Polar LightsStar Trek U.S.S. Grissom 1:350 Scale Model Kit

Was a fun model to build. allot of detail and was easy to light up. easy buy for any avid Star Trek modler.

This is the 1/350 scale model of the U.S.S. Grissom also know as Oberth class. . Model is about 13 1/2 inches when fully assembled. Very easy to put together very easy to decal and paint. Can easily run a strip of LED to light the ship up . There is enough space to run wires between both half's of the model. My only issue was the decal instructions . It is on the inside of the product box instead of a actual instruction sheet. I only had issue with the two red stripe decals that go on the full length of the left and right of the model. That due to how thin and large the decals are. My only main issue is the price point. This should not be over fifty. dollars. Having no Aztec decal or lighting kit and it being the size of most models should be around 30 dollars. I do recommend picking this up but I wait till it is on sale

Thank you

This class of ship was first introduced in "Star Trek III - The Search for Spock," but was subsequently used repeatedly, in various roles, throughout "The Next Generation" and even the first TNG-era film. Originally named the "Gagarin class," after the first human in space (Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin), during the run of TNG they chose to rename it the "Oberth class," after Hermann Oberth, a Hungarian-German physicist.Throughout the run of TNG, we got a wide range of usually contradictory "data points" on what, exactly, this ship class really was. On-screen technical schematics showing a ship significantly larger than the TOS Enterprise, at times, and yet "formal" lengths of a mere 120m or less (as compared to the Enterprise's roughly 300m length). So, I generally just IGNORE the TNG-era "information" (none of which really makes a lick of sense) and pretend that the ships seen in TNG were "really" some other type of ship, just superficially similar to this one.No, the USS Grissom, as designed for Star Trek III, was not a "starship" like the Enterprise, it was a "spaceship." With the term "starships" being used to represent large, powerful, capable "ships of the line" while "spaceship" was a term used to represent small "utility vehicles" with limited overall functionality.The concept of this type of ship was supposed to be a modular design, able to be reconfigured at will. The main "platform" was the only part always required to be present, and included the main computer system, the power generation system, and the impulse engine.The ship frame COULD be used as a robotic drone, but could also be a manned ship. In the case of the manned version, a crew-support saucer was mounted on the top front of the "platform," including a bridge, some crew cabins and a minimal sickbay, a rec-room/mess-hall, and three small single-craft bays carrying small auxiliary craft (mainly used as escape pods, but also minimally serviceable shuttlecraft).Anywhere from one to four warp engine nacelles could be attached. In the case of a single nacelle, it woudl be mounted to a "roll bar," while pairs of nacelles would be mounted directly to the top or bottom of the platform. The upper and lower "termination points" on this platform would have interfaces to go to these engine nacelles or to power and control other equipment equally suited to be mounted out there.In the case of Grissom, there would be two nacelles mounted directly to the top two "hard points," and a "roll-bar" mounted sensor pod below. There was never any intention for the underslung pod to be manned, though there were likely crawlspaces through the pylons to allow repair and maintenance personnel to get down there when required.The Grissom was, in effect, a big AWACS... with the lower pod being like the above-mounted radome on the AWACS aircraft. A massive sensor/scanner platform, with a minimal crew aboard just to operate the sensor pod and to fly the ship.In that role, the 120m length... which is what this ship model kit is based upon... makes perfect sense. The fact that there are no windows in the pod, nor any way to run a turbo-lift "elevator car" through the pylons, is a non-issue, because none was ever supposed to be doing so. And so, as far as I'm concerned, THIS is the "Grissom" that this model represents.On the other hand, if you want this to represent any of the externally similar but "impossible" versions seen on TNG (impossible at the 120m size) you'll need to adjust the scale accordingly. By a LOT. 300m is, in my opinion, the "sweet spot" where the most common TNG-era version of this ship starts to make any sense. That means it's NOT in scale to the 1:350 models, but IS pretty close to being in scale to the older AMT/Ertl ship scale of 1:537.Anyway, if you care about your models being in a particular scale, this is something to think about. None of the "TNG-version" ships shown using this model are even possible at the scale this model is being presented at, 1:350.Now, on to the model itself.Overall, the model is well-engineered. If you want to build JUST the Grissom, or any of the other ships portrayed using the same miniature, on-screen... this kit will do just fine, overall.However, there is a problem. The front and rear surfaces of the main platform, and the pylons, have darker areas. On this model, they are represented by a 2-dimensional decal. This is really surprising to me, as these features were always clearly "flush vents" of the same type found on the front and rear surfaces of the refit Enterprise's engine nacelle support pylons. They should NOT be "decals," but actual inset cut-away regions. So, I'm going to have to cut those areas away in the kit plastic, and "back them up" with some styrene stock. On the real Grissom these would be grooved slots... easy enough to represent using grooved styrene sheet... except for the curved "corners" on the "roll bar" pylons. I haven't decided if I'm going to just soften the material and attempt to bend it to shape, or come up with some other non-screen-accurate "grillwork" type material to put behind these new cutouts. The Enterprise has grooved "vents" in those locations, and I really do intend to make this look as much like the Enterprise as possible in this detail.There's also another issue at the rear of the main platform. A series of small roughly circular holes, which are simply OPEN if built "stock." Obviously, this isn't how the filming model was made, with "open holes" through which you can peek all the way through the hollow main platform's length. SOMETHING needs to be done to these holes... and I haven't decided what, exactly, yet. Maybe just fill them with clear material? Or leave them open, but build some sort of "greeblie space" behind them? I'm not sure, but I DO know that the way the kit leaves them is unacceptable.Of course, the model comes with no lighting kit, but it's suited for lighting. Getting the lighting RIGHT may be more challenging that it looks at first blush, but the only "effects" you'd want to implement would be a "flicker" effect at the impulse engine, and some "blinkers" or "strobes" in various places. Nothing TOO complicated if you're half-decent with building electronics, but perhaps challenging to someone who doesn't know which end of the soldering iron to hold!Another issue with this kit is that, for reasons unknown, they chose to tool it up so that it's almost impossible to do "alternative configurations" (like the original design concept intended). The warp engine nacelles are MOSTLY separate parts, but a major portion of them is "shared" between the platform upper surface and the nacelle lower surface. This is... unfortunate... as it makes "kitbashing" the other variants much more complicated than it needs to be. Similarly, there's no EASY way to do a "headless configuration" (aka "robot drone") which lacks the crew support saucer.The above oversights are not insurmountable... but they're annoying, given how much care (and COST) went into creating this model kit. For perhaps a few extra pennies, out of the not-inconsiderable overall cost of the kit, all of these issues could easily have been avoided.In my case, well... I'll be building this as the original ship... the "Gagarin class" USS Grissom, at a 120m length, properly scaled to the 1:350 Enterprise models. Not the nearly 300m "Oberth class" seen so often in TNG. "Your mileage may vary."(By the way, ship class names are usually handled... both in real life or fictionally... as being "similar." Thus, a series of ships might be named after Earth's earliest astronauts... including Yuri Gagarin, Gus Grissom, Neil Armstrong, and all the rest of the "The Right Stuff" gang we all really know from real life!)With a bit of extra effort, this ship CAN be turned into a fully- screen-accurate model, but it shouldn't be necessary for us to have to modify a model at this price point just to replace "decals intended to appear as features" with the actual features. Nor should it require as much extra effort as it seems like it will just to make the model "kit-bashing-friendly."One final matter - decals. They gave us a TON of ship names... the TOS-movie-era Grissom, and all the various TNG-era ships also represented by this model. This results in a very complicated decal sheet with a LOT of decals that, no matter what, we won't be using. Half the decal sheet will either go into the "spares box" or into the trash, once the model is completed. That's a shame. I'd have gone with just the one or perhaps two ship names (the marking scheme changed during TNG, so there are two paint and marking schemes seen on this model over the years!) and let the after-market decal providers give "other ships."This, then, could have made selling the model with "paneling" decals (you can't really call it "aztecing," but there was panel plating detail on the filming model!) The total absence of any "easy" way of creating that subtle paneling is definitely noticed on this model. There are large regions without any such panel detail, certainly, but there was enough on the filming model that we'll all just have to paint by hand (or rather, by masking and airbrushing!). It's unfortunate that this wasn't an option offered alongside this kit. I could easily see providing a supplementary "names sheet" as an aftermarket item, but providing the standard version panel detailing with the kit... or at worse, also as an aftermarket item. As it is, we'll all have to do this the hard way.So, I'm a bit disappointed... not in the overall quality of the kit, which is just fine, but in some of the intentional omissions and odd tooling-design choices.If you want to build a Gagarin/Oberth class ship exactly as you'd have seen it on-screen, this kit is a great choice. But if you want it perfect... be prepared to work fairly hard to make it so.

Nicely detailed model and done in a 1:350 scale.

Poorly made.

First off let me say I've always liked the Oberth Class Grissom since first seeing it in Star Trek III so many years ago. Sure, it's a bit funky looking for a Starfleet ship and parts of it don't make sense from a design perspective (just bring up the topic online about how the crew get from the top section to the lower pod and prepare to get into a deep dive nerd free-for-all). But when all is said and done it still seems like a plucky little ship that never got enough credit and positive screen time since it was always treated like a bit player whose only job was to get blown up.So, when Polar Lights announced it was making a model in 1/350 scale of the ship, I was looking forward to it, especially since the only options prior to it in building a Grissom replica was either Polar Lights earlier "U.S.S. Grissom & Klingon Bird of Prey" set which featured a tiny Oberth in 1/1000 scale or someone's garage kit for sale at a mega-price.So, my first impression in receiving it was that due to the greater scale, the model is of a fairly impressive size. This made it much easier in painting, which I sometimes struggle with smaller scale models as well as assembling the various parts. This kit has a lot of clear parts and many windows (a little bit overboard for a small science vessel and another source of Trekkie debate but I digress). This, along with the roomy interior spaces, will make it a snap for those who wish to light it, though unfortunately my skills and budget precluded doing so with mine and something I regret as I feel the end result would have been much more satisfying. I also found another advantage in the generous interior was it allowed the placement of aftermarket shuttlebay parts that I found online. Since Polar Lights doesn't even offer optional Aztec decals and the Oberth was always known for its almost featureless hull, I also added a few left-over generic decals to make it less Plain Jane as well as some phaser banks to make it a little less like cannon fodder. Not being satisfied with the choice of alternative names and numbers (a mix of TOS movie and Next Gen), I came up with my own in keeping with the Oberth's main role of being science oriented.As to the negatives, the biggest issue I've found is with the decals. In particular, the two-toned blue stripes that go on either side of the warp pylons and the lower front of the saucer area. Simply put, they are way too big and unless you trim them a fair amount, they will overlap those areas and wind up eventually flaking off, like mine did when my fingers touched them during final assembly of the pylons into the nacelles (see photos). While there are several expert modelers on YouTube who point this out, I unfortunately came across this flaw on my own...too little, too late. Though I left them on so I could show the damage, I will eventually have to remove them and do without in order for it to look half decent and a big old wet noodle to Polar Lights for this obvious flaw. Another drawback in manufacture seems to be the excess plastic that attaches some of the parts to the sprues. Even after cutting them off the trees with a knife and some light shaving and sanding, there are still all too obvious rough patches on the model as a result of a less than clean removal.Overall, despite the obvious flaws with the decals and mold itself (which hopefully Polar Lights will take to heart and correct in future releases), I give the kit four stars and with time, patience and at least an immediate skill level, I think others will consider it a fun build and it will make an impressive display piece.

Pure trash.

Eine schöne Größe, mit feinen Details.Hab es noch nicht angefangen zu bauen.Aber ich denke wenn es dann fertig ist, wird es ein schicker Blickfang sein.

Sehr schönes Modell der USS Grissom.Der Versand ging viel schneller als angegeben. Lieferzeit war 26.3 bis 01.04.22 aber das Modell war am 17.03 schon da. Es lag ca 2 Tage beim Zoll, dann kam es aber an. Verpackung war ok. Keine Schäden, weder Verpackung noch Modell waren in Mittleidenschaft gezogen worden.Das Modell selber ist relativ groß 1:350 ist schon klasse. Es eignet sich hervorragend zum verbauen einer Beleuchtung. Tolles Teil.An dem Verkäufer gibt es auch nichts zu bemängeln. Kommt halt aus den USA. War schneller da als angegeben. Das der Zoll drauf guckt sollte jedem klar sein.Alles top.