By Jeffrey Griffin - images & text © 2005

Scale: 1/2500

Parts: 12 pieces (Federation Exploration Craft: 5 - main hull, pylon strip, nacelles strip and two optional secondary hull endcaps; NomRo' Strike Cruiser: 5 - main hull, foward superstructure, aft supersctructure and two nacelles; Warbird: 2 - main hull and stern piece) and one decal sheet. No stand is included.

Instructions: 1 page, front & back assembly/paint diagram

Decals: ALPS-printed waterslide

Molding Quality: 8 - Minor flash and pour tabs

Detail: 8.5 - A little soft on the detail, but then these are Pre-TOS so shouldn't have much detail

Accuracy: 9.0 - From what little reference exists these are right on

MSRP: $26.00 USD (~$31.87 CAN/ € 19.62 EUR) available directly from Cozmo's Shipyards

Overall Rating: 8.0 - At first glance, a sweet set to own.

More than 25 years ago, a book called "Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology" was produced. In that book, we get the first looks at what is later accepted by a great many fans as the precursor the Constitution-class starship, the Daedalus-class. Also in the book is the first image of an early Romulan Warbird from the Earth/Romulan wars of the mid-2100's. Both of these ship designs later show up in a book from Mike Okuda called "Star Trek Chonology - The History of the Future" and the Daedalus-class is also featured as a schematic in an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", as well as a study model that ends up in Capt. Benjamin Sisko's office on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine".

Now we're given 1/2500 scale versions of these two ships - Daedalus and the Romulan Warbird - along with a third, original design. This original design is a Klingon strike cruiser called the NomRo'-class and fits in quite well with the other, "older" designs.

I was fortunate enough to purchase an advanced copy of this set directly from Cozmo Shipyards. I find myself happy quite happy w/them out of the box and will likely purchase another set.

What You Get

The kit is actually a set of three Pre-TOS Adversaries and consists of 12 pieces: Federation Exploration Craft (Daedalus): has 5 pieces - the main hull, pylon strip, nacelles strip and two optional secondary hull endcaps; NomRo'-class Strike Cruiser has 5 pieces - the main hull, foward and aft supersctructures and two nacelles; and the Warbird has only 2 - main hull and stern piece. My samples arrived in a plastic ziploc bag. There's a small amount of flash and my Warbird needed the razor saw taken to the aft portion of the main hull to remove the resin plug.

Also included is an instruction sheet for placement of parts which also serves as a painting guide. It also works as a very basic decal placement guide, with written instructions on where to place the decals. You are required to fabricate the nacelles and pylons for the Federation Exploration Cruiser, though fairly detailed instructions on how to do this are included, as is the styrene tube and strip you'll need.

The decal sheet is ALPS-printed and fairly comprehensive for such "minimalist" designed ships. You get a number of window decals and a choice of five names for the "Federation Exploration Craft" - Daedalus, Columbia, Horizon, Archon & Frontier. For the Warbird, you get a very nicely done Bird-of-Prey emblem for the underside of the wings, as well as two different "bird head" decals for the sides of the main hull. The NomRo' Strike Cruiser gives a choice of either black or dark gray TOS Era Klingon Script and two Klingon Empire Trefoil's for the ships hull.

Assembly and Finish

While this is meant as an "in-box" Preview, I've already assembled the Klingon strike cruiser and Romulan Warbird. Clean up was minimal on the first one, tho some minor sanding was required. The Warbird required the use of a razor saw to remove the large pour tab off the stern of the hull and some minor cleaning of flash was required as well. Neither of these have many voids/air bubbles on the surface at all. Assembly is straight forward on these two, tho I expect the Federation Exploration Craft will be a bit more in-depth, though not exactly complicated. I think that the manufacturer did his best to make this as Idiot Proof as possible, which is a good thing considering that I'm building it....

Conclusions

This set looks like it's going to be a lot of fun to complete. While I've never been a big fan of the Pre-TOS designs, I do like how these look. The NomRo' strike cruiser in particular is a very clever, original design that fits in well with how the other two appear for that early era in Star Trek history. I can't wait to finish them and add them to my shelf.