By Scott Scariott - images & text © 2005

Scale: 1/1400 - about 10"/254mm long

Parts: 16 resin

Instructions: Two-page assembly and paint guide

Decals: None, but none are needed

Molding Quality: 6 There are some very sizeable bubbles in the casting, lots of flash.

Detail: 7 There are a lot of panels and greeblies.

Accuracy: 7 Matches the studio CG Model fairly closely.

MSRP: $75.00 USD (~$ CAN/ € EUR) available from Nova Hobbies

Overall Rating: 7 This is a nice kit. The model captures the layered look of the CG model, however, the molding and bubbles in the resin detract from its overall quality.

The Romulans have a saying "Never turn your back on a Breen."

Image: Center structure

Image: Main hull

Image: 'Wing'

Image: Bridge

Image: Details

Image: Another pod

Image: Engines

Image: Assembly instructions

Image: Paint guide

Image: Bubbles

Image: More bubbles

Image: Break out the epoxy putty

Image: Mold seam

The Breen are one of the more enigmatic races in Star Trek, and have been mentioned in Star Trek since TNG. They were finally seen in the DS9 episode Indiscretion. Breen ships however were not seen until the final season of DS9. In my opinion, the wait was worth it. The design of the Breen Ship is probably the most innovative design seen in any Trek series. The ship is layered and cantilevered and completely non symmetrical. I think it’s just really cool.

There was never a model available of this ship, until Nova Hobbies released this model of the Breen Ship. When I heard about the model I contacted Nova Hobbies and placed my order. The model showed up a week later. I opened the box and checked out the model. It was packed in bubble wrap with the model parts packed into three Ziploc bags. In the smallest bag, there were the 4 shield generators and two smaller guns. The larger bag held the navigational deflector, 4 small pods, medium pod, lower arm and the bridge module. Finally the largest bag held the main hull “wing” and the upper main arm.

The 16 parts were cast in a white resin. The casting was OK. There was a lot of flash on the parts. As I looked over the model, I found several large bubbles just under the surface. These will need to be filled. There are alignment holes for many of the parts, but the pins didn’t cast very well.

Assembly should be straightforward, starting with the center “wing” piece and adding parts from there. I do think though, that because of the nature of the subject this is not a project for novice modeler. Nova Hobbies recommends that the model be painted before assembly. I’m not sure I’m going to do that. There are some gaps that will be have to be filled and I think it will be easier to do that before painting. However this might make painting some of the details difficult, so I might try a sub-assembly type approach.

Conclusions

Overall, I think Nova Hobbies has a nice kit. As I said earlier, it matches the CG model very closely and it has such a unique and distinctive shape that it will look really cool on the shelf. To be honest I’m looking forward to entering it in a model show and watching the judges scratch their heads while looking at it.