This is the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-F. She is a Prometheus-class starship. I built this for someone who asked, "Why does the Enterprise always have to get bigger and bigger? How about one that is more powerful yet small?".

This model was pretty straightfoward. I did have a few problems to fix, though. The first one was the bridge deck. It was crooked. It didn't point down the center line. So I made a copy of the bridge, used my Dremel and ground off the original and replaced it with the new one.

The next problem was between the bottom two ships -- they don't fit flush together. First, I used a pin vice and drilled out some holes for the brass rod I used to strengthen the three hulls together. Then for the gap, I used Magic Sculpt and placed it on the bottom hull before I glued the hulls together. Afterwards, I scribed a groove to signify the hull separation.

The paint job was mainly just Testors Acrylic Camoflague Gray, followed by a top coat of Testors Acrylic Light Gray. I also used Testors Acrylic Dark Ghost Gray, as well as Light Ghost Gray. For the phasers I used Gunship Gray (hey, they're guns aren't they?). For the Impulse engine intakes I used Reaper Ice Blue. For the exhaust, I used Reaper Cornflower Blue. It give the engines the look of actually being powered up. I also used Ice Blue for the top of the Bridge.

The decals were fun. The gentleman who wanted the ship built wanted to wait until better decals came out for the Prometheus. Feeling that that would be a while, I suggested that he purchase JTGraphics Nova-class decals, with the ID he wanted (I suggested Nova-class because they seemed to be the closest style of decals with a similar size).

I also used decals from JTGrahics' 1/1400 scale Voyager sheet for additional details. For the deflector dish, I used one from the JTGraphics 1/1400 scale uprated Excelsior-class sheet.

The Bussard Collectors are decals that were made by my girlfriend, Tyla. I wanted to get the mottled, swirling effect that you see in the later shows and the movies.

On the phasers I came up with my own design for warning markings. I felt that since this ship comes out in the future, there would probably be a new design - like the difference between Ambassador-class warnings and Galaxy-class warnings.

I did use some of the decals that came with the kit, but much of it was from the two sources mentioned above.

You can't see it in the pictures much, but after spraying it with 2 coats of Testors Dulcoat, I went back over the windows with a bottle of gloss and painted each one. The effect is pretty cool. The ship has a bit of a reflection, but the windows have much more. I did the same for the engines and the deflector dish.

Overall, this is a good kit. With a little extra work it becomes a great model. I would recommend it to intermediate modelers, or above, because of the bridge correction.

Image: Staring down the deflector

Image: Stern view

Image: Port side

Image: Top/rear view

Image: Back of the bridge

Image: New phaser/warning markings

Image: Bussard scoop