Starfighter Decals 1/3788 United Federation Star Fleet Class 1 Starship Collection

During production of early episodes of the original series, several details of the makeup of the Star Trek universe had yet to be worked out, including the operating authority for the USSEnterprise. The terms Star Service ("The Conscience of the King"), Spacefleet Command ("The Squire of Gothos"), United Earth Space Probe Agency ("Charlie X" and "Tomorrow Is Yesterday"), and Space Central ("Miri") were all used to refer to the Enterprise's operating authority before the term "Starfleet" became widespread from the episode "Court Martial" onwards.

According to the second pilot episode of the original series, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", following Zefram Cochrane's warp flight in 2063, Earth founded a few colonies in nearby star systems and established trade routes with a few species, such as the Vulcans. Soon after, the first attempts of deep-space exploration were conducted, such as the launch of the SS Valiant, but it is not shown which agency commissioned the spaceship.^{[citation needed]}

References to UESPA were inserted into episodes from later series. For example, the Friendship One probe (launched, on the fictional timeline, in 2067) is marked with the letters UESPA-1 in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Friendship One". Other background props included additional UESPA references, such as Captain Jean-Luc Picard's family album in Star Trek Generations. During the production of Star Trek: Enterprise, some larger Starfleet insignia designs included the name "United Earth Space Probe Agency".

Many Star Trek: Enterprise episodes refer to Starfleet having already been in full operation in 2119, when it funded research begun by Cochrane and Henry Archer leading to the first successful flight of Warp 3 vessels in the 2140s.This research is said to have evolved into the NX Program leading to Starfleet launching its first Warp 5-capable starship, Enterprise (NX-01), in 2151, followed by Columbia (NX-02) in 2155, as well as other vessels. Starfleet thereby becomes the lead exploratory and military wing of Earth.

Starfleet has a Prime Directive of non-interference with developing worlds or their internal politics. This is said not to be a Human construct, but stemmed from policies originally implemented by the Vulcans, who used the attainment of warp speed as a barometer for making first contact with a civilization. The Prime Directive and Starfleet's first contact policies are at the center of several episodes in each Star Trek series and the film Star Trek: First Contact. For obvious continuity reasons, in Star Trek: Enterprise, the Prime Directive is conspicuously absent.

Starfleet Headquarters is shown to be located on Earth, northeast of the Golden Gate Bridge in the Fort Baker area. Starfleet Academy is located in the same general area. Additionally, various episodes show Starfleet operating a series of starbases throughout Federation territory, either built as planet-side facilities or as orbital docking stations (notably the titular installation in the Deep Space Nine series). 

These kits are from the original Star Trek universe.

Starfighter Decals has brought together a series of war gaming ships in the ever-popular 1/3788 scale into one container. This set contains five different star ships from the time period of the original Star Trek series. The set includes a Dreadnaught, Heavy Cruiser, Destroyer, Scout, and a Transport/Tug. These are injected plastic and not resin. All save the Dreadnaught class ship are molded in clear plastic and the bases for these kits are all in clear. The kits, instructions and decal sheets all come packaged in a sturdy hard plastic case.

Those who are long time game players, may notice a similarity between these and gaming pieces molded in the 1970s time period for the 'Star Fleet Battles' board game. Somewhere, your editor has a number of the Heavy Cruiser and Klingon K-5 pieces and if he could find them, a comparison could be made.

The five kits look to be pretty much press fit. I scanned but one of the ships (the Dreadnaught) as clear plastic is notoriously difficult to properly photograph. I test fit the saucer section and engines to the hull and found them to be a very tight fit. Seems to me that simple sanding of the mold seams and sprue pip are all that is really necessary prior to painting.

Starfighter Decals has provided a superb painting and decaling card for each of the ships in the set. Aside from the Dreadnaught, there is a brief assembly guide for each ship. These ships are apparently made by Game Science and packaged for you by Starfighter.

The set has a superlative and most comprehensive decal set provided by Starfighter Decals. The three sheets provide markings for a number of ships and include a myriad of extra numbers and serials to do whatever your heart desires. The decals are superbly printed and some of them border on the microscopic. Some sheets are ALPS printed while others are standard waterslide, but will need the individual numbers cut out from the rest.

Whether you are a war gamer or just like to build small sci-fi vessels (pronounced 'wessels'), then you should seriously consider this extraordinary set. I'm hoping there is one for Klingons as well!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Fleet

August 2011

Thanks to Starfighter Decals for the review sample. Get yours today at the link or your local shop.

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and fairly quickly, please contact the editor or see other details in the Note toContributors.

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