddly when you get to the onscreen section the fact that the class did appear in that later series is overlooked.

Being an Alex Jaeger design means that the central piece of the magazine is devoted to the creation of this ship with the a smattering of initial sketches. The shame is that this section is fairly short, probably given to the fact we've already had two First Contact ships which will have eaten up most of the film background material on the battle scene. Instead a third section runs over the thought process behind the assembly sequence for the Borg Queen. I wouldn't go as far as the article says that it's the most memorable shot in the history of Star Trek but it's still an impressive sequence nonetheless. 

Detailing the changes that took place to make the Queen's arrival real is a good read if something that most long-term fans will be more than familiar with from 20 years ago. Giving six pages over to this article is good use of space but as we've seen it does slip away from the ship and betray the fact there isn't a lot to talk about it.

As to those onscreen appearances, I'd have just left it at First Contact. Trouble is that with it being a background addition a lot of the shots from the film here are slightly blurred. Annoying to say the least but there is the benefit of some good CGI close-ups to counter your disappointment.

OK - now if you'll think back to last month at this halfway point in the review I basically said that it was pointless saying much about the D'Kyr Type because the Steamrunner had utterly blown my mind (or words to that effect). This month though I have to admit that the second ship is just as good if not better than the heavily detailed Saber Class USS Yeager.

From my interview with Ben a while ago we covered the point that he was concerned about the simplicity of the ships from The Original Series. Around the Romulan Bird-of-Prey there was also an issue with the paint scheme making it look too much like a kid's toy.

To some degree that may well be unavoidable because of that simplicity but let me tell you, those fears are unfounded and in comparison to the slight stumbles of the 50th issue USS Enterprise we have a beautiful model here.

Saying that whoever put mine together managed to trail two blobs of glue onto the outer hull, one on the starboard engine decal and failed to get the port side rear section to fit properly. Thanks for that, but aside from these "minor" assembly troubles, she's magnificent and looks great in the rear-mount stand which slides smoothly around the back of the hull and around the stabilising fin. For note it's not a tight fit either and won't mark the hull as we've seen on a few other models recently such as the original USS Enterprise from issue 50 and I think the Runabout from the mid-30's.

That 1960's simplicity works extremely well (I emphasise extremely). All we have in the way of modelled-in features on the light grey hull are the porthole and sensor grid markings (that's what the plan says but I think they're just more portholes) on the top and along the leading edge plus the forward-facing rectangular opening for the plasma torpedo launcher. There are some raised points where the sections clip together which are more pronounced than the screen version but given the basic nature of the ship, probably unavoidable. 

The impulse engine markings on the rear don't precisely match to their recesses but they are closer than those on the Saber Class. To the back is the ramrod straight stablising fin and that's all you have. As to decals, the upper hull rear and the supporting warp/engine struts carry a golden waved effect to give the impression of bird's wings.

The precisely parallel engines (apparently this thing didn't have warp - or did it?) do have blue translucent caps and silver exhausts as well as a bit more "bird" decalling. Question though because in the episode those caps are clear and on previous models they've been red. I've even seen green and yellow when trying to find a definitive answer. If we got from the original though they should be clear,  maybe even translucent white as per the model features in the Wah Chang article. It's a real headscratcher as to why they went blue and it's sure to be a point of much debate when it lands properly in about three weeks from writing date. 

Truly the plain design could well have come off as tacky and poorly conceived but from what I understand there is a little graining in the paint which lifts it from being a bland finish to give it something that is more screen-accurate.

OK, so to the big finish with the classic Romulan ship and we have to flip her over to see the full effect. The legendary Bird-of-Prey is truly a work of art as far as this collection goes and fills the metallic under-section (again a first to have the bottom section in metal) I think I might have commented somewhere else that it's the best bottom in the series. As with the top though there's no weathering, clever hull colouring or anything blindingly technical. The bird is in gold, orange and silver, no shades, nothing just block colours but it's ever so effective and must have been a nightmare to get right when applying since it appears to be one single continuous piece from nacelle to nacelle. 

Also worth a note on the lower side of the hull are the three circle features which indicate landing gear of some form - might be a first for the collection to have that so obviously detailed but with the basic level of surface details it's nice to have a few diversions to break up the grey (although given that there's a massive bird on the bottom they probably wouldn't have been missed too much if omitted).

To the magazine and as expected it's all about Balance of Terror since that was the only episode the model was filmed for. As you discover the subsequent appearance in The Deadly Years was just reused footage and the model was "unavailable" (potentially destroyed) by the time of season three's The Enterprise Incident. Eaglemoss have included some nice new passes of the ship as well as a shot from the remastered version of The Enteprise Incident which did include a Bird-of-Prey instead of a third Romulan-owned D-7.

The plan views provide a nice weathered impression of the ship with their standard minimalist annotations but seriously we're all going to flick past that to get to the story behind the Wah Chang model. The opening pic here of the Bird-of-Prey unpainted pre-filming is one I've never seen and is a real "wow" moment for the collection. The article does manage to cover, in four pages, Chang's brilliance and design talent from the tricorder to the Tribble, the communicator and the Gorn to name a few and such a tragedy that he was never properly recognised. The note that the Bird-of-Prey model may no longer exist is probably the biggest prop loss in the franchise history.

Closing out the issue before the customary onscreen appearances we have a section adding to the Romulan history series that has been popping up in the magazine since issue four and the Warbird from The Next Generation. This time it's a pre-Picard lesson touching on what led to the Romulan separation, the war with Earth (which we were robbed on seeing in Enterprise), their later alliance with the Klingons and finally their isolation which would end with their reappearance in The Neutral Zone at the end of The Next Generation's first season. Good piece to read and nicely broken down into easy chunk which is an excellent reminder and a perfect way for new fans to get a grip on their Romulan politics!

But why would I say that this is better than the detailed CGI example we have in the USS Yeager? Well because frankly the team have nailed a classic design absolutely perfectly and kept it basic. There's been no playing around and we have what we saw even down to that toning of the paint to make it look like the ship we saw on screen - not the CGI version from the remastered - the original Balance of Terror season one cruiser. 

The fact my hull doesn't sit right bugs me to hell BUT I still revel in the result and I'm now looking forward to seeing the Klingon D-7, the Botany Bay and hopefully a classic Tholian down the line. Admittedly we know the Antares is a remastered ship also featured in The Animated Series but I think we'll be impressed by the end result and it does give a nod to a series this collection has so far avoided.

Next month we have the first Borg ship since (gasp) issue 10 with the one-shot Borg Tactical Cube from Voyager's Unimatrix Zero. Ben dropped a recent shot of this on his Twitter page (here it is) and I'm really looking forward to it's arrival. Second up in October we'll also have the USS Relativity also from Voyager so a bumper month for fans of Janeway and co. Don't be put off though as October 15 is now slated for the release of the USS Kelvin special edition costing £20.99. We've seen a few shots before but a couple that Ben posted out on Twitter this week also highlighted that there's some really neat weathering on the hull which I hadn't spotted before. Again I'm really looking forward to this one as the detail is coming across as some of the best in the series.

So what did you think to this month's double? Is the Yeager better than the Bird-of-Prey or is it a classic winner?

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