Resin Kit Review: Cozmo Heavy Industries 1:2500 Pre-TOS Adversary Set

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

The next resin kit that I'm going to review is another one of Cozmo Heavy Industries' revived line of kits.  The 1:2500 Pre-TOS Adversary set is unique in that it gives you three different ships.  The kit includes a Federation Daedalus class, a Romulan ship and and a Klingon ship.

C.H.I.'s eBay Advertisement

The kit itself is reminiscent of the AMT Round 2 sets that contain three ships.

 

 

So, if you have bought and built any of these kits, then this set from C.H.I. will blend in well with your collection.

During my interview with Jay, who owns and operates C.H.I., he shared that I wasn't too far from the truth about the kit being like those sets.  He shared that he actually modeled the set after this kit that he owned.

The kit comes with 12 pieces, decals and a base for a stand.  The completed Daedalus measures in at 6cm, the Romulan measures 6cm and the Klingon ship measures in at 6cm.  Yes, they are small!

I talked to Jay for a bit about this kit and between the two of us, we believe we have been able to identify the Romulan and Klingon ships.  Jay specifically remembers that the Klingon ship is classified as a NomRo' Class Strike Cruiser.  The Romulan ship took some time for me to research as Jay only remembers ever seeing one picture of the ship and building his model from that picture.  Luckily, a friend of mine introduced me to this series of books called the "Federation Spaceflight Chronology".  One of the books was dedicated strictly to the Romulans.

As best as I can tell from that book, Jay has produced a ship called the U-13 Cacus Class Death Flyer.  It is interesting that the picture I have of the ship shows it in an inverted position as compared to how Jay displays it.  Who is right?  Who knows?  It's all a matter of the builder's perspective really.

Here is my set, all together.  Please note that all of the following pictures show different stands than what comes with the set.  My collection is split up into the different races so I ended up using different stands than the one that came with the kit.

DeepSpace Pat's Paint Scheme

Now, let us take a closer look at each individual ship.

Federation Daedalus Class

 

 

 

 

DeepSpace Pat's Paint Scheme

Per Memory Alpha and Beta, "The Daedalus-class was an early class of Starfleet vessel that, unlike most Federation starship designs, was designed with a spherical primary hull, outwardly similar to the later Olympic-class. This class, which operated with a crew of approximately 229, was decommissioned by the year 2196."

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

Daedalus Class Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK
USS Horizon (NCC-176) Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK

Ex Astris Scientia also has a very nice article about the class and the "filming model" and you can read that information at THIS LINK.

Klingon NomRo' Class Strike Cruiser

 

 

 

 

DeepSpace Pat's Paint Scheme

NOTE: The last picture above shows two ships.  The top one is the one that comes with the kit.  the bottom one is a kitbash project I was working on.  I had some extra pieces from another one of these three ship sets, however, it wasn't complete, so I added some new parts from my greebles bin.  I call the second ship and upgrade from the first one.

This class of ship was entirely an invention of Jay's and as such, I can't find any online information about it.  Sorry.

Romulan U-13 Cacus Class Death Flyer

 

 

 

 

DeepSpace Pat's Paint Scheme

NOTE: The picture above shows two ships.  The one on the right is the one that comes with the kit, while the one on the left is a kitbash I did to create a Romulan U-4 Cerebus Class ship. You can read more about that project at THIS LINK.

Meanwhile, the "Federation Spaceflight Chronology" had this to say about these ships, "For  the  Cacus  the  Romulans  went  back  to  the  tried  and  true  Cerebus  form  hull  and  stretched  again  it  in  order  to  produce  what  might  be  considered  their  first  “heavy  cruiser”  design.    Interior  systems  were  the  same  as  those  of  a  Ceyx,  though,  which were more compact and permitted the fitting of additional weaponry.    The  extra  room  also  allowed  the  fitting  of  a  single  Star  Bomb  missile  in  a  vertical  dump  silo,  which  was  literally  dropped  on  its  intended  target  as  the  Cacus  was  halfway  through its attack run (hence the Federation term “Star Bomb” for this weapons system).  This eliminated most of the problemsassociated  with  the  angled  Star  Bomb  launch  system  of  the  Cercopes and saved precious mass for maneuverability, since the Star  Bomb  did  not  have  to  be  fully  fueled  in  order  to  reach  its  intended target.  The one drawback was that the Cacus had to race  away  from  its  target  as  fast  as  possible  after  the  Star  Bomb was released, otherwise it might be caught and damaged, possibly destroyed, in the blast radius. The   new   forward-splayed   engine   support   pylons   from   the   Cerebus  replaced  the  old  stubby-wing  system,  although  in  the  case of the Cacus these were canted down instead of up.  Thiswas  done  in  order  to  maintain  the  ship’s  symmetry  as  close  to  the Cerebus as could be accomplished and thus inherit as much of  its  agility  as  possible.    The  new  wing  structure  was  alsoneeded to support a new and more powerful engine design that made  its  debut  with  the  Cacus.    These  engines  gave  the  Cacusmore  range  than  its  predecessors  and  provided  enough  of  an  acceleration boost to escape the dropping of a Star Bomb on an unfortunate Federation ship. Cacus  was  designed  from  the  onset  to  challenge  the  best  that  the  Federation  had  in  the  field  and  successfully  engage  them  in  combat.  A total of at least 130 are believed to have been built by 2155; however, only a handful saw action against Federation forces prior to the outbreak of the Romulan War.  A lone Cacuscaught in the Eta Leonis system on 16 June 2159 would be the recipient   of   the   Federation’s   ultimatum   to   the   Romulans   threatening war unless attacks on its territory ceased within six months. An additional 60 Cacus class starships were ordered in 2148 to a  slightly  modified  design.    These  were  fitted  with  three  Star  Bomb silos at the expense of fuel (and thus range).  They served primarily as strike cruisers during the war and as heavy weapons platforms  for  lighter  armed  ships  during  fleet  actions.    Other  variations  and  produced  during  the  war  included  a  conversion  with no Star Bombs (for use as a fleet tanker) and a conversion with  five  Star  Bombs  for  planetary  bombardment.    Both  were  employed in the bombardment of Alpha Omega ß, destroying all life  on  the  planet’s  surface  and  killing  all  200,000  Federation  colonists and military personnel located there.  The entire force of  18  five-silo  fitted  and  13  tanker-converted  Cacus  class  starships  was  wiped  out  several  months  later  in  the  Battle  of  Manaraam,  thus  effectively  ending  the  Cacus  program.    A  variation with two externally mounted Star Bombs was planned but never carried out due to the end of the war. A total of 86 Cacus class starships are confirmed as having been destroyed  during  the  Romulan  War,  representing  two-thirds  of  known total class production.  No examples are known to survive today."

As you can see from all of those pictures with a quarter in them, that each of the ships are relatively small models.

Build Notes:

Cleanup of any excess resin wasn't too bad.  I did find myself being a little more cautious with the trimming given the small size of all the parts.  In fact, I remember breaking one of the Daedalus nacelles off of it's support strut.  This wasn't Jay's fault but rather the fault of the big hands that were handling the part.  😀  But it demonstrates the fact that resin can be brittle if not handled properly.

The Romulan and Klingon ships were pretty straight forward and didn't require a lot of finagle or patience while gluing them together.  I did modify my Romulan ship slightly by using a drill bit to put a divot in the nose to serve as a deflector dish.  My reasoning for this was that the Romulans had gone back to this style of ship and the U4 I built had one.  Painting them was just as easy.  Because of thier size, there really isn't much detail work to paint onto them.

The Daedalus was a tiny bit more difficult because it required some patience, which I don't have, to get the nacelles angled and glued on correctly.

  

I decided to make an attempt at doing the decals on the Daedalus because the paint job left it looking rather plain.  This proved to be really difficult due to the small size of the ship and my large hands.  They did add that little extra that the ship needed, but I wasn't able to place them all.  The paint scheme I went with for the Romulan ship didn't warrant needing the decals and the Klingon logo was rather easy to apply.

Conclusion

For the most part, this was a very easy little set of ships to work with for someone of my skill level.  Had I been a little more patient with the trimming, gluing and the decal work on the Daedalus, I think I would have been happier.  That being said, I don't think this would be a good kit for a first timer model builder or resin kit builder.  If you are a fan of the 3 ship sets from AMT though, then you really should add this set to your collection too.

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:

Federation Daedalus Class ( The Ship     WIP Pictures )
Klingon NomRo' Class Strike Cruiser ( The Ship     WIP Pictures )
Klingon NomRo' Class Upgrade Strike Cruiser  LINK

Romulan U-13 Cacus Class Death Flyer ( The Ship     WIP Pictures )

Helpful Hint Articles

Washing     Warped Parts     Gluing     Filling The Gaps     Making Stands     Decal Application 

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 and he has hinted on FaceBook that he may be closing down that site.

I find Jay to be a very approachable garage kit maker.  He has a regular day job and uses the business to not only allow him to make new ships for himself but to also help fund his love for the hobby.  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.  He loves to talk about the hobby and has lots of good advice about the hobby if you ever ask him for it.  He will usually answer any questions you send to him within a day or two.

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

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 which is why I don't have a lot of behind the scenes information about the kits like in my other reviews.

Jay recently shared on his FaceBook page about his stance on stands.  In it he wrote, "Everybody does theirs different. I use .055" piano wire and not everybody has that size drill bit. Plus, that tiny wire would put a hole in the bag and get lost. I have also seen people use clear rod, or use the base as a badge to apply to a larger stand."  So there you go.  And as I've said in other articles, I have yet to see a resin kit that comes with a rod.

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.