Saturday 9 May 2020

1:1000 scale Discovery USS Enterprise incoming, and other model kit updates

Twenty-third century fans of all flavours should be happy with the latest model kit releases from Round 2 Models. Continue below for details of Wrath of Khan and TOS TV-era kits on the way. But first Discovery:

Having released the three hero ships of Discovery (Discovery, Shenzhou, and Enterprise) at 1:2500 scale pretty swiftly last year, Round 2's Polar Lights are now back with a bigger 1:1000 scale USS Enterprise kit. That makes for a pretty impressive 44cm+ long ship once built. Here's the box art (which seems to be a new style):


Round 2 are expecting this to start shipping in the next month or so (per their latest product update video). You can check out the prototype in one of my previous reports.

Also on the way soon is a reissue of the 1:1000 scale USS Reliant kit. Round 2 often like to offer something new with their reissues, and this time that comes in the form of a set of battle damage decals included with the kit. Here's the box art:


The kit also includes decals for all the names and registries, but to really finish it off you'll need to get hold of the separate set of aztecing decals. This pack includes aztecing for both the Reliant, and the 1:1000 scale USS Enterprise kit which was reissued earlier this year.


Now the Enterprise is out in the wild, further box art images have been released, giving a good look at the model as built, including its own set of battle damaging.





Finally, looking ahead to later in the year, Round 2 have revived their long on-hiatus plans for a new Shuttlecraft Galileo kit. Trek-spert Gary Kerr shared on Modeler's Miniatures and Magic some rendering of his CGI model of the ship that will be the basis of the model, plus some details of features of the kit:
The model is around 11″ long, half the length of the studio miniature. The shape of the hull favors the flared back end of the 22-footer. Jamie thought that it looked cooler than the parallel-sided 22-incher, and the flared shape made it easier for me to design the interior. According to Matt Jefferies, the 22 ft Galileo was 3/4 scale, which would make a real shuttle around 30 ft in length. This means that the PL kit is 1:32 scale compared to the ‘real’ 30-ft shuttle, or 1:24 the size of the 22′ studio prop. Modelers should be able to light the kit, and they can open the little door in the back end, like Spock or Scotty did every time the Galileo crash-landed. Gene Winfield actually helped answer some questions I had, and I managed to establish the original exterior colors..

The coolest feature was discovered almost too late. Doug Drexler and aerospace historian and writer, Glen Swanson, have been sleuthing through various archives in Los Angeles, and we’ve all been chipping in to get 600 dpi scans made. They discovered several hi-res photographs of the newly-built 22-incher, and I saw something completely unexpected on the miniature’s roof: scribed panels that were very similar to the panels that Thomas Kellogg had drawn on his concept illustration during the 1966 design process. This discovery came late in the pre-production process, after a smooth roof had already been tooled, but Polar Lights will supply a template so enterprising modelers can create their own panels, if desired.



You can check out the prototype of the 1:32 scale kit in one of previous reports. The initial release will be exterior only, but if it sells well enough Round 2 will release a follow-up slide-in interior as well.


To keep track of all the latest model kits and other starship model releases, kit the "Models, Toys, and Games" tab on my 2020 schedule page.



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