EMvTW 35: Klingon Bird of Prey (22nd century)

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

Rewrites: May 2016 & September 2018

The second ship from this month's Eaglemoss vs. The World series is the 22nd Century Klingon Bird Of Prey.  We are first introduced to this kind of starship in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode called "The Expanse".

Like the Surak class, this ship has only been produced by Eaglemoss as a pre-built and pre-painted model.

Per Memory Alpha and Beta, "During the mid-22nd century, the Klingon Empire operated a type of small warship known as the Klingon Bird-of-Prey.  This class is one of the earliest class of starships encountered by Earth Starfleet during the early 2150s. The first encounter occurred on the outer perimeter of the Sol system in early 2153. Starfleet, however, had known of the existence of these ships as early as late 2151.  This Bird-of-Prey design was revamped over the next two centuries, and was used to represent several different variations of this class that were collectively known under the same name."

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

Bird of Prey (22nd Century) Class Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK

As I started getting into collecting and wanting to expand my collection, I found a serious lack of  comparative data out there showing the various small scale pre-built and pre-painted ships available to the collector.  And so I set out to provide this information myself and hopefully help someone make a wiser decision in which model to buy.

In my last article covering the Vulcan Suurok Class starship, I pointed out that my Eaglemoss vs. The World articles are usually a lot longer, but only having the one model to look at has a tendency to shorten my comparative articles.

Eaglemoss

 

 

 

 

Because of the ship's wingspan, the model is very wide.  This of course means that the overall model is relatively small because Eaglemoss always tries to fit them in the same sized box, month after month.  It probably is one of Eaglemoss smallest models to date, HOWEVER, it is also one of thier most intricate.  It also has LOTS of little greebles, so be extra careful when un-boxing it and mounting it on the stand as they can be easily broken.

The sculpt and molding on this model just simply amazed me.  This is probably due to the exuberant amount of greebles that have been stuck on the model.  Ignoring those though, there are plenty of panel lines and wing "feathering" to give this old ship a very familiar look.

This model has all sorts of little tidbits, like exposed pipes and conduits, as well as the plethora of guns and canons just make this ship stand out as a masterpiece.

"Plethora of guns" is probably an understatement too.

 

The painted on details are fantastic.  They did a superb job of giving it a weathered look that really gives that ship that down and dirty look.  They also included the Klingon crest on one of the wings.

The photon torpedo launcher at the front of the ship is dressed with some paint work around it, but the inside is the same color as the rest of the ship, making it look less foreboding.

I found the work around the engine intake to be particularly eye catching.  While not perfect, it still looks really cool.

Eaglemoss was even able to squeeze in a tiny bit of clear red plastics to represent the impulse engines.

Conclusion

At this point in my articles, I like to do a quick check on eBay to get some prices of the ships I've shared with you.  I will continue with the tradition of rounding up the most inexpensive Buy-It-Now prices (with shipping included in that price) from eBay at the time of this article's (re)writing (September 2018).

Eaglemoss = $27

NOTE: Prices were researched last on September 5th, 2018.  As of the writing of this article, you can not get the model directly from the Eaglemoss website, however, since the prices on eBay are in line with what I would normally feel comfortable paying, we can safely move on to my final thoughts about the model..

There really isn't much more for me to say here.  Even though it is relatively small model, I am thinking that it is a great deal for the cost.  The amount of details that Eaglemoss squeezed into this thing makes it an amazing addition to your Klingon fleet.  

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:

Eaglemoss   

Other Reviewers Take On The Eaglemoss Model:
Some Kind Of Star Trek
Star Trek Starship Collection