I really, REALLY wish I had received a casting worthy of a 4 or 5 star rating like most of the other reviewers seem to have gotten, but alas, mine has a plethora of problems.

Mine has air bubbles numbering well past a hundred. Mold seams which are very large considering the size of the model, especially on the secondary hull in front of the nacelle pylons. Behind the pylons on the secondary hull, the word "resurface" fits better than "filling and sanding". There were chunks missing from the impulse engine and the top-center portion of the secondary nav. deflector, as well as the leading edge of the pylons and portside bottom edge of the primary hull. The nacelles were pointed wildly downwards and, although this was the easiest thing to fix, it made the little ship look absolutely ridiculous as it came out of the box.

All in all, it'll take a good two days work just to get it ready for a base-coat of paint. However, it really is a beautiful little ship, if one takes the time to fix everything. The accuracy is amazing and the amount of detail superb, too bad I'll have to rescribe most of the panel lines in order to remove all the little bumps from them, and create panel lines in the spots where they seem to have disappeared. The decals are pretty bad as well, and I'm planning on getting an aftermarket set from McDaniel's Models, which include a whole lot of stuff missing from the original set, and hopefully are of much better quality (the kit-supplied ones are best characterized as blurry).

But, I still think all the work is worth it. It is just such a cool design and can be built into something truly beautiful. Don't let me discourage you (too much) from getting one of these.

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