EMvTW 116: USS Curry NCC-42254 (Curry Class or Curry Type)

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

We've had a little break while waiting on the next batch of models to come out from Eaglemoss.  somehow, I missed two of them so now I have a total of four to write up.   First up is the USS Curry (NCC-42254), a Curry class ship that served Starfleet during the Dominion War.  She took heavy damaged but survived in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode titled, "A Time to Stand"

My collection of this ship consists of the new Eaglemoss model and my own rendition of the ship, which I call a Curry Class Refit.  I built that model out of a 1:2500 scale AMT Round 2 Enterprise B model.

Per Memory Alpha and Beta, "The Curry type Federation starship was in service during the Dominion War."  They go on to say, "In early 2374, three months into a Dominion War filled with battles of engaging and retreating from the Jem'Hadar, the USS Curry was one of the surviving ships of the 2nd Fleet, and had suffered a massive hull breach to its primary hull. By this time, the Second Fleet had been reduced to a third of its original size."

There was a second Curry Type variant that appeared on screen and she was called the USS Raging Queen (NCC-42264).  My sources have this to say about that ship, "In early 2374, the Raging Queen, along with other ships of the Second Fleet, retreated into Federation territory after suffering a major defeat against the Dominion."

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

Curry Class Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK

USS Curry (NCC-42254) Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK

USS Raging Queen (NCC-42264) Information: Memory Alpha LINK

Usually, when I write these reviews, I'll only do a set of comparison pictures when I have multiple pre-built and pre-painted models.  However, since I took the time to build the AMT Kitbash, and it is a 1:2500 scale model, I thought that it might make for a good size comparison.

So now I present to you what I like to call "the gravy shot", a series of pictures showing off those models side by side.

 AMT Kitbash vs. Eaglemoss

AMT Kitbash vs. Eaglemoss

As you can see, the Eaglemoss model is slightly smaller than 1:2500 scale, BUT, there is the advantage of not having to build and paint it all yourself.  And believe me, I hate painting Excelsior class models.

Eaglemoss

 

 

 

 

WARNING: Although my model arrived safe and sound, I have seen quite a few reports around the FaceBook fan groups that show that thier model arrived in several pieces.  The packaging wasn't well designed to secure the model on this one.  In fact, my model was askew, but luckily undamaged.  I also read that a little super glue does a great job of putting the model back together.  Since my reviews focus on the model only, I won't dwell on this any more, but I wanted to make my readers aware so that they are not surprised if they get a screen accurate (battle damaged) model.

As a model builder, I have come to admire and enjoy the art of kitbashing.  Let's face it, most good space sci-fi shows and movies have used this art form at one time or another.  And Star Trek has had it's fair share of the bashing fun.  The curry class is most defiantly a kitbash of an Excelsior and a Miranda class model.  Most of the parts come from an Excelsior and as such, I am planning to make lots of reference to Eaglemoss' first attempt at bringing us the Excelsior.  If you haven't read my article called "Eaglemoss vs. The World #08 - USS Excelsior NCC-2000 (Excelsior class)", then I strongly suggest you go to THIS LINK to be prepared.

 

One of the advantages that the Curry model has going for it is the fact that the Excelsior class parts on this model are actually larger than the Eaglemoss USS Excelsior model.  Because of this, Eaglemoss had a slightly larger canvas to work thier magic on.

The sculpt and mold work are far better on this model than the Excelsior.  The molded details are crisp and clear and don't suffer from any Eaglemoss Melted Marshmallow Syndrome, or EMMS.

All the important areas of the ship have been rendered out with raised details.  The bridge module and the engineering section on the rear of the saucer look fantastic.  The phaser banks and RCS thrusters were a great touch as well.

Sometimes, Eaglemoss has a hard time showing off shuttle bay doors.  That was not the case this time as the are nicely molded as well as given a nice coat of paint.  I'm actually really impressed.

Speaking of paint, Eaglemoss did a fine job with thier paint work for this model.  The entire ship is treated to very fine, and not overbearing azteching.  The afore mentioned thrusters and phasers were all painted up, thus adding to thier luster.  Even that bridge dome got it's own unique color.  All the pin-striping, and Starfleet pennants and even the tiny writing along the front of the hull are well executed.

The only place that I was disappointed in the paint work was on the impulse engines.  We are once again presented with a ship that appears to be powered down.  I really prefer when Eaglemoss applies some red paint to this section of the ship.  This is where the Excelsior model actually managed to one up the Curry.

4/22/18 UPDATE: I am embarrassed to say that I am not perfect and that I sometimes miss things.  I just saw someone commenting on the impulse engines and was about say that they were crazy until they showed a different angle of the model that I completely missed.  Apparently, this ship did have painted impulse engines, except they were is a strange place!

I have to say that the overall paint work was super impressive.  I say this because I personally hate painting the 1:2500 scale Excelsior kits.  I've done a few and hated doing every one of them.

The bottom of the engineering section was a delightful surprise.  I usually don't expect much when it comes to this area of an Excelsior, but Eaglemoss somehow made some vast improvements down here.

Eaglemoss did a far better job with this area of the ship than they did with their original Excelsior class model  Look at that hollowed out area, all nicely molded and with well executed paint.

The warp nacelles are a bit of an oddity for this type of starship.  While the rest of the vessel is clearly made from Excelsior class parts, Starfleet opted to fit her with Constitution/Miranda class nacelles.  For some reason, Eaglemoss has decided to not use thier awesome clear blue plastics on the grills this time, and instead, treat us to a very unexciting black paint job.

Whenever I review a Starfleet ship, I like to hyper-focus on the deflector dish as it usually gives me a good idea of the level of attention to details that a manufacturer puts into thier models.  Let's face it, this is a very important part of the ship and should be accurately represented.

The deflector dish was a very pleasant surprise, especially after being disappointed with the original Eaglemoss Excelsior and the even more disappointing Enterprise B deflector dish that Eaglemoss decided to subject us to.  Eaglemoss did actually decided to try to sneak in some of thier clear blue plastic, and they used it for the deflector dish.  The molded details are well done and present very nicely for this part of the ship.

And that is all I really have to share at this point on this class of ship.  As for pricing, I will continue with the tradition of rounding up the most inexpensive Buy-It-Now prices from eBay at the time of this article's (re)writing (March 2018).

Eaglemoss = $35

NOTE: Prices were researched last on March 21, 2018.  As of the writing of this article, you can also currently order the Eaglemoss model right from the company themselves for around $23 (shipping unknown).

We now come to the part of my article where I give you my opinion on whether the model is worth the money.  And the answer to that is a resounding "YES!"  Notice the Bold, underline, Red and larger font.  I really liked this model.  She may not be the prettiest ship in your fleet, but Eaglemoss did a great job recreating her in her prime, long before the Dominion War ripped her up. 

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 comparison articles.

First up, I would like to talk a little bit more about my AMT Kitbash.

USS Curry (NCC-42254)

Curry Class Refit

1:2500 Scale AMT Kitbash

 

 

 

 

Parts Used: AMT Enterprise B, AMT Enterprise Refit Nacelle Struts

You can read more about this ship here: http\://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Curry_type

Before I knew that Eaglemoss was going to produce this ship classification, I decided to have a go and build one for my fleet. I was still learning a few of the kitbashing skills at the time so I took a little creative license with my build. The differences between mine and the filming model are as follows;  I used an Excelsior Refit saucer and engineering hull for my build, thus why I gave her a Refit classification as well.  I also opted to use the Excelsior nacelles and mounted them sideways like the curry's sister ship, the Raging Queen.  the last difference between mine and the filming model is that my saucer section is a little more forward on the engineering hull.

I hated painting this thing.  There is something about these Excelsior kits that just annoy the heck out of me.

I also opted to cover over that gap in the bottom of the engineering hull.  I could never stand that space and I always felt that there was a horrible loss of space by leaving this open.

I was particularly happy that my deflector dish looked better that Eaglemoss' Excelsior and Excelsior Refit.

As much as I hated working with the Enterprise B kit, I did have several of the 1:2500 scale kits laying around waiting for the right project.  As a result, all of my Excelsior like  kitbashes had to be Refits because of the beefed up engineering hull and extra impulse engines.

The next two that I'm going to share were not my ideas, however, after getting permission to make them, I built them with a little bit of my own ideas thrown in.

Nimitz Class Carrier

 

You can read all about this ship at THIS LINK.

Euderion Class Refit

 

You can read all about this ship at THIS LINK.

Centaur Class

You can read all about this ship through my 52nd Eaglemoss vs. The World review of the USS Centaur NCC-42043 (Centaur class) at THIS LINK.


This last build that I want to share was my own design after I saw someone post a design involving a constitutions Class like starship.  I also wanted to force my followers to see starship designs as not always being what they expect. 

Lewis Payne Class Dreadnought

 

You can read all 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:

AMT     Eaglemoss   

Comparative Shots

Other Reviewers Take On The Eaglemoss Model:

Some Kind Of Star Trek

Star Trek Starship Collection