by Martin Burkey

This is the Nova Hobbies 1/1400 Surak Class starship from the "Enterprise" TV series. This series had some great designs. This is one of my favorites.

The kit was 3 pieces - the warp ring, the primary hull, and the small tip that extends below the ring. Out of the box, the panel lines and windows were heavy and fairly rough on the primary hull but nicer on the ring. The main hull is sort of a random organic carrot shape rather than perfectly conical, and the 'tail' is slightly sway-backed, which I couldn't take out by heating.

I puttied over the panel lines and windows on the primary hull and sanded it smooth. The small tip is cast with a post that is supposed to secure it to the ring and the primary hull. It looked like an accident waiting to happen, and I had to mount the model somehow. So I drilled through the tip ring and primary hull and installed brass tubing into which I could slip a brass mounting rod. I also sanded down 2 1/72 Sparrow missiles to make the lights/sensors under the nose, which are visible in several screen caps.

After several rounds of prime and sand, I painted it with a lightened Floquil red. After a Future overcoat, I gave it a dirty red wash and painted the warp ring blue glow. I masked several concentric circles around the main hull and sprayed a lightened red and used the same color on the leading edge of the ring to simulate weathering. I made the windows from Scalemaster white stripe decals and used Scalemaster red stripes for the red frames in the pylon windows.

The engineering detail on the back of the primary hull pylon was both molded into the pylon and reproduced as a multi-piece decal which required a white backing. This seemed needlessly difficult. I painted the area white and masked it before the red final coat, applied the decals, then touched up the red around it.

It's a striking design that I'm glad to have in my 1/1400 scale fleet. If another one dropped into my lap, though, I'd do a much better job.

Image: Starboard side

Image: Right/front view

Image: Left/front