Rewrites: May 2019
Moving into the home stretch and article number four of four for this month's Eaglemoss vs. The World series, I bring you the 22nd Century Xindi Aquatic Crusiser. We first get to see this type of starship in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode called "Countdown" and then again in the episode called "Zero Hour".
As is often the case these days, I only have one manufacturer to show off so let us jump right into the review.
Per Memory Alpha and Beta, "The Xindi-Aquatic cruiser was a type of starship used by the Xindi-Aquatics during the 22nd century. The vessel was at least 1,800 meters long, heavily armed, and equipped with the most advanced technology of any of the five Xindi species. The ship featured a hydrodynamic, swept-wing hull structure and a large hangar bay in the primary section that could be used to carry other starships. Despite also having superior weaponry, the Xindi-Aquatic ships had a drawback of being slower than other Xindi ships."
According to Memory Beta, these types of ships are called theNarcine class.
If you would like to read more official stuff on this type of ship, feel free to check out the following links:
Narcine Class Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK
First, I want to get this out of the way as it really doesn't have to do with the quality of the model, but it appears that Eaglemoss has succeeded in producing another sucky stand configuration. The model manages to barely rest in the stand, but if the room suffers from even a tiny shake, the model slips right out of its holder. This is yet another model that I will not be displaying on the stand.
Now that we have that out of the way, let me open up the actual review by saying, that Eaglemoss has produced one pretty ship.
The sculpting and molding of the plastic and metal parts provide you with a sleek ship that holds true to the Aquatic Xindi style of vessel.
They have included all sorts of nice panel lines, groves and protrusions that give the model a nice alien look both on the top and the bottom of the ship.
I really like all the raised "bubbles" both on the top and bottom of this hip that denote the view ports for the aquatic variants of the Xindi species.
Unfortunately, the join seam really is noticeable on the bottom of my model and sort of draws my eyes away from all the other fine craftsmanship.
When looking at the top of the model, the paint job is downright beautiful. There is a light mottled azteching of sorts and coupled with the three different color tones, makes the ship almost appear like a living creature. Eaglemoss did paint all of the windows and the paint lines up well with the molded in details.
And then you flip the model over and wonder if Eaglemoss ran out of paint. The bottom is missing the aztec pattern and the edging highlights, making it look rather plain from below. The enormous shuttle bay door on the bottom could have used some sort of highlight paint and as such, just blends in too much with the rest of the hull.
It does look like Eaglemoss attempted to do some sort of clear plastic parts. It is hard to explain as they are not clear, but do have a glossy finish to them. Actually, I'm not sure if they are plastic or painted metal. I believe they are meant to represent the warp drive parts of the ship.
NOTE: Prices were researched last on May 1st, 2019. Unfortunately, at the time that I am re-writing this, Eaglemoss does not have this ship in stock on their US WebStore, so we are at the mercy of the eBay sellers.
Even with the missing paint, Eaglemoss has still produced a rather nice model. I got mine on eBay for around $25 with shipping included, although it looks like the price has jumped to around $29 during the re-write of this article. Honestly, I think it was a worthwhile investment and still is at that slightly higher price. I believe that my collection as well as yours would benefit from adding one of these alien spacecraft to them.
BONUS ROUND!!!
But wait! There's more! Every once in a while, I'll have a little extra stuff to share with you that sort of fits in with my comparison articles.
A while ago, I wanted to make some sort of starship out of a submarine. I finally decided to work with a small scale Seaquest DSV resin model and my end result looked like something the Xindi Aquatics would be using.
Xindi Aquatic Ship (24th Century)
Scale Unknown Larson Designs Kitbash
I won't dwell on this model too much as I have already written an entire article about it. You may read about this ship at 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:
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