ARA Press

StarFleet Assembly Manuals

by  Paul M Hewitt

Reviewed By  Mark Aldrich, IPMS# 39295

MSRP: $11.95 ISBN: 0970145527 Website: www.arapress.com What a lucky break for Star Trek fans. Paul Newitt’s original StarFleet assembly manuals, often referred to as the divine source of Star Trek modeling, have long been out of print. Lo and behold, not only does he go and reprint them but combines them all into one easy-to-access book. He has also added new material to this excellent release. The new release is 224 pages long and broken down into four basic chapters, including the following: SFAM 1: The assembly procedure for Heavy Cruiser Starships. This chapter is a build of the 18" TOS (The Original Series) AMT Enterprise kit. SFAM 2: The Assembly procedure for Klingon Battlecruiser, Romulan Bird of Prey. The chapter covers building and lighting of AMT’s Klingon D-7 Battlecruiser and the large Romulan Bird of Prey. There is also a section that explains, through pictures, some excellent battle damage techniques. SFAM 3: Advanced Assembly procedure for Heavy Cruiser Starships. This is the super detailing section. Using the AMT 18" kit as a base, a very advanced, lighted Enterprise is produced. Appendix: This chapter contains correction data from the three earlier SFAMs and provides some useful and helpful trivia for the reader. Also, an in-depth study and analysis of the original Enterprise color is covered. There are sub-chapters covering the building of Polar Lights enterprise and Klingon D-7 and some really nice work done by the author and friends relating to Star Trek and other Sci-Fi projects. Each of the books/chapters is well written. There are numerous photographs and line drawings that accompany each. The text is simple and concise. They explain each build as though you were a beginner and that, to me, is great. Nothing is left to chance. The only drawbacks for me were the black-and-white photographs -- I believe color would have been a better format to display all the photographs in this compilation. The battle-damaged D-7 cries out for the close-up photographs to be in color. I would like to thank Paul Newitt and Jack Hagerty of ARA Press for providing this excellent book and IPMS/USA providing this site for others to see this review. "Space……the final frontier…." It just makes you want to rush out a build an Enterprise. [Editor's Note: ARA Press offers, to IPMS Members, a 15% discount on anything in the store by typing the code 'IPMS-R' into the box at checkout.]