Star Trek USS Enterprise Refit

Round2/AMT has recently re-released their 1/537 scale Refit Enterprise. This model first appeared along with Star Trek: The Motion Picture in late 1979. The kit had several modifications during the years afterwards, none of which helped its bad seams, poor fit, sinkholes, and nit-picky inaccuracies. For Star Trek V in 1989, a small (less than two-inch) shuttlecraft was added, and it is present in this release. It’s too big to be in scale with the Enterprise, and too small to be a really cool addition to the kit. This latest release adds a modified stand mount for Round2’s ubiquitous dome base (also included), but that’s it as far as the plastic. A vastly improved decal sheet is probably the biggest enticement for buying this kit (you can build either NCC-1701 or NCC-1701-A!). Polar Lights’ 1/350 or 1/1000 refit/movie Enterprise kits are newer, better models and much easier to build than this old clunker. However, the 1/537 kit is about a third the price of the nice 1/350 version and it doesn’t take up as much room on the shelf (at 22 inches, it’s still a pretty big model). A nice addition would have been the Aztek decals to simulate the subtly-shaded panels all over the model’s surface. There are aftermarket sets available, or print-your-own decal patterns can be found free on the Internet. With those two better kits out there, it’s a bit of a surprise that Round2 would re-release the old 1/537 Enterprise Refit. The kit itself probably deserves two or three stars, and a pig with lipstick is still a pig. However, Round2’s addition of a very nice stand, vastly better decals, James Small box artwork, and the fact that they had the guts to bring back this forgotten classic deserve four stars in this Trekkie’s mind.