AMT "Ships of the Line" 1/2500 Reliant Review

[Moongrim]

I just received this in the mail today.
Prefinished.



I apologise for the graininess of my pic, the bottom part says:
INCLUDES TRADING CARD FEATURING EYE-POPPING IMAGES FROM THE SHIPS OF THE LINE CALENDARS!


Series 1 appears to include the T.O.S. Enterprise, T.O.S. Klingon D-7, The Reliant from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and the Defiant from DS9. All with their own stands. Now that will come in handy with Star Fleet Battles table top games.
I have to admit to having a certain...fascination with seeing all four together- More Tribbles More Troubles...
(I wonder what a Tribbles' reaction to Khan would've been?)

This too looks intriguing. A sacred scale (1/2500) U.S.S. Reliant NCC-1864. Pre-painted and just awaiting assembly (which I will be doing soon- I promise).
And it comes with a Trading Card!

More pix to come in the days ahead.

[Drop_Bear]

Looking forward to it!

I think a tribble would hide under the furniture until Kahn went away. They seem to be pretty good at spotting genocidal maniacs.

[Hossfly72]

To be honest, I can't wait for these to show up at my LHS. Something to look nice on the shelves while I experiment with kitbashing the "naked" kits. I used to collect the Bachman Mini-Planes when I was a kid and still built models, so just because I had a nice, prebuilt model there didn't mean I stopped building others. If anything, it wet my appetite for more.

[el gato]

This is a smart move for R2. These would not only hold an appeal to us glue sniffers but also tabletop gamers

[Moongrim]

This kit is not only nifty! It also marks the first time I've put together a 'Sacred Scale" 1/2500 kit by my little winsome.


Here is the kit in it's entirety- sans the packing material. One will need- a cross cut wire cutter- definitely, along with a magnifying glass for us older, squinty folks, a file for sanding, and some tweezers (for this old geezer).

It comes pre-painted and is snap together. Everything does snap together nicely- but me being me, I used some glue anyways- I'm just stubborn that way. The painting is of a very good quality. As will be seen shortly.


The instruction sheet. This is the kind of kit that will take easily less than an hour to build. If even that. Use the cross cutters to separate the warp engines from their sprue, and use the file to smooth down the roughness. According to the instructions you'll want to 'trap' the Mega Phaser/Engine Pylons between the two warp engine halves before squeezing them together. What I did- was gently prep the two halves by slightly squeezing them together just enough to catch, and then inserted the pylon, and then squeezed it all shut. Worked like a champ.
On the warp engines- the painting is quite nice- exterior warp trenches are black, interior trenches are blue.



The Trading Card- This side is a fraction of a much larger painting- I'm guessing it's the montage of a forward view of all of the Enterprise ships together. The point being- collect them all and you've got yourself a full painting on quality backing- puzzle. Works for me. Reminds me of many years agone- I think Wacky Packages or someone similar did same.



The other side of the Trading Card. In total- this scene would've been from the Animated Series I didn't miss my guess. It's nice to see it in a higher grade quality. And not to mention gives the viewer another perspective on the size of the cargo drones.

[Moongrim]

With a bit of creativity- I decided to use my work desk magnifying glass in assisting me in getting some of the finer details documented- it worked out great. Here we've got the two halves of the main hull back lit.
As you can see- it's painted MY-T-FINE (IMHO). This really brings out the quality of the Aztecing in this case.

I LIKE it!


Same as the previous- but a bit blurrier (sorry). As they would (more or less) appear in a normal setting. You can perceive the fine details in differing light settings.


and YES- it comes with Decals. Mostly, you'll just need the two strips. The two squares are for touchups I'm guessing.

[Moongrim]

The completed ship-
No glue needed- but me being me- I did notice that the seam around the rim of the main hull did have a gap in a couple of spots. Some CYA and quik set- problem solved.
Attaching the warp engines- I also used some CYA, after insuring that they fit in correctly (engines in parallel). I did NOT use any CYA putting in the torpedo bay. A simple flex of it's pylons was all I needed to get it to fit in between the mega phasers.

Applying the decal strips- don't do what I did. Instead- start in the middle and work your way back. Thus you won't have to worry about the decal 'tooth gap'. The tweezers were good for this.



As you can see from both photos- it turned out great. You can see the aztecking in the photos above- both in the ambient and reflected lighting. Even the Warp Engines have their details that look good.

It turns out to be easy enough for this old dude to put together. And it turns out to make a nice little addition to the Fleet.
And she'll stand out in any table top games.
In terms of quality, this model is well and above the Hero Clix reliant I've got somewhere in my garage.

I'd have to make sure that my co-players don't have it 'accidentally' fall into one of their pockets.
I'm afraid my photos don't do it justice. It's a good source for painting the larger versions.

[Scotchyn]

awesome review, thanks for sharing!

[Drop_Bear]

What a great looking little model!

Here is the kit in it's entirety- sans the packing material. One will need- a cross cut wire cutter- definitely, along with a magnifying glass for us older, squinty folks, a file for sanding, and some tweezers (for this old geezer).

I reckon that a magnifier is a good investment for anyone, regardless of age. Eyestrain is not only annoying but, I believe, also bad for your eyesight in the long term.

[Tesral]

I might have to get a couple of these.