Rewrites: May 2016 & May 2019
I recently finished working on my other The Delta Quadrant model, the 1:2500 Phobos Class and figured I'd do my next write-up on that ship.
The Delta Quadrant's Recommended Paint Scheme
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.
This type of ship is a little harder to get information on, however, I was able to scrounge up a little information thanks to the Star Trek Expanded Universe Wiki. The best way to describe this class of ship is that it is frigate that is a more beefier version of the Loknar class.
The Delta Quadrant's version of this ship comes in four pieces, complete with a really nice looking stand base and a bunch of decals to make your ship all pretty like. The finished model will measure in at around 4 1/2 inches.
I like to try to talk to the maker's of these garage kits because quite frankly, most of them are real nice guys who love to talk about the trade. And usually, I can glean some interesting behind the scenes information about the kits. Eric, who owns and operates T.D.Q. told me that this particular ship took about 15 months to produce.
Like the Bonaventure Kit that I did, this kit was a little difficult to get as well. I ended up going through one of T.D.Q.'s resellers to get it. As I pointed out though in that other article, Eric does have restocks always on order so it is a good idea to check in on his site from time to time.
I will state this now, expect to take some time on this kit. Do not expect to be able to get her done in just a few days like I tried. You will end up with more headaches than it is worth by trying to get her done too quickly.
DeepSpace Pat's Paint Scheme
Like my other T.D,Q. kit, this one was very clean and crisp, requiring very little shaving and sanding of excess resin. I really like the quality of the kits that come from T.D.Q.. A lot of care has gone into the molding process and it shows in the product that is delivered to you.
The most challenging part of doing this kit seems to be a common occurrence with me. I have trouble deciding on whether to do the assembly and then the painting, or the painting and then the assembly. Every kit has it's own nuances.
If I were to do this kit all over again, I would have glued on the nacelles and weapons pod and then painted everything. Then, after everything dried for a good 24 hours, I would have then mounted the saucer and touched up any painting mistakes.
I have included a bunch of helpful hints down below to help first time modelers and resin kit builders which will hopefully help some people avoid my most common mistakes.
The most challenging part of doing this kit seems to be a common occurrence with me. I have trouble deciding on whether to do the assembly and then the painting, or the painting and then the assembly. Every kit has it's own nuances.
If I were to do this kit all over again, I would have glued on the nacelles and weapons pod and then painted everything. Then, after everything dried for a good 24 hours, I would have then mounted the saucer and touched up any painting mistakes.
I have included a bunch of helpful hints down below to help first time modelers and resin kit builders which will hopefully help some people avoid my most common mistakes.
The stand base that is included is very nice looking. Eric has teamed up with Laserfire Creations who produces the bases for his kits. There is no rod included with the kit though. If you have read some of my other kit reviews, then you will know that this is quite common with most garage kit makers.
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
This is another high quality kit from The Delta Quadrant. She is worth every penny, and quite frankly, is not really expensive as far as resin kits go. Although it is notched and tabbed to assist in assembly, it is not a kit I would recommend for a first time modeler or first time resin kit builder. She is just a bit too complicated in the the assembly side for someone just starting out in the hobby.
I hope you found this article as useful and informative as I did while writing it. Please feel free to leave any comments, questions or suggestions below.
So for now, "Live Long And Prosper!"
Additional Links To Photos Of My Collection:
Helpful Hint Articles
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.
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