WOW! October proved to be another good financial month for me, and this allowed me to do some major catching up with my Eaglemoss collection. Coming up, you get to look forward to another eight reviews, presented back to back as time allows me to write them.
The first up in this batch is a ship simply known as the Warp Delta.
As you can see, my collection of this ship consists of the Eaglemoss (larger silver model on the stand), a MicroMachine wanna-be (tiny model on the clear stand), and a Resin Modeler 1:1400 scale kit (dark model with eye hook in it's spine).
There isn't a lot of information about this ship. We see it briefly and from a far distance in four separate Star Trek: Enterprise episode. According to this Memory Alpha LINK the Warp Delta were equipped with forward and aft phase cannons and only capable of doing around warp 2. As such, they were typically used as defense starships for the Sol system. What surprised me was there wasn't even any information about them on the Memory Beta website.
When you actually dig into the real world information about how and why these ships were produced for the series, you learn that the exact same model (with some major modifications to the rear) was used in the opening credits for Star Trek: Enterprise.
And this is where us nerds start our constant debates. The ship above is refereed to by its creator as the SS Emmette. You can read more about this ship from the Memory Alpha LINK. Since the Emmette has it's own Memory Alpha page, that makes this naming scheme canon. And since the Warp Delta has it's own page, they can't be the same classification of ship. Perhaps, the Emmette type was improved upon with such newer systems that Starfleet decided to make it a whole new classification? What muddles up that entire theory though, is the fact that the magazine that comes with the Eaglemoss model seems to support the idea that they are indeed the same class of starship. Which leaves this nerd a bit confused.
Let us just shake all that nonsense off and just move on.
In my traditional fashion, I'm only going to show you three angles of the MicroMachine knock-off.
The other model from my very first picture is from an actual resin kit that I bought, built and painted, which disqualifies it from the Eaglemoss vs. The World series. I write this series to show off and compare various pre-built and pre-painted models available to a collector.
I really loved this kit and the quality that I got for my money. I did write a review for it and you can read more on the kit as THIS LINK. The reason I'm including this model at this point of my article is that it does give us a great size comparison as well as something to compare the quality of the Eaglemoss' model with.
The Resin Modeler kit is 1:1400 scale, which means that Eaglemoss has managed to give us something very close to that scale as well.
Eaglemoss vs. Resin Modeler
Eaglemoss vs. Resin Modeler
Let us take a more detailed look at Eaglemoss' model...
I'm going to say this... for a ship that was initially relegated for background shots, Eaglemoss did a fine job sculpting in and molding lots of details into thier model. Because most of the model is plastic, these details are, for the most part, crisp and clear.
The paint job is really well done. Some of the panels are painted a slightly different color to break up the monotony of an otherwise all silver vessel. The browns towards the rear of the ship are a nice touch. And the warp core highlights in the engineering section are well placed and stand out nicely. The only issue I really have with the paint is that the porthole window paint does not line up with the molded windows. This happens a lot with Eaglemoss models so I wasn't surprised, but it does detract from what would have been a superbly painted ship.
Normally, I like to hyper focus on deflector dishes for Starfleet vessels. This area of the ship gives me a great point of view to measure the quality of workmanship that a manufacturer puts into thier model. Since the Warp Delta doesn't have a deflector dish, we are instead, going to hyper-focus on her rear end.
The rear end of the ship suffered from a lack of coverage, so to speak. The original CGI model had rocket engines back there so when the model was updated for the actual episodes, some filler needed to be put back there. The next picture is from my resin kit that I built, and as you can see, there was a lot of dead space.
Eaglemoss did a great job filling in this area of the ship, and although there still is open space, it flows more naturally.
Yes, you can see the joins and seams really well when looking this closely from the bottom, but considering how bad the rear could have looked, I'm willing to forgive and forget.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll refer you to my review of the NV or Neptune Class review that I did a while ago. You can read that review at THIS LINK and see the back of that ship, and what I'm referring to in the picture below.
As is usual with thier Starfleet vessels, Eaglemoss did a great job of including thier signature clear red and blue plastics for the nacelles.
The joins and seams on my model were not that bad. I pointed out the rear of the ship already, and I did have some spots along the front of the ship where the top and bottom were not fitted well with each other.
At the time that I am writing this article, you can get the Eaglemoss model from eBay for around $29 (shipping included). If you are interested, you can get the Resin Modeler kit direct from his website (LINK HERE) for around $31 (plus shipping). And the MicroMachine wanna-be was nowhere to be found on eBay so that I can't give you a price for it. I do remember that it was part of a three ship set that came with a MicroMachine sized NX-01, and I vaguely remember that it wasn't cheap for such a small piece of resin. That fact annoyed me to no end that it's paint job sucked so badly.
Is the Eaglemoss model worth buying? I'm going to say that based off of the fact that it is cheaper to get than purchasing the Resin Modeler kit, and based off the fact that you don't have to build or paint it, then you should most definately get it. Even with it's minor flaws, it is a great example of the older technology that we were introduced to in Star Trek: Enterprise. She will make a great addition to you collection and your fleet.
It is crisscrossed with tons of panel lines, hatches, porthole windows and other details. The only area that is slightly messy is the bridge dome area. It suffers from a softening of the details which makes them not stand out as crisp as the other details of the ship.
The paint job is really well done. Some of the panels are painted a slightly different color to break up the monotony of an otherwise all silver vessel. The browns towards the rear of the ship are a nice touch. And the warp core highlights in the engineering section are well placed and stand out nicely. The only issue I really have with the paint is that the porthole window paint does not line up with the molded windows. This happens a lot with Eaglemoss models so I wasn't surprised, but it does detract from what would have been a superbly painted ship.
Normally, I like to hyper focus on deflector dishes for Starfleet vessels. This area of the ship gives me a great point of view to measure the quality of workmanship that a manufacturer puts into thier model. Since the Warp Delta doesn't have a deflector dish, we are instead, going to hyper-focus on her rear end.
The rear end of the ship suffered from a lack of coverage, so to speak. The original CGI model had rocket engines back there so when the model was updated for the actual episodes, some filler needed to be put back there. The next picture is from my resin kit that I built, and as you can see, there was a lot of dead space.
Eaglemoss did a great job filling in this area of the ship, and although there still is open space, it flows more naturally.
Yes, you can see the joins and seams really well when looking this closely from the bottom, but considering how bad the rear could have looked, I'm willing to forgive and forget.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll refer you to my review of the NV or Neptune Class review that I did a while ago. You can read that review at THIS LINK and see the back of that ship, and what I'm referring to in the picture below.
The joins and seams on my model were not that bad. I pointed out the rear of the ship already, and I did have some spots along the front of the ship where the top and bottom were not fitted well with each other.
At the time that I am writing this article, you can get the Eaglemoss model from eBay for around $29 (shipping included). If you are interested, you can get the Resin Modeler kit direct from his website (LINK HERE) for around $31 (plus shipping). And the MicroMachine wanna-be was nowhere to be found on eBay so that I can't give you a price for it. I do remember that it was part of a three ship set that came with a MicroMachine sized NX-01, and I vaguely remember that it wasn't cheap for such a small piece of resin. That fact annoyed me to no end that it's paint job sucked so badly.
Is the Eaglemoss model worth buying? I'm going to say that based off of the fact that it is cheaper to get than purchasing the Resin Modeler kit, and based off the fact that you don't have to build or paint it, then you should most definately get it. Even with it's minor flaws, it is a great example of the older technology that we were introduced to in Star Trek: Enterprise. She will make a great addition to you collection and your 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
Resin Modeler MicroMachine
Comparative
I was pretty sure from looking at it that your Micro Machine version was a kit-bashed Babylon 5 Kestrel shuttle. Are you saying you bought it as a kit?
ReplyDeleteHonestly, anything is possible with eBay. It was bought looking exactly like that, minus a really bad paint job.
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