Die Cast Lighted 1/350th TOS Enterprise (TOMY crowd funded)

FYI. Be careful when you cut through the center tape on the shipping box (as always). There is no cardboard protection between it and the collector box so don’t cut too deep if you plan to save the box.
 
Yes I'm not that bothered about the cost, I factored it in when deciding to commit to buying the model originally. It adds quite a chunk to the price, but models like this don't come around very often.
 
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Got mine. All looks good. Just one small paint chip on the top of a nacelle.Everything else looks good. Won't be putting it together until I make some room in a week or so.....
 
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Quick observations just after setting up on the kitchen table:
  • Count me as happy - warts and all. I’ll keep complaining about it but that’s what we do lol.
  • It’s very solid without the saucer stand - you would need to bump into it pretty hard to top it over. Especially if you want to put a drop of glue onto the two stand pegs. You could also glue the saucer stand to the front of the star drive stand without the acrylic if you want to be extra safe against aft to fore tipping.
  • Having it sit saucer on the left it looks great - plug holes are minimized, even under the saucer as overhead lighting will let shadows naturally mask them.
  • Nacelle/bussard motors are audible but pretty quiet. The sound has a bit of a bass tone because it resonates through the diecast tubes. Kind of like what an engine with moving parts would sound like if you can get past that no sound in space physics thing. I find it pleasant.
  • It’s heavy, but not so heavy to dissuade me from suspending from my ceiling. It will definitely need eye hooks into the floor joists above but I’m used to doing that with my other ships. I will suspend the saucer and star drive independently to relieve any stress on the joint between the two pieces. Probably JB Weld / epoxy the joint as I couldn’t care less about the separation feature. But the connection is pretty solid with just the screw.
  • There is a tiny hole at the bottom where the deflector dish attaches to the ship that will be just big enough to run external power (6v) for the star drive section using a couple of AA dummy cells in the battery compartment. Shine a flashlight from underneath with the shield removed and you’ll see the gap reaches the exterior. The saucer battery compartment will be more of a challenge but there’s a similarly sized hole under the magnetic screw cover topside that appears to provide access to the interior. We’ll see. I was hoping the screw hole plugs would let me disassemble but I don’t think I can do it without ruining them. Worst case, I may just have to expose a painted wire along the bottom of the saucer.
  • The deflector antenna and the little phaser thingy under the saucer will require very special attention to not accidentally snap when handling this monster. I leave the deflector off until the ship is situated how I want.
  • It seems that someone with more artistic skills could come up with a creative way to touch up the plug hole cover edges. They’re really very thin and most of them are flush to the surface.
 
MDLAV8R said:
Quick observations just after setting up on the kitchen table:
  • Count me as happy - warts and all. I’ll keep complaining about it but that’s what we do lol.
  • It’s very solid without the saucer stand - you would need to bump into it pretty hard to top it over. Especially if you want to put a drop of glue onto the two stand pegs. You could also glue the saucer stand to the front of the star drive stand without the acrylic if you want to be extra safe against aft to fore tipping.
  • Having it sit saucer on the left it looks great - plug holes are minimized, even under the saucer as overhead lighting will let shadows naturally mask them.
  • Nacelle/bussard motors are audible but pretty quiet. The sound has a bit of a bass tone because it resonates through the diecast tubes. Kind of like what an engine with moving parts would sound like if you can get past that no sound in space physics thing. I find it pleasant.
  • It’s heavy, but not so heavy to dissuade me from suspending from my ceiling. It will definitely need eye hooks into the floor joists above but I’m used to doing that with my other ships. I will suspend the saucer and star drive independently to relieve any stress on the joint between the two pieces. Probably JB Weld / epoxy the joint as I couldn’t care less about the separation feature. But the connection is pretty solid with just the screw.
  • There is a tiny hole at the bottom where the deflector dish attaches to the ship that will be just big enough to run external power (6v) for the star drive section using a couple of AA dummy cells in the battery compartment. Shine a flashlight from underneath with the shield removed and you’ll see the gap reaches the exterior. The saucer battery compartment will be more of a challenge but there’s a similarly sized hole under the magnetic screw cover topside that appears to provide access to the interior. We’ll see. I was hoping the screw hole plugs would let me disassemble but I don’t think I can do it without ruining them. Worst case, I may just have to expose a painted wire along the bottom of the saucer.
  • The deflector antenna and the little phaser thingy under the saucer will require very special attention to not accidentally snap when handling this monster. I leave the deflector off until the ship is situated how I want.
  • It seems that someone with more artistic skills could come up with a creative way to touch up the plug hole cover edges. They’re really very thin and most of them are flush to the surface.
Click to expand...

If we had some type of clay or even like an oil pen/crayon that was exactly the same color as the hull we could fill in the seam without painting but I suspect anything we do will be noticable ...
 
MDLAV8R said:
Quick observations just after setting up on the kitchen table:
  • Count me as happy - warts and all. I’ll keep complaining about it but that’s what we do lol.
  • It’s very solid without the saucer stand - you would need to bump into it pretty hard to top it over. Especially if you want to put a drop of glue onto the two stand pegs. You could also glue the saucer stand to the front of the star drive stand without the acrylic if you want to be extra safe against aft to fore tipping.
  • Having it sit saucer on the left it looks great - plug holes are minimized, even under the saucer as overhead lighting will let shadows naturally mask them.
  • Nacelle/bussard motors are audible but pretty quiet. The sound has a bit of a bass tone because it resonates through the diecast tubes. Kind of like what an engine with moving parts would sound like if you can get past that no sound in space physics thing. I find it pleasant.
  • It’s heavy, but not so heavy to dissuade me from suspending from my ceiling. It will definitely need eye hooks into the floor joists above but I’m used to doing that with my other ships. I will suspend the saucer and star drive independently to relieve any stress on the joint between the two pieces. Probably JB Weld / epoxy the joint as I couldn’t care less about the separation feature. But the connection is pretty solid with just the screw.
  • There is a tiny hole at the bottom where the deflector dish attaches to the ship that will be just big enough to run external power (6v) for the star drive section using a couple of AA dummy cells in the battery compartment. Shine a flashlight from underneath with the shield removed and you’ll see the gap reaches the exterior. The saucer battery compartment will be more of a challenge but there’s a similarly sized hole under the magnetic screw cover topside that appears to provide access to the interior. We’ll see. I was hoping the screw hole plugs would let me disassemble but I don’t think I can do it without ruining them. Worst case, I may just have to expose a painted wire along the bottom of the saucer.
  • The deflector antenna and the little phaser thingy under the saucer will require very special attention to not accidentally snap when handling this monster. I leave the deflector off until the ship is situated how I want.
  • It seems that someone with more artistic skills could come up with a creative way to touch up the plug hole cover edges. They’re really very thin and most of them are flush to the surface.
Click to expand...
The biggest problem with using a single stand is that over time the saucer might start to droop under its own weight as it pulls on and deforms the screw and its attachment in the neck of the model. Nasty!!!
 
MDLAV8R said:
Quick observations just after setting up on the kitchen table:
  • Count me as happy - warts and all. I’ll keep complaining about it but that’s what we do lol.
  • It’s very solid without the saucer stand - you would need to bump into it pretty hard to top it over. Especially if you want to put a drop of glue onto the two stand pegs. You could also glue the saucer stand to the front of the star drive stand without the acrylic if you want to be extra safe against aft to fore tipping.
  • Having it sit saucer on the left it looks great - plug holes are minimized, even under the saucer as overhead lighting will let shadows naturally mask them.
  • Nacelle/bussard motors are audible but pretty quiet. The sound has a bit of a bass tone because it resonates through the diecast tubes. Kind of like what an engine with moving parts would sound like if you can get past that no sound in space physics thing. I find it pleasant.
  • It’s heavy, but not so heavy to dissuade me from suspending from my ceiling. It will definitely need eye hooks into the floor joists above but I’m used to doing that with my other ships. I will suspend the saucer and star drive independently to relieve any stress on the joint between the two pieces. Probably JB Weld / epoxy the joint as I couldn’t care less about the separation feature. But the connection is pretty solid with just the screw.
  • There is a tiny hole at the bottom where the deflector dish attaches to the ship that will be just big enough to run external power (6v) for the star drive section using a couple of AA dummy cells in the battery compartment. Shine a flashlight from underneath with the shield removed and you’ll see the gap reaches the exterior. The saucer battery compartment will be more of a challenge but there’s a similarly sized hole under the magnetic screw cover topside that appears to provide access to the interior. We’ll see. I was hoping the screw hole plugs would let me disassemble but I don’t think I can do it without ruining them. Worst case, I may just have to expose a painted wire along the bottom of the saucer.
  • The deflector antenna and the little phaser thingy under the saucer will require very special attention to not accidentally snap when handling this monster. I leave the deflector off until the ship is situated how I want.
  • It seems that someone with more artistic skills could come up with a creative way to touch up the plug hole cover edges. They’re really very thin and most of them are flush to the surface.
Click to expand...
Wow you are going to suspend her?? Man you are a braver man than me LOL : )
 
1138sw said:
Wow you are going to suspend her?? Man you are a braver man than me LOL : )
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Ha ha. We’ll see how brave I am once I actually start the process lol. Using the crude method of standing on a bathroom scale and then picking up the ship with no stands attached - the weight of mine assembled is 13.8 pounds. I use redundant loops of 40lb fishing line on my other stuff but this will be the heaviest yet.
 
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MDLAV8R said:
Ha ha. We’ll see how brave I am once I actually start the process lol. Using the crude method of standing on a bathroom scale and then picking up the ship with no stands attached - the weight of mine assembled is 13.8 pounds. I use redundant loops of 40lb fishing line on my other stuff but this will be the heaviest yet.
Click to expand...

I'd ditch the fishing line. Maybe picture hanging wire.
 
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