When you ask any Star Trek fan to name the characters from the shows, seldomly will they list the ships that appear, but just like their flesh and blood counterparts all the ships that appear in the show are characters in their own right and they vary from show to movie.
Some of the most famous ships in Star Trek history is the U.S.S. Enterprise, The Klingon Bird of Prey and The U.S.S. Enterprise – D and thanks to Insight Editions you can now build your own models of these incredible ships.
For years Insight Editions have been producing a great range of easy to assemble model kits called “IncrediBuilds” these laser-cut wooden kits just snap together and require no glue, and as such, they are fantastic for all age ranges and ALL levels of modelling experience.
SO just how easy are these models to put together, well let us find out, Treksphere managed to get our hands on all three of the models listed above and put the claim of “No Glue No Tools Needed” to the test.
We will be reviewing each model separately, and to kick things off we started out with the Klingon Bird of Prey…
Like all “IncrediBuilds” models the kit comes with all the pieces needed to assemble the model, a set of illustrated instructions that walk you step-by-step through assembly, an advertising flyer for IncrediBuilds’ other model lines, and a 32-page softcover booklet written by Dayton Ward, that shows both the in-universe history of the ship and behind-the-scenes material about the design and construction of its filming model.
The booklet on the Bird of Prey spans almost all its appearances in Star Trek from Enterprise right through to DS9, it has a great diagram showing the size comparison of Klingon ships from the 22nd, 23rd and 24th centuries, and includes a segment about the H.M.S Bounty the Bird of Prey from Star Trek: The Voyage Home.
With all this information included we were shocked by the glaring omission of any information about the Bird of Prey from Star Trek: Discovery, this was a great disappointment to us and the fact the model kit is yet to be released it makes little sense not to include information about the latest instalment in the franchise.
In respect to building the model it was a lot of fun, and the best part it took about 25 to 30 minutes which in model building terms is nothing whatsoever, with the excellent step by step assembly instructions it was extremely simple to put together, however, even with the simplicity of building it, there were some issues such as the durability of the pieces, in fact, we managed to break our kit rather easily and we required a small amount of glue to fix it to be able to complete its assembly.
Along with its durability, we additionally found that the wooden pieces needed a small needle to poke out the trickier bits, so we did not break them, which if you have a heavy hand you might find that they do not come out that easy.
Even though we faced a few challenges, it was a lot of fun to make and the end product is great, the detail on the pieces are great and if you desire there is no need to paint them, nevertheless if you choose to, the 32-page booklet comes with instructions on how to not just paint the model, but, it also includes instructions on how to give it a battle-damaged look.
All in all, this model and its booklet would be a great addition to any fans collection, just be careful when assembling it as not to break it like we did 🙁
You can grab this amazing model and booklet from Insight Editions at the link above or from Amazon .com
