Fascinations Metal Earth Star Trek USS Enterprise NCC-1701D 3D Metal Model Kit

The media could not be loaded. SO COOL!!! I enjoy putting these together and have done about twenty of them, I am far from an expert and my first three ended up a wad of twisted metal, rage and profanity with a one star rating. There is a special way to assemble because these are not typical models.TIPS AND TRICKS:Don’t waste your time with the special tool sets or needle nose pliers (they didn’t work for me). I recommend getting tweezers with different tips. There are many times where you will be holding a piece with one set of tweezers and twisting/bending/inserting tabs with another and many times you have to reach tabs inside a small piece you have already made. Attempting to assemble this all by hand became impossible for me. Tweezer were needed.Buy some really small, fine point wire cutters. The package says just pop out the pieces for assembly but when they are very small they do not “pop out”. They bend and just make a mess, so snip the points where they are connected and now they will easily pop out.Get yourself some nails of various sizes to help transform flat metal pieces into cylinder shapes. I use different sized nails, cables, pens and markers of all different sizes to round some parts of these models. Whatever you use just make sure you can slide the model part off one end. Trying to round using tweezers is possible but doesn’t look as professional.Don’t get mad if you break some pieces, just keep a small bottle of quick drying, clear super glue. I’ve broken many tabs and pieces. It just happens sometimes, if you fold pieces to many times it will break, read the instructions wrong and have to undo folding and bending they can break. Use small amounts of super glue and apply with a needle and you can hardly notice you used it once it has dried.Some of the instructions are a bit unclear so look at the pictures closely and even the pictures of the next few steps. The directions are not very specific and won’t tell you exactly which way a part is meant to be bent, or engraved side in or out. Putting together a 3D model from 2D parts and directions can be confusing. Green triangle means twist tab and blue circle means to bend tab down.If you get lost using their included flow chart, just know that the parts go on in numerical order.You can see from my video that these are far from perfect but being able to complete them is a satisfying feeling. The rotating display is by Facinations and is solar powered. It works well indoors and works fine with just the lights in the room but do not work well in shady areas but it does take a battery if you want. Take your time, take breaks, have fun!

I was pleasantly surprised at the sheer amount of detail that has gone into this model. This was my first metal earth build and i can say that it was perhaps moderately difficult. Most of the build went off without a hitch, just pay extreme attention to the instructions and just take your time an have tons of patience. Long nose pliers are a must and so are metal cutters to get the pieces out from the sheet. the only place where i had issues is where the main saucer section connects to the rest of the ship, and that was largely due to my inexperience however the instructions for that particular part could have been clearer. Beware, model is very front heavy. you will need to weight the base to make it stand correctly.all in all, finished product looks AWESOME and I ordered like 6 more models xD (the Falcon looks amazing!)

I have built dozens of Metal Earth models, including cars, spacecraft, aircraft, animals, vehicles, and MANY more, all varying in difficulty and complexity. Some with over 350 pieces. I consider myself a very experienced modeler with Metal Earth and Piececool Metal models. Without exception, each resulted in a very nice final product - UNTIL NOW.The Enterprise “D” model is, frankly, a very poorly designed piece of junk, with the final product quality quite bad. Detail is minimal and inaccurate. Buy something else…

I really like the look of this model. It was not at all complicated to build, and the concept was fun for me. I will say there are a few minor issues with this product, but I was easily able to correct them. Had those issues not been present I would have rated this model five stars. The good: I liked the quality and thickness of the metal, I found that everything fit together well, and the finished product looks very nice. What I did not like: the instructions were vague in a few spots, the model is not balanced well, and a the finished product can be a bit flimsy.I have a few tips to anyone assembling this model. First, you need the right tools. I found small wire clippers worked very well for separating the pieces without putting a lot of stress on them. A tool with a rounded firm end worked very well for bending the tabs. Small tight fighting pliers are a must. Tweezers are also very useful in some spots. I also found a small precision flat head screw driver came in handy to bend some tabs into positions they could be garbed with pliers. To balance the model, I found a quarter fits in the bottom of the stand perfectly and offers just enough weight to keep it from flopping around. I also used supper glue on the finished product to hold the lose fighting joints together better. Last, there are a few spots that can be confusing, so use the online picture provided in the instructions.Overall, I love the look of this model. It is a quick project for a novice model builder, and it looks very good on my desk next to my computer.

This was my first model, may not of been a good choice. You really have to pay attention to the directions. I have all the right tools which made it funner and easier, but I installed the lower part of the saucer section upside down. So I had to fix that. Also did bend/fold a area, had to fix that.... Anyways, the top section of the Saucer section and the nacells turned out nice and impressive for flat metal. Bottom of the saucer and another part I misapplied didn't look so good. I ended up buying another kit, to start out fresh. I really enjoyed these kits, just have the right tools, the time and make sure what you're doing is correct! lol