New B5 ships

Friday I eagerly drove to my hobby store as he was unpacking his first
shipment of B5 capital ships. I am now the proud owner of 3 Hyperions and 4
Vorchans. Although I'm not an expert reviewer I thought I would share my
feelings of the models with you. First I must say that I like them. The
Hyperion is about 3 inches long and the Vorchan is half that but much wider
and higher. There is assembly required of course They are qood reproductions
of the ships with only one obvious mistake. The 3 thrust nozzles on the back
of the Hyperion are wrong. The model has the central nozzle located below the
other two triangular fashion whereas the rear shot of the Hyperion going back
out the jump gate in
Voice in the Wilderness ll  clearly shows them all in-line.

Nits to pick and things to watch for. All four of my Vorchans had slightly
pitted and malformed left side of the "nose" but it was minor and won't be
noticed. The Hyperion needs some work to attach it to the stands. They have a
slight indentation in the metal for the stand stem to go but you need to drill
it out. The problem is that point is located between the two pulse cannons on
the lower section which is a narrow piece of metal. The end result is after
drilling it out the stand stem is held only by the metal of the ship fore and
aft instead of being encased in metal all the way around and you will have to
reinforce it. I would rather they distorted the way they did the Vorchan
instead of leaving it like that. Also I had to do some cleaning of the holes
they have for the thruster nozzles. Another thing to watch is that the nozzles
are slightly squished so when attaching them make sure the narrower part is at
the sides so you can squeeze them in.

The Vorchan has the hole for the stand stem on the bottom of the central fin
and they have thickend the metal there to accomodate it. The central fin gets
in the way of trying to put the hole in the bottom of the hull. This all
results in the WHOLE ship being above where the stem attaches. I won't know
for sure how well balanced the model is until I've finished painting and
mounting it.

The stands are clear plastic bases with metal stems. You have to file down the
bottom of the stems as they are too long to fit into the bases properly. This
is a design flaw and not an individual problem with one or two of them.

Anyway despite the nits I like these. They are nice representations of the
ships and they are sturdy. I would recommend them no matter what rules you use
and I can't wait for the Omegas and G'Quans to come out.

> BEST, David wrote:
The
> 3 thrust nozzles on the back of the Hyperion are wrong. The model has

I don't know, I seem to remember that in Severed Dreams the central engine was
lower than the other two. As for squished nozzles, nobody is perfect.

If I remember correctly Severed Dreams doesn't show a Hyperion from the rear
but it does show the Clarkstown from topside but I'd have to check it. A Voice
in the Wilderness II however does show the Hyperion from several angles and it
is quite clear from the ending sequence that the
engines are in-line - I replayed it several times.  My comments about
the squished nozzles was just a warning as I started crazy gluing them in and
found I had to change it. You're right that nobody's perfect. I like these
miniatures.

David Best
> ----------

> On Mon, 23 Feb 1998, BEST, David wrote:

> If I remember correctly Severed Dreams doesn't show a Hyperion from

Huh? The second wave of Earth Ships that attempted to attack B5 had two
Hyperions. We saw them tuck tail and run from Delenn's? fleet and we got a
real good look at the rear of a EF CA.

Later,

Hi there! You were right I had forgotten that shot of the Hyperion, I checked
it out last night but the 3 engine nozzles are definitely
in-line, no doubt about it.

David Best
> Huh? The second wave of Earth Ships that attempted to attack B5