This is the U.S.S Phoenix, an Archer class starship. While the larger vessels such as those of the Constitution class are out in far flung corners of the quadrant exploring new worlds, the Phoenix and her sister ships are assigned to escorting supply and colony vessels as well as duties of patrolling the vast borders of the Federation (especially where they meet with the territories of the Klingon and Romulan empires, as well as Orion space.) Although their missions may not be as celebrated as those of the larger vessels, the contribution that the Archer class provides to the Federation is equally important.

This model started life as the 1/1400 Constitution class sold by Starcraft Models. After a slight mishap with the painting and subsequent stripping I ended up with nothing more than a saucer and two nacelles. I put them to one side and carried on with other modelling projects until I could come up with some way of using them. After watching Star Trek:Enterprise I figured I could come up with a 23rd Century version of the NX class using my cast aside parts. (after all the Constitution has had its successors such as the Excelsior, Ambassador and Galaxy classes so why not the NX class?)

As a kitbash the model was quite easy to put together. I started by building two small rectangular boxes which would become the two catamaran style extended hulls. Once in place I used a small amount of modelling putty to smooth the transition from one hull to the other. With this done I added a small strip of styrene between the two hulls to join them together. Finally I took the engines and cut off a large part of the adjoining pylon so that they would not stand to high above the main hull when they were fixed in place.

I used the same paint scheme that I had chosen for both my Osiris and the Oberon models, basically a main coat of Humbrol Matt 28 camouflage grey with highlights such as the engines done in matt 64 medium grey. I'm quite happy with how this turned out and it also adds another design to a rather barren Original Series fleet.

Image: Portside

Image: Stern