EMvTW Special 11: USS Enterprise XCV-330 (Starliner Class or Declaration Class)

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

"One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."

OK, wrong genre, but I couldn't resist.  😀

My next Eaglemoss vs. The World article is going to focus on Special Edition Ship #11, the USS Enterprise (XCV-330).  Depending on what sources you read, this ship is classified as either a Starliner Class or a Declaration Class vessel.

We are first introduced to this ship via a wall mural on board the newly refitted USS Enterprise during the movie Star Trek: The Motion Picture.  I am a super fan of ring ships.  There is something graceful and truly science fiction like about them and the XCV-330 is the grand daddy of all Star Trek ring ships that appear in all the series going forward.  As you can see, I also bought, built and painted three Cozmo Heavy Industries resin models of this ship.  This article won't focus on those three models too much, as right now, I'm using them more for size reference.  I do promise you some links later on to some really interesting ring ship models though.

Declaration Class Refit and Upgrade

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

While writing the review for the Cozmo Heavy Industries 1:2500 Declaration Class kit, I had shared that I liked the kit so much that I actually bought two more of that kit, just so I could build some variants of the ship.

The three ships displayed above are a Declaration Class, A Declaration Class Refit and an Declaration Class Upgrade.

Eaglemoss Replacement Decals

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

Rewrites: February 2019

I have written over 70 Eaglemoss vs. The World articles now, and over that time, I have occasionally reviewed a model where the decals were either lacking or just plain incorrect.

Ambassador Class - No Neck Details

In most cases, Eaglemoss has never chosen to correct the error with any of their future runs.  I get it though, these are cheap $25 toys and it isn't worth the expense to try to retool the equipment to fix it.  That, and coupled with the fact that most collectors feel entitled to a free copy of the corrected model, so as a manufacturer, why would anyone want to bother with those headaches.

And so, we collectors were forced to have these "incomplete" models.

Back in May 2016, I discovered a post by one enterprising individual who had taken upon himself to offer a method to us collectors a way to fix our models.

He went by the name of Bobmat343 and when I first wrote this article, I simply pointed out the initial run of models that he had created decals for.

Declaration Class Upgrade

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

[Editor's Note (May 2016): This article along with her sister article were merged together into one combined work.  No further edits were done to this article.  I would highly recommend that you go read the new article instead by clicking on THIS LINK.  Consider that new article the REFIT version of this one.]

While writing the review for the Cozmo Heavy Industries 1:2500 Declaration Class kit, I had shared that I liked the kit so much that I actually bought two more of that kit just so I could build some variants of the ship.

This is the story of the second ship.

A friend of mine introduced me to this series of books called the Federation Spaceflight Chronology, which had TONS of in depth information about the Star Trek universe up through the TMP and ending around the ST3:TSFS era.  One of the neat things about volume one was that it covered some very old style ships that were never seen on screen.  It had a very nice section on the Declaration class and the history surrounding those ships.

Declaration Class Refit

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

[Editor's Note (May 2016): This article along with her sister article were merged together into one combined work.  No further edits were done to this article.  I would highly recommend that you go read the new article instead by clicking on THIS LINK.  Consider that new article the REFIT version of this one.]

While writing the review for the Cozmo Heavy Industries 1:2500 Declaration Class kit, I had shared that I liked the kit so much that I actually bought two more of that kit just so I could build some variants of the ship.

A friend of mine introduced me to this series of books called the Federation Spaceflight Chronology, which had TONS of in depth information about the Star Trek universe up through the TMP and ending around the ST3:TSFS era.  One of the neat things about volume one was that it covered some very old style ships that were never seen on screen.  It had a very nice section on the Declaration class and the history surrounding those ships.

Resin Kit Review: Cozmo Heavy Industries 1:2500 Declaration Class

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

This next kit that I'm reviewing excited me when I learned that Cozmo Heavy Industries was starting production up again on it.  The 1:2500 scale Declaration class is a very unique ship that any die hard Trekkie should recognize.

C.H.I.'s eBay Advertisement

The Declaration class was first seen in the form of a painting on the wall of the recreation deck of the refit Enterprise in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.  It has since appeared a couple of other times in the forms of paintings and models in the other Star Trek shows and movies.  Officially, there is not much known about this ship.  It has been described as a starliner which has been incorrectly assumed to be a passenger ship.  The reality is, starliner is a generic term for starships.  There was a series of small books called the "Federation Spaceflight Chronology" and in the first volume, the class of ship described in much more detail.