Unboxing: Dropfleet Commander UCM Dreadnaught

I've been mostly away from the bench the past couple of weeks, and managed to finish up a contest entry yesterday.  I kind of scratched my head at what I should work on next - there's PLENTY to do, but what should come next? 

I started working on another contest entry, and paused, as the sculpt isn't as clean as I expected (but that's the topic for another post).  I don't know if I want to putz with it for an actual entry.  So it's backburner for now.

Next on my list was the DFC Dreadnought.  I really planned to get away from little plastic spaceships for awhile (I've been painting DFC stuff since ... January?).  However, I'm contemplating magnetizing the hull so I can run either hull variant (Gunboat or Supercarrier).  I'll be new to the magnetizing thing, I figure I'll get the big pieces together and then have some time to deal with any surprises.

I haven't done a lot of unboxing posts, but the Dread is enough of an investment to celebrate a little more than typical.  Here are a few pictures of the grand unveiling.

Box front with some concept art.  Overall packaging gets a thumbs up.  Semi-matte, high quality sleeve over a nice cardboard box.

Rest of the pictures after the break!

Box rear with the actual model (in Supercarrier configuration) and fluff text.

Sleeve removed.  I'm noting this because when my (also quite expensive) battleships arrived in a cheap blister pack, I was less than impressed.  This feels much better.

Box contents, nicely wrapped.

One bag holds the nacelles.  And a big bag of cannons (which is a fun thing to type).

The other bag holds the hull parts (with a paint pot for scale).  The Dreads are impressively big.  The upper and lower hanger bays (top and bottom in the pic) are for the Washington (Supercarrier) option.  

So, overall first impressions are favorable. 

To be honest, I've seen a few molding issues from TTCombat in the past, so I closely inspected my parts for low fills and mold alignment issues.  I'm happily impressed with my set.  I've got three minor spots to fill in non-detailed areas, and I'll do it only because I'm picky.

I can tell that the forward hull sections as well as the upper/lower Carrier Bay pieces are warped a bit.  I've seen this before with TTCombat's resin, and can probably be corrected with careful application of some heat (this is a 10 minute task, I'm not fussed at all). 

The detail in TTCombat's resin is - as usual - super crisp.  Other than the injection points, there isn't a lot of trimming to do.