Romulan Warbird

[Smiffy]

Romulan Warbird

1:3200 scale AMT/Round 2 Models

First appearing in the episode “The Neutral Zone” of TV’s “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (ST:TNG), the Romulan Warbird (or D’deridex class) is a massive battle cruiser, almost twice as long as the Galaxy Class Enterprise-D. Like many Romulan vessels, it is fitted with a cloaking device and outguns the Federation ship with a vast array of disruptors, phasers and torpedo launchers. It is powered by an artificially created quantum singularity, which limits it‘s speed (whilst cloaked) to warp 6, making it slower than the Enterprise. It appeared in many episodes of ST:TNG, before going on to feature heavily in the Dominion war, as seen in the series ST: Deep Space 9.

An interesting note about this ship, is that it was originally drawn by it’s designer Andrew Probert, to have a vertical layout, with one engine at the top and the other at the bottom. He wanted to create a ship that contrasted to the very horizontal designs that populated the Star Trek universe. While the producers liked his design, they specifically asked him to rotate the wing 90 degrees, to make it more in line with what had gone before. Reluctantly, he re-drew the ship and with the design approved, two studio miniatures would eventually be built. Each model had some slight detail differences to the other and they were treated to two different paint schemes. The first was given a distinctive green colouring, while the second was painted a dark grey/blue colour scheme.

The kit

AMT originally released their Romulan Warbird as part of a three kit set, which also included a small Klingon Bird of Prey and a Ferengi Marauder. That boxing has been out of production for many years and has commanded premium prices from sites like Ebay. Since acquiring the rights to AMT, Round 2 have been going through their back catalogue and re-releasing many of these hard to find kits, for a new legion of eager sci-fi modellers to enjoy. Now Round 2 have reissued the Romulan Warbird as a kit in it’s own individual boxing.

The kit comes in the now familiar Round 2 style box, featuring a nice illustration of the completed model on the lid. Inside we find twelve parts moulded in a greeny-grey colour, a clear sprue containing eight pieces and the same sprue duplicated in glow-in-the-dark plastic. A four part stand and a small decal sheet round out the contents. The completed model ends up at just under 13” in length.

With a relatively low parts count, construction should be very straight forward and should present few (if any) problems. The first two assembly steps deal with the warp engines and this is where we have the most interesting feature of the kit. Round 2 have supplied the modeller with clear pieces to fit in the engines, in order to aid lighting. However, as an option, they have supplied the same parts moulded in glow-in-the-dark plastic. This means you can get a nice glowing engine effect without having to go through all the trouble of wiring up LEDs. A novel and thoughtful touch, that.

The next construction step basically deals with the assembly of all the other parts. The head is the most distinctive part of the ship and the two kit halves seem to capture it’s look very well and feature some nice moulding. The wings are each made up from inner and outer halves. The feather panel detail on these parts is represented by fine raised lines. Thankfully, these don’t look too out of place, although care will be needed during clean up in order to minimise damaging this detail. After all these sub-assemblies are completed, everything can be brought together. The upper and lower wings are joined, trapping the warp engines and tail pieces in between and then the head is attached to the front end.

The paint instructions give callouts for Model Master paints, although names for the colours are supplied, as well. The suggested scheme is the dark grey/blue, second studio miniature paint job. The decal sheet provides the Romulan Empire logos for the nose and tail, as well as the many, many rows of tiny white windows. These did not come with the original release of this kit and are a very welcome inclusion.

The last job, is to knock the four part stand together. It has a ball and socket joint, enabling the completed model to be adjusted to any angle the modeller desires.

Conclusion

This is a most welcome re-release. This kit has been sought after by many modellers for a number of years. Not content with just banging out the old kit as it was originally released, the attractive new stand, those handy window decals and the glowy engine parts are the kind of additions which are endearing Round 2 to sci-fi modellers everywhere. Long may it continue.

Review sample courtesy of

UK distributors for

[Basosz]

Nice review Paul. I had this kit in the original 3-in-1 box.

One thing to mention (although this might be redundant) is that painting the insides of the wings is a regular pain in the neck when gluing the model together is completed before painting. My advise would be to really, really think about painting the wings before attaching everything together. This also applies to a lesser extent to the inside faces of the warp engines.

When properly painted this will look great though. Mine was painted pretty badly (I was young back then) but the Warbird fascinated me endlessly.

[buttoncup]

Nice review Paul. I had this kit in the original 3-in-1 box.

One thing to mention (although this might be redundant) is that painting the insides of the wings is a regular pain in the neck when gluing the model together is completed before painting. My advise would be to really, really think about painting the wings before attaching everything together. This also applies to a lesser extent to the inside faces of the warp engines.

When properly painted this will look great though. Mine was painted pretty badly (I was young back then) but the Warbird fascinated me endlessly.

Hello,

I made this kit a long time ago, the new stand should work very well, nice review, thanks.

[Smiffy]

Thanks for the nice comments, chaps.

One thing to mention (although this might be redundant) is that painting the insides of the wings is a regular pain in the neck when gluing the model together is completed before painting. My advise would be to really, really think about painting the wings before attaching everything together. This also applies to a lesser extent to the inside faces of the warp engines.

After I posted the review, I was messing around with the kit bits. It does look very tight in there, so as you suggest, it would probably be best to leave the top wing off, to make the painting of the insides easier.

I also agree that it is a great looking ship.