Reader reviews of a kit featured on Starship Modeler.

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Your Two Cents: Ambassador Class/Enterprise-C

The following are reader's opinions of the Ambassador Class/Enterprise-C made by ERTL.

Reviewer   Steve Hein
Date Reviewed   Jul 29, 2003
Overall Rating       Well worth getting.
Comments I did not order the Enterprise C, but I ordered the Yamaguchi. (Which I instead named the Excalibur).

It is overall a good size to work with and I found the parts easy to fit together. The fact that the model is molded in ALL clear plastic is a bit of an annoyance, but it's not that bad. It did help when I lit it up. (didn't have to drill out alllllllllllllll those windows!!!)

Everything went smooth with the exception of the following:

I had a real problem with the nacelles. It may have just been me, but I found the blue grilles to be of particular annoyance. Mine did not fit right even though I triple checked the part numbers and orientation on the model. I even went opposite of what the directions said to do when laying them on the nacelle housing and it worked about 50% better. In the end, I had a gap between the grilles and the housing that I have been unable to rectify. It is hard to see when the model is turned off, but easy to spot when it is on. Oh well. I don't light it up too often anyway.

In the area above the impulse drive there is a space between the neck and the saucer. If there was supposed to be a part there, then I never found it in my kit or saw it in the directions. I used an old piece of styrine to fill it in and molded it to fit, so it was fixed in the end. Besides that gap though, the neck fit beautifully into the saucer without me having to fix it! No sagging! A trek kit first!

Those were the only major problems I had. Painting was a breeze, and detailing it was sooooo easy because of the sharply raised panel lines. I rarely used tape or another means to mask off an area. I did it by hand and it came our perfect. I wanted to light it with only what came in the kit. After testing the ship's various sections however, I noticed that it was dangerously underlighted. I added a christmas light bulb in the Impulse Drive and firmly secured one of their included bulbs to the deflector dish with a mechanism of electrical tape and scrap styrene. I also added a low-volt bulb I had from my old Enterprise D kit inside the saucer to add more interior lighting.

After I painted the outside, I still had light leaks. Seeing as how I had already "finished" the saucer by scraping the outer paint off of all the necessary little windows, I was forced to spray flat black on the interior. I was able to take little strips of scotch tape and cover the windows on the inside so they were not painted over. It worked well and got rid of the leaks.

All in all this is a great kit. The pieces fit very very well and I had every seam line up automatically. Most problems were my own fault, and the others may have been mine as well. If you want a good solid kit, then this is a great one for you.


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