The Official Starships Collection: Celebrating 50 with Ben

I have waited for almost two years to get a chance to chat with the man behind the Starships Collection and it has been well worth the wait.

There were no midnight cash drops, secret codes or meetings in public locations to avoid bugging and Ben was more than accommodating.

So where do you start and what do you ask the man who holds the answers to thousands of fans dreams?  Certainly not 'What is issue 71' because there still need to be things we need to look forward to!!!

Looking at this as more of a retrospective, why not kick off with 'Did you expect the collection to make 50 issues?'

"Yes" was the simple answer but Ben elaborated, providing a much better understanding of a collection which was bubbling under for many years before it hit the newsagent shelves. They looked at doing a collection many years ago when the Fact Files and the DVD collections were released. A figurine collection was worked on and the team realised that ships had a greater appeal so it was always "the next thing". 

With a successful James Bond car collection and a competitor running the Star Wars ships collection, it seemed like the right time - and that was five years ago. Then the company which Ben was working for was bought out and other projects took priority. Which brings us closer to the present.

"I was very nervous about the initial five," remembered Ben, "Star Trek was at that time in a very becalmed place. We'd had the JJ movie by that point but I didn't feel it had added any new active fans."

Add in another delay when the original factory was taken over by the Chinese Government meaning which pushed the collection back from January to later in the year so you can see it's not been all plain sailing.

"The way things like this work is that we test things and once I knew it would reach six I knew it would reach 60. You can predict a pretty good line how many we'll sell further on and the thing that gets interesting is how slow the decline is. We know that less people will buy the next issue than the last one published. What matters is how fast it declines but I was always confident we would hit 60 to 70 issues which was the original aim. Then it gets interesting to see if it goes further than that.


"It's great to think at the beginning there will be 60 or 70 but what you don't imagine is what they will look like altogether or how different they will be to one another or exactly where they will come from."

"If you just do the popular stuff which everyone else has already done then you have a dozen ships but then there are a few which you look at and think 'I can't believe this hasn't been done' - things like the Akira Class. But then you have to justify the collection and the more there are, the better. There are fans who want just Federation ships and if we did all of those first we'd already be finished!

"There has been a very positive response to some of the unusual stuff such as the Fortunate which no-one would have put on a list of ships they really want but there are things about it which were very pleasing. What we're seeing from this 65 to 70 issues is that people are asking why we've done X before we've done Y. For instance I know that the Federation fighter is one that a lot of online players really love that ship. There are ships that people want which we haven't done because they are extraordinarily difficult. Sometimes that's to do with the technical side and sometimes it's down to the reference. Sometimes the CG models which are the best reference just don't exist."

Immediately my thoughts went to the Narada and the Scimitar but there was more to it than that. "Those two probably do exist somewhere," continued Ben, "but its things like the Insurrection ships which I eventually came to the conclusion do not exist anywhere in CG. They were created, I've talked to the people who built them but because the company that made them got bought and then got closed. They may be out there somewhere but they were never archived."

When we're talking Insurrection ships that covers the holoship, the Sona craft, the Captain's Yacht and the scoutship - everything apart from the Enterprise-E. "We can do them but it'll take a bit more time."

Ben always knew that the original USS Enterprise NCC-1701 would be a significant issue and that initially there would be an Enterprise roughly every ten issues across the original 70 release plan, "I had concerns over the simplicity of The Original Series models," explained the series producer, "these are being borne out now."

Through the social media world, fans have been very passionate about their expectations for the collection and about what they want from the ships that helped build the franchise n the 1960's, "The ships that have garnered the best responses have been those with a lot of detail," said Ben, "those with lot of panelling again such as the Fortunate. In that case we had the CG model so we could lift all the decals directly from that on a tiny, tiny scale. The problem then is that with things such as the Klingon D-7 I want to be purist about it and there are some details on it that people may not know about and that you can't see on screen but it is a plain ship painted one colour.

"The Romulan Bird-of-Prey is a very plain ship with a very big bird painted on the underside and the biggest problem was that when it first came in it looked like a toy. The decal was too bright, too colourful and we went through a lot of interesting experiments to get that to look right. You have to explain to the factory that you want some film grain in the artwork and we learned a lot from that one because it was so simple."

The team have held off producing models from The Original Series because of the concerns over how these more plain creations would look and be received. However, that's not been the biggest challenge Ben and the team have faced. "There have been various ones which have been difficult," he continued, "Sometimes it's down to making it look like it appeared on screen and sometimes it's because of the way it does look on screen."

The Maquis Raider was a challenge because what it needed was something the factory found very difficult to reproduce; "When you look at a CG or practical model it throws shadows into all the panel lines and when you scale it down to the size we're at, there is no way you'll get any shadow in the panel lines so in order to make it look really right you need to find a way to get some form of darkness into the panel lines. It's an almost impossible thing for the factory to do in mass production."

As an example, Ben pointed to the Delta Flyer and if you take a propelling pencil and run it around all the panel lines it will look a lot better - and not something that the can do in paint in mass production.

"There are things that have been a pleasant surprise which I thought were going to be really difficult," said Ben, "such as the Romulan Drone. I thought 'Am I really going to do this?' and gave it a go. It turned out fine from the beginning which was really nice and I thought it was going to be a nightmare.

"The Enterprise's as well because in every film they're so inconsistent. For instance the E changes a lot and you end up compromising on which one to go with. You have really good reference for one part from one movie and another part from another movie so you end up with something that works for most people but there will always be some who spot that half of it might be from Insurrection and half of it's from First Contact -that's terrible!"

In fact on The Original Series USS Enterprise, which Ben has gone to a lot of trouble over I can assure you, it's not all been plain sailing, "Because we're on a fortnightly schedule we just have to leave it and it's as good as we're going to get it."

The factory actually hated doing the Borg Sphere. While being a ball, a simple geometric shape, it was little bit more fiddly than expected; "Anything that appears random is a challenge," continued Ben, "There was lots and lots of little detail on the texture map and they had nothing to follow."

In contrast the Valdore might have had a lot of fine detail but it was very visible and easier to recreate on the model. The Species 8472 bioship, one which I found not to be as "organic" as I would have liked, was indeed another unusual issue for the team; "It was very difficult to explain how we wanted soft lines and it's actually in the wrong material given that it is organic."

The Enterprise-C was certainly one issue which set fans alight. Ben explained that they were working with references for the Yamaguchi as well as the C and that there are certain things that the factory just can't replicate, "The impulse engine they simply couldn't do. On the Enterprise for issue 50 there is a similar thing in that the cab over the shuttlebay is so small they just can't reproduce it in this scale. I don't think it will spoil collectors' enjoyment of the model but it's interesting to discover that some things just can't be done."

I asked Ben if there was one model that he would love to have a go at again, was there one? A very easy answer and I think a lot of readers will know immediately; the movie refit Enterprise from issue two. "We will get to do it again because we will do the A," said Ben who also revealed that it the second USS Enterprise will appear in "the early 70's", "It was developed really early on and the paint job on that ship is incredibly complicated and the nature of the aztec is much more sophisticated than the aztecs on subsequent paintings. I was trying to be very purist about it and wanted it to look the way it did in The Motion Picture which was slightly pink. It has this lavender cast which comes off it. I was also thinking about how the ship should look. Should it look right when you put a light on it? If you don't shine a light on it? There were a lot of things I hadn't quite worked out and it was a big learning."

"The ship that we did around the same time which was actually really easy to do was the NX-01 where we had this fantastic reference. It's the most detailed CG model that was ever built for Star Trek probably moreso than the JJ-Enterprise. It's got an amazing amount of detail on it most of which we were able to recreate. We were able to give the factory this fantastic reference and tell them exactly how to make it. Although there's a lot of detail they were able to do it. There were some issues with getting the aztec right and trying to explain that I wanted a colour so close you couldn't tell the difference. It turned out really well and set a standard. It is a different kind of ship though. It has more to it."

Surprisingly, Ben also singled out the Reliant as a second example which turned out well; "It showed all the lessons that I'd learned on The Motion Picture Enterprise. The issues we'd had were then solved on that ship. The A will be like the Reliant with the right registry!"

It seems that a lot of the more interesting quirks of the series have been down to the paintwork. The Jem'Hadar fighter on-screen looks pretty grey and Ben went a long way to try and replicate those colours with an awareness that people knew about the studio model and wanted the hues. "I knew those colours were there but when you saw it on screen they were barely visible," recalled Ben, "Finding a palette that reflected that was not easy. Gary Hutzler said that they would control the colours and paint the ship a lot stronger than you would intend to see it on screen and then when they composited it they were dialled right down so they would use 50% of the strength of the colour in the effect. The other factor is that the basic colour of the ship is only half the story because then you have the environment it's in. Most of the ships have internal lights, external lights, lens on the camera - so it's not as straight forward as one might think. There's not just one colour that's correct."

There's also that interactive light from the nacelles which pass a hue of magenta which Ben also tried to work into the paint.

Ben then made reference to some of the more screen-illegible details such as "Federaion" on the Akira Class and the point that the ship doesn't have a name on the hull even though she's Starfleet; "There are typos on the models in the show as I discovered. We actually copied the model exactly and I hadn't realised they had put text in that small. I thought it was just a black line!

"Sometimes screen accurate does cause problems. The CG model they supplied me with for the Nebula Class had four different registry numbers on. That was how it appeared on screen but as it was going fast in the background no-one was taking notice!"

As the series runs there is a certain logic to the order in which the issues run, pairing a Federation ship (not necessarily a Starfleet ship) with an alien vessel each month. Ben noted that in the mid-20's this didn't quite go to plan but it seems to be pretty consistent now. "I try to keep a balance between the series," explained Ben in overview of the collection, "but there are a lot more ships in Voyager and Enterprise than there are in the other shows. If I'd had access to 100% perfect CG models from the beginning I would probably have come up with a different order. As with the Insurrection and Nemesis ships I've kept looking for the reference materials but they are postponed until I hope I can find the CG models."

However this is still some good reference available so don't get too disheartened as there was material produced for the Fact Files back in the day.

Ben has given us a real insight here into the first 50 issues, but what about the future? What might we expect?

"I think I can get hold of the reference material for the smuggler ship from Unification," revealed Ben, "I know pretty much what it looks like but I'd like to get more detail. There are more obscure Federation ships out there such as stuff in the shipyard at Qualor II or the debris field at Wolf 359 and sometimes there are good reference for them. I haven't completely finished my efforts to find reference for them. Some of them are kit-bashed and there are certain clues. There are so few alien ships which were big and important that we've dealt with most of the major ones people would put on their list. There are still some interesting ones out there but we've covered the obvious ones!"

OK - I may have pushed a little bit more; "You can be confident that we'll be doing was on air in The Original Series as we've now got hold of all the CG models from the remastered episodes. If not all then most.

"Then there's space stations. I don't think they will work at the size of the ships and I'm not sure how compelling they are as specials compared to a big bad ship or Federation ship. There are nice things to do and some nice unexpected Deep Space Nine things coming up that no-one is talking about but I was pleased with them."

Ben is a big Niner and has a few ships on his list which he's not seen any interest in. I guessed at the Bajoran transport (seen recently in Attack Wing's Wave 15 and on screen in The Circle trilogy) and the Interceptor - plus some others! He believes that he's in a place now where they can give more coverage to The Original Series and Deep Space Nine which have had less coverage than the other shows.

"If people carry on buying and we go past 90 there's even more obscure stuff." said Ben, "I would love to do Matt Jeffries design for the Phase II Enterprise which is breaking the rules but it's as close as you can get. There was stuff at Qualor II that was built for other reasons and have a lot of stories behind them. Those are the things I want to get into and am keen to do. Of course we'll keep alternating with alien ships - a surprising amount of which have to come from Enterprise. 

"When you get to this point and you know we're going to 90, I have another 10 or 15 to plan and you start wondering if you'll get to certain ships. I'd love to do some others from the original movies which we do have good reference but would need to build CG models to aid the factory."

For that I would suggest the Merchantman from The Search for Spock - and we'd probably better leave it right there. We may also get some news on the seventh special and pictures of the Kelvin very soon for special five. There will be more plaques with Voyager is out very soon.

For those of you wondering about missing back issues, Ben explained that they do need to order each in large quantities because otherwise the cost of just a single model would be tens of thousands of dollars. Good news is that the whole series will be getting restocked as the issues are resupplied for the European subscription-only release. Issue one kicks off in France this month so if you're waiting for Defiant it's just a few months off.

Finally Ben also wanted to thank everybody who has helped produce the ships, the magazines (which we didn't cover here in enough detail!) and who he's been back in contact with after a few years. You know it's a good week when you get to talk to John Eaves and Ira Steven Behr!

MANY MANY thanks to Ben Robinson for his time in producing this article! Congratulations on the 50th! You can follow Ben on Twitter HERE and catch some of the latest snippets on the collection.

You can now see our short review of the USS Enterprise 50th issue model on our YouTube channel.

Our blog review of Issues 50 and 51 can be found HERE or you can peruse our complete review catalogue HERE. We also have a fan picked top ten to celebrate 50 issues.

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Starships Collection @ 50: Our Perfect Ten

Since August 2013, Eaglemoss have produced 50 regular issues and four specials bringing the starships of Star Trek to life and into the hands of fans - in many cases for the very first time.

As issue 50 drops us NCC-1701 from The Original Series, the question I've been keen to ask is; what are the best ten issues that have come from Ben Robinson and the collection team?

Instead of waffling on myself for the next chunk of the article what better way than to ask some of my friends from across the Star Trek community which ones are indeed the best ships? (and I'll jump in here or there...)

Let's head back to the very early days to kick this one off...

Enterprise; NX-01; Issue 4

"The NX-01 for me just hits all the marks." said SKoST friend and series collector Nils Walter Khan; "To choose this Enterprise over the amazing first issue D is hard to do, but there is something extra special about this one I feel. The silvery hull finish and degree of aztecing look great from any angle first of all, and are as balanced and accurate looking as any Enterprise in the collection since. 

The super-fine filigree hull plating is amazing top AND bottom, even the saucer's edge, and in fact nearly the whole model is metal and feels as balanced and solid as Captain Archer's ship itself. As for joins/seams, there are none that I can see. The detailing paint apps are just as sharp as the hull plating, and there was no skimping on this one. Impulse power? Check. Blue light piping in the fine warp nacelle openings, even showing the broken/dashed blue glow. Check."

Simon Cordell from The Engage Podcast also sneaked the NX-01 in as an honourable mention; "It is without a doubt Eaglemoss at their best. Every minor detail has been painstakingly applied to the almost completely metal model…which leaves you speechless every time you see it! Bravo Eaglemoss!

"This of course bodes well for the release of Eaglemoss’ sixth special edition, the Enterprise NX-01 refit. Which after the response this model has got, makes it one of the most anticipated starships they are going to create."

USS Voyager NCC-74656 - Issue 6

"This is a model which I myself am surprised I'm choosing, as it’s not the first model which springs to mind!" notes Simon from The Engage Podcast.

"But it’s a model Eaglemoss should be pleased with…as it symbolises the Intrepid Class ‘hero ship’ admirably, as it has a great level of detail. Which Captain Janeway would be proud of! Well done Eaglemoss!!!"

My thoughts here - yep, Voyager a nice ship if a little icky on the paint job although I am partial to the armoured version from issue 48. One of the core ships they had to do and early!

Romulan D'deridex Class Warbird - Issue 5

Simon's second choice is also from the early days of the series; "I think that the Romulan D'deridex class Warbird is somewhat overlooked, as it has an amazing attention to detail for its size.

"Combined with its quite accuracy paint apps and almost total metal construction, means that you could believe it was patrolling the Neutral Zone causing problems for the crew of the Enterprise!!!"

Friend of SKoST Dan Foster was also a fan of the big Romulan vessel we originally saw in The Next Generation's first season; "It was the first one of the models that really had a "wow" factor for me. As a fan of the original design I had seen it reproduced as a model by AMT, a toy from Playmates, and of course smaller Micro Machines and Heroclix miniatures. 

"This version however had a real weight to it, and actually seemed to improve on the original design. Now, I have never seen the original shooting model, but the earlier reproductions seemed to capture its lines pretty well. Eaglemoss' version seemed to have thinner nacelles and a longer neck which to me really added to the elegance of the design and amplified the menace. The painted-on window detailing also stood out."

K'Tinga Class Cruiser; Issue 7

Dan also picked out the second Klingon vessel featured in the series as a real highlight: "The K'Tinga Class cruiser; the model's slavish adherence to the original's surface detail made it for me. The Motion Picture redesign of Matt Jeffries' original added a texture that really gave a realistic feel to the ship in general, and Eaglemoss captured that well. Its true strength though is the subtlety of the grey tones across that surface adding depth to the texture. It is very nicely done and an early indicator of the professional looking product Eaglemoss would continue to provide."

I also love this design and would put it into an individual top ten. The hull detail and the overall finish were superb. It'll be interesting to compare it to the upcoming, very plain D-7 from The Original Series.

USS Defiant, NX-74205; Issue 8

Phil Tuck from The Engage Podcast headed to one of my favourites as part of his selection and while I don't think it's one of the best personally, I get his reasons for its selection; "Why this one I hear you shouting? Well I chose it because this is my favourite ship of all time, I mean just seeing it peering in and out of the shadow at the start of every Deep Space Nine episode makes me get goose bumps!

"It’s just one of those things that makes me smile because I just love it and that’s the only way I can describe it!"

Also one of the first with a blatant error in the alignment of one of the pennants. This was later corrected from the German release onwards. Personally I wasn't too sure with this one as the front warhead seemed a bit loose. Thing is, even though it might have been, it's Defiant. End of.

USS Thunderchild; NCC-63549; Akira Class; Issue 12

UK Star Trek fan and collector Rob Gibson picked out a very popular ship from The Next Generation movies as one of his entries onto our list; "This was the first ship I thought about way back when the magazine was first announced (such a long time ago!).

"I remember the first time I saw this ship in First Contact and immediately wanting to know everything about it. Eaglemoss really did go all out on this model and did a great job recreating her, making sure to keep it screen accurate by keeping USS Thunderchild off the hull registry was something I really liked! 

"Issue 12 was the first issue to tackle a ship which had never been created as a model for the fans before, Eaglemoss really didn't dissapoint! (One minor gripe... this was the first model with Eaglemoss' awesome spelling mistakes)."

"After this, I had a couple of Fed ships to look forward too including the Delta Flyer, Runabout, the Stargazer to name but a few, but the USS Pasteur was high on my list and the model was amazing. The level of detail, I thought, was some of the best of the series so far. The windows, escape pods, hull markings etc were all clear and sharp looking. Considering the size of this ship I was expecting closer to the Excelsior levels of detail but I was very glad to be proven wrong."

Jem'Hadar Fighter; Issue 29

The Engage Podcast's Phil picked our next entry from the mid-range of the current 50 issues; "Although this is not an obvious choice it’s the one I have chosen, because I feel it’s an under loved ship and for some reason it has a bad reputation, or is this just me?

"Yes you could say it looks like a bug in flight, you could say it’s a silly colour, you could even go as far to say you only like it when you see one explode? For me it’s sleek, it’s menacing, and it’s scary in battle!

Now here’s the clever bit! I say this to you, imagine seeing this ship and the Defiant in battle.... now you know what I mean! "

Romulan Drone; Issue 39

"I wasn't looking forward to this in the slightest but the Drone blew me away, easily my biggest surprise love of the series so far..." stated Rob in relation to the flea-like vessel from Enterprise.

"She feels heavy and well built but the masts also make it feel delicate. The paint apps are spot on and give the ship a fantastic sheen and reflectivity, I didn't realise how great the ship looked until I got my hands on this model!

Alien ships have lots to chose from but a lot of the ships have been done to death in previous model series. The Romulan Warbird and Klingon D7 I think are definitely in my top ten alien ships but, the Enterprise ships really were fantastic and most had never been seen before! Deciding which were my favourites was tough..."

USS Pasteur, NCC-58925; Issue 42

Nils' second choice actually seems a fairly obvious one when he explained why; "We campaigned together (Clive and I) pleading like little kids for their best ever Christmas wish, and I can't help but feel like we got it! I was never so pleased as when the Pasteur got announced without any prior notice, and not long after, we saw the first pictures of the model. 

I knew right away it would be a favourite of mine, and wasn't even remotely disappointed after it finally arrived. In fact it's better that I though.... the lovely robins egg shell blue colouration and astounding amount of detail really jumps out at you. Not to mention that shape :-) Love it or hate it, it's so well executed I can barely tell the difference between this four inch model and the filming model pictures I've seen. Up on the shelf, packed with other Federation ships, my eye goes straight to it every time."

Thanks to Nils for supplying us some great pics for the Pasteur and the Enterprise!

So that leaves me (Clive) with the final choice and it's not a difficult one....

Deep Space Nine; Special 1

I may be accused of cheating but frankly I don't care. When this arrived I may have shed a fanboy-esque tear. Even better was getting the chance to do a pre-release preview for Eaglemoss with some exclusive pics.

The station was a revelation. To do it in the collection wasn't a massive shocker but having it as a big-scale special was more than welcome and something that should have been applied to the Enterprise-E at the least...and maybe Excelsior...and - anyway - it was another perfect ten if we were scoring, even down to the packaging. To date it still remains the only space station in the series - but more on that in our third and final piece celebrating 50 issues this week. Ok so there were no tiny aerials here and there but this was a strong entry which also prepared us for the bigger scale specials which, sadly since then have trodden the JJverse path and will do until special six's NX-01 refit.

If you're pushing to find out which ship I would select if I hadn't gone for Deep Space Nine and restricted myself to the 50 regular issues then I'd swap out the station and stick in ECS Fortunate. Yep - that's dropped a few jaws I bet. I was overly impressed with the finishing details on the Enterprise guest ship right down to the numbering of the individual pods, the panelling lines, the lot. I never expected or wanted to like her but the finishing was nigh on perfect in every respect and she's become a favourite of mine. If you go back and check out my anticipation rating I was not looking forward to her but as with ALL the Enterprise entries it was excellent.

A big thank you to Nils, Simon, Phil, Dan and Rob for their involvement with this article. Great to hear your opinions gents and I'll see you all for your thoughts at issue 100!

Don't forget we still have the EXCLUSIVE interview with Ben Robinson from the Starships Collection and you can already read our review of issue 50 HERE

So what were your favourites from the collection so far? Did we get it right or utterly wrong?


You can now see our short review of the USS Enterprise 50th issue model on our YouTube channel.

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Where it all Began: Official Starships Collection Issues 50 and 51

We are here. The legend,  the Big One,  NCC-1701.

We're talking The Original Series here not movie refit and a model that I know Ben Robinson has seen as a real labour of love.

Have they succeeded in meeting our expectations?  Well here we go....

Painted out in the grey that fans will be familiar with from pictures of the original model currently undergoing restoration she is,  as I expected, very plain. The models from the 1960's were indeed very simple and straightforward. Detail was minimal and hey,  this is a show that won't go beyond the decade.... No need to get too technical.

All the weight with this one is in the saucer with the secondary hull and nacelles all in plastic. Just be warned that you might end up with some scratches on the paintwork as the stand clasp for the ship is very tight at the rear of the saucer. The surface of the Constitution Class vessel is very, very plain. If you're thinking there are going to be panel lines, radial edges branching out from the centre of the saucer, then you're going to be disappointed. It's absolute basics with the Enterprise. The only significant details you are going to see here are the registry numbers on the nacelles and saucer and the Starfleet pennants. Anything you've seen in CG or Deep Space Nine can be ignored since this is The Original Series pure.

There are a few highlight markings around the impulse engine and on the underside of the secondary hull but that's it. Ben and the team really have gone back to the beginning here and gone simple. This is as realised and as delivered to the studio for filming. I can understand what he meant by being concerned how the entries from The Original Series would come out because they are devoid of the usual intricacies that we are used to from Voyager or Enterprise. 

The light details on the secondary hull are painted straight onto the plastic so there's no concern over alignment in that respect. However the metal saucer windows don't quite match to their molded indents. It's very hard to notice since the size of them is quite small and when she's on your shelf you won't even notice.

The nacelles are pretty impressive on the Enterprise with translucent bussard collectors and the various vents and exhausts very precisely painted and parallel. Their fit to the pylons isn't a totally snug fit but again given the scale of this legendary ship, you have to look past and see the whole picture rather than the tiny imperfections.

One thing that will continue to be a disappointment is the deflector dish. A few weeks back we knew that it was going to be an issue as Ben revealed it would be from a clear plastic rather than a solid plastic painted bronze. Now the problem is that the deflector has actually come out more a shade of orange than it is bronze. It's still a nice result, a clean finish to the front of the ship but the colour is, well, wrong. There are also some "iffy" joint lines on the secondary hull, especially on the port side on the Enterprise I received this week. There are some small gaps and the way it's been put together sectionally is not what I expected.

For the cost it is a spectacular model and certainly the best I've seen at this scale. I find myself torn because it's such a massive model in terms of lore and you really don't want to point out any of the challenges with the end result. You can tell there's a lot of love poured into the ship and the level of superb simplicity that oozes from the box when you open her for the first time. 

As you do look through the accompanying literature, you do tend to glance back a fair bit to the model and then back to the pictures for comparison and it's difficult not to be a little disgruntled - but remember that a lot of the images are remastered with higher detail and are not from The Original Series in its original format. Looking at those images and the photos of the original ship you realise just how subtle/non-existent those markings were and that we've been greatly affected by later Star Trek's attention to detail and minute that it looks "wrong"  when actually this is as spot on as you could anticipate.  

I think Ben and the Eaglemoss team have, given the high levels of anticipation over this one,  delivered a solid,  high level result. It might not be perfect (and I know one reason why but can't say just yet) but it's as near as goddammit possible given all of the factors which influence the collection. Is it one of my favourites? Without question.

The issue 50 magazine won't fire any new info at the average fan. It is, like the model, very much back to basics covering a very broad backstory of the ship from April through to Kirk (ignoring The Motion Picture and beyond) before turning towards towards the design process as recounted from Matt Jeffries. Fans will have seen a lot of these sketches before but they are well presented here and there is a coloured drawing I don't recall seeing before. The views don't quite match up with the model given that the shuttlebay doors are a different colour and there is more hull detail but it gives you a good idea of how much design and graphics have come since the original Enterprise first took flight.

Making the NCC-1701 doesn't reveal any huge facts we didn't already know but it's great to be reminded of some of the changes that were made not only between The Cage and Where No Man Has Gone Before but between that second pilot and filming of the main series itself.

Closing out the issue are the On Screen moments - exceptionally hard to pick as I would have selected two totally different ones - probably The Doomsday Machine and The Tholian Web but it was always going to be a difficult choice!

Once you're over the high of owning a magnificent replica of the USS Enterprise, you'll be unpacking the Hirogen Hunter and issue 51. Voyager models haven't been that impressive so far and trying to remember specific alien vessels from the show has left me head-scratching a bit. There's the Dauntless, the Malon Export Vessel, the Borg Sphere(ish) and the Species 8472 Bioship are the only ones I could recall. After a quick list check they were the only ones, period.

Out of those only the Dauntless really grabbed me and that might have been because it's one of my favourite ships and episodes of the show. The rest were OK but not in my top ten.

The Hunter is probably the best alien vessel from the smattering we've had from Voyager. I'd even go as far to say that with the high level of detail it is the best starship produced from Voyager. There must have been some superb reference materials for this one.

A heavy entry to the collection, the ship has a large amount of metal in her with the plastic sections seemingly blending straight into the central section without a hint of a seam anywhere. The seams really are well disguised within the structure of the ship aside from the one under the nose but from a machining point of view this has to be one of the finest examples of what the factory can produce for the collection.

It's a polar opposite to the USS Enterprise in detail with every surface marked out precisely against the original model. There are a few lit/glowing sections which are far too small for replication on the model but it's understandable why these are omitted - cost, difficultly, probable endangering of eyesight from being so small to fit... the usual.

What gets me here though is that there are some really tiny markings in Hirogen that the factory have reproduced - just check out the underside of the ship on the pylons connecting the warp nacelles to the hull and on the sides of the nacelle cowling (those bits are in red on the plan views). They are very faint but definitely there - go and have a look and compare. Even the small etchings around the central section are reproduced and coloured - amazing. I spent a good while with the ship and pics side by side and was blown away by what has been achieved here. Just as with last month's ECS Fortunate, the Hunter is one of those ships you can pour over for hours, looking at every surface, nook, gun turret, indent and panel line. Each time you do there's something else that will catch your eye and draw you in.

As usual I do have one "however" moment and here it's the engines. The three grey/silver exhausts at the rear are just too clean and a little too "plasticy". There is evidence on the central sections of space weathering and it could have done with eeking onto other parts of the model. I know this is probably down to cost, production etc but it's a little bit of a shame given the echelons of brilliance that the rest of the ship climbs due to the evident focus on detail. I love the arcs of the nacelle covers, the horns, the abrupt angles, all of which we get here in abundance.

I actually think, after looking at the pics in the magazine that there could be even more detail on the Hunter but the scale here limits what can be done. The CG images too make it look like there are a lot more shades and colours across the whole surface of the vessel however this is still, as noted, the best Voyager entry to the series to this point and I suspect it will be a hard one to beat. She's not pretty to look at but she ticks every box you would want from a model in this collection and then some. I do think the Hirogen were the best baddie Voyager encountered and I hope Ben can push beyond the confirmed 90 to give us the larger Venatic Class ship from Flesh and Blood.

Top and bottom here, the Hunter is great from every angle and I'm really happy with how she's turned out (as you can tell). The rear position stand fits nicely and she's secure with the slight lean to aft. Totally well-presented. Only making her bigger would improve on this one and add more textures, rails and microscopic details. In my opinion, a perfect model.

So to the literary addition for issue 51. There are a few fuzzy screenshots in here but they run alongside some nice reference shots of the Hunter in CG, running lights an' all. The overview focuses more on the race as a whole rather than an episode synopsis which makes a change from recent editions although that was more due to the fact they were ships from single episodes. Even the plan views seem to have a few more notes than usual this time around.

Rick Sternbach takes us on a tour of the design process for the ship which seems to have been formulated quite early on with the sphere and spire concept showing up straight away. It is a much more aggressive shape than we had seen before and influenced by the internal designs produced for the Hirogen arc during Voyager's fourth season. The final piece turns towards other Hirogen vessels seen in Flesh and Blood so the title Designing Hirogen Technology is a little misplaced. It's a good read though, explaining how the race evolved for its final appearance in the last year of Voyager. I'm a big Hirogen fan so being able to look at the designs for their lesser known and rarely seen ships and base is a real pleasure. Just makes me want to get to that final year of episodes in my rewatch a little bit more!

Rounding out with a pick of Hunters and Prey for the On Screen appearances, this is a great companion piece to one of the real highlights of the series so far. For those of us who like to take a few pics of the models this one is particularly photogenic. Lots of good angles and light reflections to play with!

Issues 52 and 53 are due up next with the Centaur Class from Deep Space Nine and the Klingon Attack Ship from Enterprise taking centre stage. HOWEVER before that, there's a couple of articles you might want to check back for...

This week we're celebrating the 50th issue of the collection not just with this review but with two other pieces:

• Perfect Ten - fans of the collection and friends of SKoST talk about the best models so far.

• Chatting to Ben Robinson - I have an EXCLUSIVE interview with the man behind the collection including some great insights into the ships and a few hints of what we might expect.

So keep checking back this week or link up with one of our social media platforms to keep up to date with all of our articles. While you're at it, why not let us know your thoughts on the two latest issues from the collection?

You can also see our short review of the USS Enterprise on our YouTube channel.

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CHECK OUT OUR REVIEW OF THE USS PROMETHEUS FROM ATTACK WING OVER ON YOUTUBE

Art Trek: The Current Generation

Sometimes I fear Some Kind of Star Trek is going to get samey, that I'll bore you all to death out there and slowly the site will plummet to ground like an Enterprise towards Genesis.

Then you come into contact with a real talent and even better, they're in the UK (win!). I "discovered" this gent's work through the Risa social media site a few months ago and was blown away by his artwork. So much so that I had a chat and wanted to get to know David Milburn a bit more and just how he ended up producing Star Trek pics.

"I have loved Star Trek since The Next Generation started on our screens in 1990 by which time I was ten years old." said David Milburn, a UK-based, Star Trek fan who is venturing out into graphic dimensions on the final frontier.

"I just loved it from the off, as it was at a time when I was massively into sci-fi (which was started with Red Dwarf) and The Next Generation was just so glossy with great special effects, I was always going to be hooked. After the first few episodes of The Next Generation found out about The Original Series and the films. 

"Of course the films had already reached Star Trek V: The Final Frontier so I had plenty to watch and catch up on but only later in the 90's when I could get my hands on all the VHS tapes of the past shows and films did it really dawn on me how amazing the universe of Star Trek was. I think for me, even though The Next Generation started my love affair with Star Trek, it was is The Original Series that I love the most. I don't really know why, I guess it comes from the fact that I love classic Doctor Who, and The Original Series looked (although with a bit more money spent on special effects I would imagine than the BBC could afford) very similar, wobbly sets, the over acting etc. 

"But I also think the stories told in The Original Series where just brilliant and I loved the relationship dynamic between Kirk, Spock and McCoy. When it comes to fave episodes it is a little strange. I never really got into the spin off shows like Voyager and Deep Space Nine because for me, Star Trek was the USS Enterprise and her missions.

"My favourite episode does come from one of those shows however! Deep Space Nine's crossover with The Original Series, Trials and Tribble-ations, was just genius and the way it was filmed, the effects, it was magic, and show what was so great about the show, the shared universe, its mythology and its history. It was brilliant TV. Having said that, I also love Space Seed from The Original Series and The Best of Both Worlds from The Next Generation."

I can't quibble with his choice of favourite episode there. It would certainly be in my top selection as would the other two he mentioned. Definitely a man who knows his Star Trek. David certainly has a flair for art and his box heads are a different spin on the fictional universe. So where did the fascination start that led to this creative streak?

"My interest in art has always been there ever since secondary school. I even went to art college for two years, which I really enjoyed. My dream when I was younger was to break into animation but unfortunately the reality of life set in and if I wanted to get a car, go out with my friends etc, I had to get a paying job so my dream became just that. I wouldn't change anything that I have done, I do really enjoy the career path that I have gone down and when the internet burst onto the scenes (which seems weird to say as it feels like it has always been there) it meant that I could maybe do some art and share it.

"When I was younger I just loved animation, Disney, Hannah Barbera, Warner Bros, Cosgrove Hall (the makers of shows like Danger Mouse and Count Duckula) and was always up early hours Saturday morning to watch the latest adventures of He-Man, Transformers and all the rest of the amazing shows that was produced in the late 80's early 90's. I also collected comics, the Dandy, the Beano and even some Marvel/DC although they where a little harder to get at the time. I still enjoy animation now and collecting comics which is why I have tried to break into comic making myself with Box Heads."

Those Saturday mornings were something that I was a fan of myself and I even recall the animated Star Trek getting a slot there at one point in the 90's. While I turned to the written side and the creation of new and crazy stories featuring my favourite characters, David was dreaming of how those things might look in another way.

"It's not much but it's my little space on the internet and it means I can do something I love and share it." explained David, "I enjoy making all kinds of images from simple character design, to posters and splash images. For this I use a Wacom Cintiq 13HD which is a drawing tablet and it's the best piece of kit I have ever owned and makes life so much easier to draw. Depending on the size of the image and details the times can vary. For instance the image I produced for skost.co.uk took a while. The USS Enterprise on the poster took me three hours on its own. Then Picard and Kirk took me another three to sketch out, ink and colour. However some images can take me about an hour from start to finish. A Box Heads comic for instance takes me about, on average, two hours. 

"People are certainly easier to draw than anything else, but with aliens (especially original ones) you can get to have a bit more fun and be a bit more expressive. the ships are, for me anyway, the most difficult, but once you do one and get it right, its a proud moment. I am still learning my craft when it comes to the ships and hopefully I will get better in that department. In terms of inspiration, I like to do things for new projects and concepts.

"For instance I did a poster for a home made animation project called Star Trek Absolution. A concept that is set after The Next Generation, it was intriguing to me so I decided to help out with the poster and it was fun to do as it had original uniforms and space ships. I have also created a poster (again attached) for an idea I had called Star Trek Federation which see's the handing over of the Enterprise from Picard to Captain Saxon. I find these type of projects the most fun to do, but sometimes you cant help to revert back to the characters you love."

One of the other things that attracted me to David's work is an ongoing sci-fi A-Z of characters. While there are a lot of familiars, there have been a couple I didn't expect as his series has progressed. As you'll see here, there's even a couple of captains to satiate your Star Trek needs.

"It's going really well, slowed down a bit so I can concentrate on building up www.box-heads.co.uk and getting the comics done, but we are up to S now and won't take me long until that is complete. Once done I am hoping to compile it onto a poster that will be made available. Then I will be moving onto... the A-Z of Star Trek! Although this won't be using the look of Box Heads like the current A-Z is, so that is something exciting I am looking forward too. Then I might do the A-Z of Game Characters... just so many geeky possibilities!!!

Interested in having David work something up for you? Then you can get in touch and find out more. Well worth keeping an eye on his website as it grows and develops - that A-Z is a brilliant series and I'm already anticipating his A-Z of Star Trek. Maybe David will let me make a couple of suggestions(!)

"I have already done a couple of commissions, so very soon I will be having a commission section on my website, but in the mean time if anyone wants anything they can contact me at davidmilburn02@hotmail.com and we can have a chat about their needs, they can also check out some of my work at davemilburn.deviantart.com."

And just to finish off, here's that artwork specially commissioned by David for Some Kind of Star Trek - damn fine if you ask me and I have no doubt we'll be seeing more of his work in the future.