Introduction

Growing up building all genres of AMT/ERTL/MPC kits – cars to aircraft to space ships to monster figures – it was a sad day when ERTL reduced AMT to a shell of its former self. Being a particularly big Star Trek fan and with AMT being the only game in town for Star Trek models (before this “internet” thing became such a big deal), it was a sad time indeed.

Then, a few years ago after much finagling, along came Round2, acquiring the AMT/MPC molds, fine-tuning them, and re-releasing most of the old kits we all remember. Many are being re-released with Retro-Style packaging, while others are being issued with all-new box art and packaging. The old Star Trek kits are back, in style. Among those are the Cadet Series – the 1/2500 scale ships of the line in the Star Trek universe as well as their nemeses from all parts of the series’ timeline.

In the First quarter of 2012, Round2 re-released the smaller two of the original 3-ship Adversary Set, the Klingon Bird of Prey and the Ferengi Marauder, in a new, colorful package. The Romulan Warbird was re-released in its own new box. The Klingon Bird of Prey (BoP) is perhaps the fan-favorite (mine for sure), and the Ferengi Marauder is a little more obscure but is unique all on its own.

In the Box

The brilliant thing about this kit is that it's designed for simplicity. The new 2-ship Star Trek Adversary Set is packaged in a small, colorful new box with new artwork which includes a nice description of the history of each ship on the back.

The scale of these ships is not provided on the packaging, but with a little research by the dedicated fan, the scale for each can be calculated. 3.25 inches for the assembled BoP puts it at about 1/1300 scale (for the BoP as seen in the Star Trek movies 3 & 4) and 3.75 inches for the Marauder puts it at about 1/3000 scale.

The single-sheet, double-sided instruction sheet contains the build-up and finishing instructions for both ships on one side and more history and details on the other side.

There are 3 sprues – one with 3 parts for the Ferengi Marauder, one with 9 parts for the BoP, and one transparent orange sprue with the 4 engine nacelle parts for the Marauder.

One bit of fine-tuning Round2 did here was to improve the decals for these ships nicely. The decal sheet provided includes an expanded set of the standard markings for the ships and now includes a comprehensive set of windows.

Construction/Finishing

As far as assembly goes, these kits go together nicely and, in about 20 minutes apiece, you're done. Depending on your experience level and technique, that time is modified but, in any case, the build is fast and fun.

These are not complicated models to paint. As usual, you can put as much effort into finishing as you want to get the desired effect, but even simple finish schemes turn out well.

The quality and detail of the new decals is excellent. The window decals for the Ferengi Marauder are really nice but a bit tricky. The instructions have a number-in-a-bubble for which decal to use and an arrow pointing to where it goes, but that's all. These window decals are different sizes & complex shapes and, in the case of the bigger ones that go on the back of the ship, fit together like puzzle pieces. There's nothing in the instruction about the orientation of the decals, so take your time and trial-and-error will help you place them. I managed to get them to fit together fairly symmetrically and then applied a setting solution after they were in place.

As for the Klingon fleet designation (or whatever they are) decals, I thought the Klingon writing was too big for the ship so I opted not use them. I drew similarly shaped characters on the Bird-of-Prey's wings with an ultra-fine point permanent marker but much smaller.

The decals are strong and forgiving and do react well to setting solution, which pulls them right down onto even the most complex surfaces. You may want to hit the model with a coat of gloss finish before applying them, to give them something to stick to first, though. Then, a final coat of flat/semi-gloss/gloss on top, depending on your preference.

Conclusions

Like the AMT originals, this kit was a fast, easy build and great fun to detail. I highly recommend the Star Trek Adversary Set for modelers of all ages and experience just because it's fast, fun and inexpensive to build. Also, since I’m a big fan of trying to get kids into modeling, I feel these are fabulous kits to start with. These are great for the Make-&-Take tables at your local model shows and contests. You almost can't afford not to pick of a few of these kits and build your own Star Fleet to hang from your ceiling. I really appreciate Round2's effort to resurrect these old Star Trek kits (and all the other old kits) and get them back out to the public - I can't say enough about that.

My thanks go out to Round2 Models for providing this kit for review and to IPMS USA for giving me the opportunity to do it.