Resin Kit Review: The Delta Quadrant 1/2500 Bonaventure-Class Cruiser

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

Rewrites: April 2016 & February 2019

I've been jumping back and forth between two different manufacturers lately in regards to these resin kit reviews.  I decided to be different for this one and look at The Delta Quadrant's 1:2500 scale Bonaventure Class starship.

The Delta Quadrant's Recommended Paint Scheme

Per Memory Alpha and Beta, "The NCC-1000 was a Federation Starfleet starship in service in the late-22nd or 23rd centuries, she was a member of the Bonaventure-class, a newly advanced class of starship that followed on from the success of the NX-class."

This ship is very non-canon.  In fact, she was first introduced to fans as artwork in the 2006 Ships Of The Line Calendar.

Photo Credit: Memory Beta

Since then, this ship has been the topic of many message forums, and the subject of several garage kit model makers.  Sadly, there isn't a lot of official information about her online.

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

Bonaventure Class Information: NO Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK

USS Bonaventure (NCC-1000) Information: NO Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK

The Model

The Delta Quadrant kit for this ship comes in 4 pieces and includes a very nice looking base for a stand.  The kit also includes decals.  The finished ship measures in at around 10.2cm.

I had a chance to talk to Eric, who owns and operates The Delta Quadrant.  He shared that this ship took about 8 months to produce.  The end result is a very crisp and clean kit.  I'll be honest, of all the resin kits I've made from various garage kit makers, this one probably is the nicest kit that I've worked with to date.

Finding and purchasing this kit was a little hard to do.  T.D.Q.'s website lists it as out of stock.  I had to do some digging around and eventually found an online model shop that had one for sale.  Eric from T.D.Q. informs me that he always keep restocks coming. He tells me that sometimes it takes longer than he would like but with a line of 40 kits and producing new kits at the same time, his restocks can take a month or two to get in.  So that means, check back from time to time to see if you can get one directly from the source.

Editor's Note: As of Novemeber 2015, Paramount served The Delta Quadrant a Cease & Desist order meaning that they could no longer sell any Star Trek kits.  You can read more about this at All Scale Trek in THIS THREAD.  This means that this model will gradually become even more harder to find as there will no longer be any restocks of the kit.

 

 

 

 

DeepSpace Pat's Paint Scheme

I had very little cleanup to do on this kit as far as excess resin goes.  

WARNING: There is a serious lack of source material to go on for this ship.  As such, there is much debate over where the impulse engines are located.  The documentation that comes with the model doesn't enlighten the builder on their location either.  There is a piece of resin that sticks out off the back of the hull, beneath the hanger bay.  I believe that this is nothing more than leftover sprue from the mold pouring process.  However, the end result in the casted resin looks a lot like impulse engines to me.  Therefore, I opted to just trim these down a tiny bit and shape them like the traditional TOS engines.

NOTE: Eric from T.D.Q. had responded to this review and he states that this area is indeed the impulse engines.  That means, BE EXTRA CAREFUL to not cut them off in the trimming process.

 

Painting the model was pretty straight forward.  The nacelles can be a bit tricky with all the little greebles and nooks and crannies.  

I have to say that the deflector dish is a piece of art for how small it is.  T.D.Q. did a fantastic job of molding it.

After I painted the model, I then applied the decals.  This was the first ship I've ever used full body decals on and I'll be honest, they really added something extra to the ship.

If you are new to decal work, I've included a small tip article I wrote on the subject.  You will find a a link to that down below.

Gluing the ship together after I painted her was fairly easy.  I only needed to make a slight trim adjustment to the nacelle strut bases to get those struts to fit in their notches on the hull.  The notches and tabs that are built into the model make it a breeze to set the parts in their proper locations while the glue dries.

NOTE: You might want to learn from my mistake and do the decal work AFTER you glue the model together.  At one point, I accidentally dribbled a little super glue onto the decal near the strut.  I quickly wiped it off, but apparently, super glue acts like a bleaching agent to decals and now there is a nice blotch on my model there.  

Also, if this is your first time putting together a resin kit, I've also included a link below to some helpful gluing tips.

The stand base is a very nice looking.  There is no rod included with the kit.  If you have read some of my other kit reviews, then you will know that this is quite common with garage kits.  I'm pretty sure that The Delta Quadrant recognizes that everyone likes to display their models differently and therefore leaves the rod manufacturing up to the builder.

If you need some advice on how to build a rod for your stand, please be sure to check out the link down below to the article I wrote up on stand making.

Conclusion

As I stated earlier, this has got to be one of the nicest kits I've ever had the pleasure of working with.  The crisp molding is superb.  I would even dare say that it probably is a nicer looking kit than the boxed kits you would buy at a hobby store.  Normally, I would not recommend a four piece model to first time model builders or first time resin kit builders.  If you have grown accustomed to painting the nacelles on other small scale Trek ships, then,  given the condition of the kit and the ease I had in putting it together, it might make for a good first resin project.  That is providing you study up on all the helpful hints I've given you below on resin kit making.

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.

I liked this kit so much that I went and bought a second one.  I decided to build a kitbash of this model to make a TMP era version of the ship.  You can read the article about my journey on that build by going to THIS LINK.

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:

TOS Build ( The Model     Work In Progress )

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

Editor's Note: As of Novemeber 2015, Paramount served The Delta Quadrant a Cease & Desist order meaning that they could no longer sell any Star Trek kits.  You can read more about this at All Scale Trek in THIS THREAD.  This means that following links to his websites will probably not work.

I found Eric who owns and operates The Delta Quadrant to be a very friendly person to chat with.  He usually responds to emails within a day.  Most of his business is done both through his website as well as his eBay account.  He also has retailed his kits through Starship Modeler and Federation Models.  If you like following garage kit maker's work in progress, be sure to check out T.D.Q.'s Facebook page as he shares lots of behind the scenes information there as well.

T.D.Q.'s Website: CLICK HERE

T.D.Q.'s eBay Seller Profile: CLICK HERE

T.D.Q.'s FaceBook Page: CLICK HERE

Starship Modeler's Website: CLICK HERE

Federation Models' Website: CLICK HERE

According to Eric, when asked about his out of stock items, he shared this with me, "even though a kit might be out of stock I always keep restocks coming. Sometimes it takes longer than I'd like but with a line of 40 kits and producing new kits at the same time restocks can take a month or two to get in."

When I interviewed Eric for the purpose of doing these reviews, he shared the following...

"I am the sole owner of TDQ. I decided to start producing kits about six years ago because I was tired of overpaying for poorly cast kits. I was tired of getting kits without decals. I was tired of not getting kits of subjects that I wanted to build. So instead of complaining about it I decided to, as they say, put my money where my mouth is.

What I do is commission a kit to be made either by digital work or hand. I have masters made both in 3D and also in the traditional style of making them by hand. The time it takes usually depends on the subject and also the amount of other projects the designer may have going on for other people at the same time. Some kits may take a month to do in 3D and then usually the turnaround time to get the kit printed is about two weeks. That's not set in stone however. I've had some take months to do. I don't usually put any kind of rush on getting something made. I try to plan out what I want to release a year or so ahead of time. As far as making masters by hand it's the same type of scenario but usually takes much longer. For example, the 1/144 Sagittaurus kit I have forthcoming took about a year from planning to making the master by hand to getting it ready to cast.  

I then do the master cleanup (if 3D printed) and then send it off to one of the casters I use. The resin they use is a lot slower to set and slows down the process of producing as many kits that other garage kits makers might produce on a given day.  

I commission someone else to do the decals and and another person does my bases. I then build a sample kit (although sometimes someone else does this for me), do all of the boxart, package everything together and then sell it either wholesale to a vendor or retail on e-Bay and my website."

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.  I've found that there are all sorts of neat ships out there that no one has made a pre-built or pre-painted model of, so, in an effort to expand my ship collection 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.  If this means that I warn away a first time builder from a particular kit, then they will need to be OK with that approach.

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.