Resin Kit Review: Cozmo Heavy Industries 1:2500 Federation Class

NOTE:  You can click on most pictures to get a larger view of them.

Rewrites: April 2016 & July 2018

The next kit I'd like us to take a close look at is a 1:2500 scale Federation Class ship made by Cozmo Heavy Industries.

C.H.I.'s eBay Advertisement

Ever since the days of the FASA games, this style of ship has been a favorite of mine.  I even did a very basic kitbash from a 1:2500 AMT kit to make a facsimile of this ship.

 

Sadly, mine was a bit out of proportion.

The Federation Class Dreadnought was just that.  It was a much bigger ship than it's counterparts of the time and wielded much more firepower.


Per Memory Alpha and Beta, "The Federation-class was a type of 23rd century Federation dreadnought-type starships operated by Starfleet.  Based on the standard Starfleet design tree and hull components of the time, the Federation-class starships were bulkier sisters of the Constitution-class heavy cruisers. The dreadnoughts employed a different arrangement from Constitution-class, including a forward-facing shuttle bay, a four dish sensor/navigational deflector / tractor beam dish arrangement (including a single aft sensor dish) and most prominently, a third nacelle, all design elements largely abandoned in future starship development."

If you would like to read more official stuff on this type of ship, feel free to check out the following links:

Federation Class Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK

The Model

When I discovered that Jay at Cozmo Heavy Industries actually produces a 1:2500 kit, I jumped into a nice bidding war for it.  

This kit measures it at around 12.5cm when complete.  The kit comes with 10 pieces and includes a stand base.

 

 

 

 

DeepSpace Pat's Paint Scheme

This was my fourth resin kit that I ever built and knowing then, what I know know, I would have held off building her until I got a little more experience under my belt.  The kit itself is great.  She required a little bit of work as far as cleaning up the excess resin.  The saucer and engineering sections were a breeze and required very little as far as cleanup.  

 

You need to then remove the nacelles off the sprue and the nacelle struts and deflector dishes need to be cut from the casting plates, She was then just a matter of painting and gluing.  There is A LOT to glue.  

 

If you have not read my helpful hints of gluing, be sure to click on the link in my Helpful Hints section down below.  

The gluing part is really why I put this model up in the the more difficult category.  The odd angles of certain parts require a lot of planning, eyeing up, and patience holding while the glue set.  As an intermediate builder, I often find it difficult to paint teeny parts and inside nooks and crannies.  These older style nacelles in 1:2500 scale can be a bit tricky to paint.  The end result though was nice.

The stand is relatively simple and if you have never done a C.H.I. stand before, there is also an article link for that in my Helpful Hints section down below.  

Conclusion

I would rate the difficulty level for this kit up there as being on the high side.  I would only build this model after you've built a few regular models and resin models as practice.  The kit itself is top notch and if done right looks great.  It is definitely one to shoot for to add to your collection later on in your model building career.

As always, I hope you found this article useful and informative.  If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to comment below.

So for now, "Live long and prosper!!!"

Additional Links To Photos Of My Collection:

Cozmo Heavy Industries

BONUS ROUND!!!

Every once in a while, I'll have a little extra stuff to share with you that sort of fits in with my articles.

Sometime after initially writing this review, I finally got around to doing an article about all four of my Federation Class Dreadnoughts.  You can read that article by going to THIS LINK.

Helpful Hint Articles

Washing     Warped Parts     Gluing     Filling The Gaps     Making Stands     Decals

NOTE: If you are new to my reviews, then please read on.  This section talks about the garage kit maker that made this kit as well as a little about why I'm writing this review.  If you are one of my regular readers, then feel free to skip the rest of this article as it is a word for word repeat of stuff from previous articles.

Kit Maker Information

Jay who runs Cozmo Heavy Industries sells all of his kits via eBay.  He changes out what ships are for sale every Saturday evening so it is best to check in once a week to see what he has for sale.

Jay also maintains a FaceBook page where he likes to share his work in progress on future kit releases.  I really like this approach as I'm a big fan of behind the scenes stuff.

Lastly, Jay does have a website, but it is more of an informational page about the business.

C.H.I.'s eBay Seller Profile: CLICK HERE
C.H.I.'s FaceBook Page: CLICK HERE
C.H.I.'s Website: CLICK HERE

If you have ever followed Jay's work, you will know that he hand makes all of his kits from pre-existing parts, and he hand crafts all the other pieces for the ship.  This allows him to produce all sorts of unique model kits.

When I interviewed Jay about his business, he says that a lot of his kits were designed and made over 20 years ago so he is unsure now just how long it took to make most of them.

DISCLAIMER SECTION

I consider myself an intermediate model maker.  I'm pretty good with assembling kits these days  and OK on the painting side of things.  I ultimately end up with ships that look good enough to me to display in my collection.  In an effort to expand my ship collection into areas that I can't buy pre-assembled ship types and classes of, I've turned to building them myself, either by kitbashing or purchasing ready made resin model kits.

There are several smaller garage kit makers out there that produce some very good kits.  I've actually developed a good relationship with a couple of them and volunteered some of my time to write up reviews about the kits I've purchased from them.  I have already warned them that I intend to be pretty objective, not pull any punches, and these reviews are going to be written from the point of view of an intermediate model builder.

Lastly, due to the nature of resin casting, not every kit is going to be the same.  Excess resin and air pockets are a part of the game when you get into this sort of model building.  The kit that I got and built may be slightly different than your kit as far as minor quality issues.  I will still point out flaws with my kit as those flaws could lead into a lesson of some sort for either you the reader or the kit maker themselves.