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Star Trek Models: U.S.S. Excelsior new part preview
At long last, here is the promised sneak peek at the new parts that have been brewing to create our upcoming release of the U.S.S. Excelsior from Star Trek. The short history on the old AMT tooling is that the inserts that are needed to transform the U.S.S. Enterprise-B kit into the Excelsior have been lost. So we have had to recreate the missing parts. Like most of our work on new Star trek kits, the CAD work was done by Angelo Bastianelli. If you never picked up our reissue of the Enterprise-B a few years back, we made a few corrections on that one. Most significantly, we completely redid the lower saucer and curved the back wall of the neck. Some might ask if we are just recreating the parts from the old Excelsior kit. You know us by now. We approach these kits like the Six Million Dollar Man. We make them better than they were before, better stronger, faster… Okay, maybe just better, but you get the point.
With this edition, we examined the shape of the lower hull carefully, but found that the shape of the old part was proportionally accurate. Without necessarily meaning to, the new one is relatively close to the shape of the old one. We’ve decided to implement a slide mold this time though so the deflector trench will no longer be a separate part. That also allows us to get the weapon details a little better on the sides of the hull. We are completely redoing the inner “gut” detail of the hull based on Gary Kerr’s research into the model kit parts used when the filming miniature was built. A few compromises were made to allow us to inject the part with minimal fuss, but few will pick up on the differences. The look of the “whalebone” is more accurate now with that detail being split between the inner bay part and the outer hull part.
We had to recreate the top of the saucer as well and this was probably the most significant undertaking. The old part was kind of soft on details, so we made sure this one is up to snuff and a substantial upgrade will be the ability to use parts to build the ship as either the NX-2000 as shown in STAR TREK III: The Search For Spock or as the NCC-2000 as commanded by Sulu in STAR TREK VI: The Undiscovered Country. That means the bridge dome, impulse crystals and hangar bay will all come with swap-able parts. Speaking of impulse crystals, they will come as clear parts regardless of which version you choose.
Here are a whack of photos to take a gander at. I’m sure you’ll pick up on some of the other fun details and features I haven’t mentioned. Right now, it looks like the kit will be out in May.
For those hungry for more Eagle updates. I hope to have another post about that out next week.
You’ve done it again Jamie,make an old kit look even more beautiful.
Actually, making the deflector trench integral to the lower hull does make it stronger. Still no faster, but hey, you’re 2 out of 3 on the Six Million Dollar Man scale. I was getting antsy waiting, but thanks for posting. This is exciting news! Can’t wait to have this kit on my workbench.
PS: A 1/1000 Grissom would go with this perfectly, if you could figure out how big that is. Maybe just follow the ILM size chart, I guess, and to heck with the rivet, er, deck counters.
Are you doing the grid lines for the secondary hull?? the reason I ask is because there are differences between the studio mode built for STIII and the one built for the Voyager episode Flashback.
No engraved lines other than what you see here. We’ll be offering a separate decal set that will have some panel lines incorporated into those.
I know I’ve given you guys a lot of guff in the past but I knew you’d come through on this one! I think it’s many modeler’s dream to have mass-produced NX version of the ship! Bravo, Round 2!
May I ask what are doing with the decals? It would be great to see Aztec decals even if they are sold separately
Awesome! Will the new Excelsior have accurate warp pylons?
I’m not aware of any differences in the pylons other than markings possibly.
The pylons were adjusted fore/aft slightly when AMT converted the original kit from Excelsior to E-B. No further updates needed.
Outstanding job on the new parts! I really like that it can be built as either the NX-2000 or NCC-2000.
Very cool! This was one of my favourite kits as a kid, and I by no means did it justice the first time around. Really excited to take another crack at it with these gorgeous new refinements!
Outstanding! And apparently there will be aztec decals as well, from what I see out there. Thank you!
You had to know this was coming Jamie…so…speaking of The Six Million Dollar Man…
You know, some new box art (and possibly some resin replacement heads) and those old Steve Austin kits would be good as new. Any chance you might be repopping Steve (and Ms. Sommers) any time soon?
Actually, I didn’t have those kits in mind, but thanks for the reminder.
Any chance that decal set will include full aztec-ing as well? Definitely willing to pony up for those considering the excellent quality of the refit E and Reliant.
Yes. that is exactly what they will be. Full aztecing for the entire ship. usual markings will come in the kit.
Please make the aztec decals separate from the name / NCC markings, so we can use the aztecs with aftermarket decals for other ships.
We always do that when offering aztecs separately. No worries there.
It’s great to see this progress.
Thanks!
But the shape of the NX-Excelsior bridge seems a bit off. According to pictures that I’ve seen, it looks more mushroom shaped, than dome shaped.
Check out this article on Ex-Astris – About 1/4 down the page there are notes on the differences between the NX and NCC versions.
http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/excelsior-size.htm
That’s one spot where we deviated from the filming miniature and veered toward intent. The detail was barely visible on screen. We found that the shape seemed to be out of character compared to the domes that came before and after. What did the Federation intend for it to look like vs. how the film’s craftsmen built the miniature? We opted to take it one step back towards what we had seen in previous bridge domes like the Refit. If some don’t like it the upside is that it should be easy to swap in a studio accurate part should someone choose to come up with something like that.
Looking at some HD images from ST IV showing Kirks shuttle cruising through space dock and going across the top of Excelsior the NX bridge has a vertical wall and not a slope, but it does have what look to be windows around the wall. These screen grabs are near the end of the movie.
Just in case you don’t already know this, there are different window patterns on the secondary hull between the 2 studio models. And the first one, which was the NX, the windows on the left are different than those on the right hand side.
And I can’t wait!!!
We’ll keep and eye out for that when we start the decals.
Hi JamieH I wanted to talk to you about the Excelsior’s Secondary hull. First let say that the new model is far better then the last and I look forward to picking one up but as a long time Trek modeler I have studied the Excelsior model for years and I have to tell you that after looking at the pictures of the secondary hull I’m not to happy with the look and feel it’s wrong. So I have to ask what model you guys where using as a reference because it looks like you where using Greg Jeins model built for the Voyager episode Flashbacks. Jeins model was based on the old AMT Excelsior model and is not accurate to the original model built for Star Trek 3. The thing that really bugs me is the deflector area, maybe it’s the angle of the photo but the deflector area looks like it’s the wrong shape. When looking at it from the front it should have a very egg shape to it and should sit down farther from the top of the part. If looking at it from the side you should barley be able to tell that there’s a defector hole at all. The other thing it the width of the hull it’s self you guys say it’s correct but I know it’s not and this is the main reason I suspect you maybe using the Greg Jein model as a reference. I’d just like to ask you to take a look at the pictures I have on my photobucket page you may see what I’m talking about. please consider fixing the defector hole shape and please add the missing shield grid lines to the secondary hull. Your also missing the two shield grid lines that run around the top of the saucer section just before the slop down where the RCS thrusters go. The Enterprise-B model has this so you should be able to compare them. In closing I’d like to thank everyone at Round 2 for bring the Trek line back and overall I think you guys are doing a bang up job please keep it up.
Hears a link to my page with the studio model pictures and you can also take a look at my Excelsior model that started life as an Enterprise-B model to better understand where I’m coming from with my opinion. Thanks
http://s1320.photobucket.com/user/rholt35/library/Studeo%20Model%20Excelsior?sort=3&page=1
I’ll admit the shape of the deflector was one of the toughest shapes to get right. I’d say it’s 90% there and the other 10% was left in the dust of making sure we were able to bring the kit to market in a timely manner. The same could be said for any other small details we may have missed. I made it a point to ignore reference images of the “flashback” model. But if that miniature was based on the AMT kit, then I could see how you might have gotten the impression that we had followed it. The fact that we were working with some existing parts made this a bit of a different animal. The parts we are fitting to weren’t perfect, but we did the best we could to work with them. Expect to find any missing panel lines to be included in our aztec decal sheet. You have a couple pics we did not have in our morgue, but we did have access to a few great shots that I haven’t seen “out in the wild”.
Couple of things I didn’t see mentioned in the text – the pics show new detail for the alternate shuttle bays, including the tiny shuttles.
A – Will the shuttles be molded in or separate?
B – Will the deck canopy – part #7 – be retooled to have removable shuttle bay doors? If not, the new interior details and shuttles are a waste.
the shuttles are molded in and the rear shuttle bay doors have not been revised. In order to see them, one would need to cut out the doors. The presence of the detail is a bit of a happy accident. Angelo placed the shuttles for the fun of it while doing his work. It was up to me to tell the factory not to include them. I figured it wasn’t going to hurt anything to include them. So there they stay.
Sometimes people give Round2 a hard time, but it’s amazing the hard work and thought you put into getting a model the way it should be. Even if the original mold was made way before you got your hands on it. Not many companies (whatever the product) will go back and correct or make an older product better when they can. You folks rock.
Yeah, the Six Million Dollar Man kit would be cool. Maybe just the one where he busts out of the wall. (the other ones are probably politically incorrect for todays times LOL).
I’m looking forward to the Eagle kit for sure. Thanks to your whole team for getting that project going.
Now, if we just had a Disney Nautilus (hint hint ) …………. 🙂
..
Looks like you’ve got another hit on your hands along with the upcoming Eagle. Great work! And, I second Rocketfin’s request for a Disney Nautilus!
If only we could get an audience with the great and powerful Mouse…
Thanks for the reply Jamie I don’t mean to be one of the people giving you a heard time about the little details I just wanted to make sure you guys knew about some of the inaccuracies on the mold. I look forward to the kits release next year especially the aztek decals.
No worries here. Trust me, we do the best we can. 🙂
Hi Jaime!
The NX-2000 and NCC-2000 both have the back of the neck pylon curved. Will that be included here? And the edges of the engine pylons have a depressed set details, but they are flipped front to back on both the old Excelsior and you new Enterprise-B, will this be corrected? And, lastly, are there any plans to correct the Enterprise-B side impulse vent housings? The sides should cant outward from the top surface to the hull, and the vent itself is hexagonally shaped, not rectangular.
Thanks for your consideration on these questions. I have the usual slew of photos of the shooting model I have collected over the years, plus the blu-rays. I just don’t know how to attach them here to show what I mean. I hope my descriptions are sufficient.
We corrected the neck curvature on our release of the Enterprise-B and that change will carry over to this release. We haven’t made any changes to the pylons. We had to stay with existing arts where we had them. Ditto on the impulse vents. With some (budgetary) restraints we need to use what we’ve got, but we’ve done what we could to make the new parts as spot on as we could.
This looks GREAT Jamie…can’t wait to get a couple at least…THANKS!!
I did want to comment on the old 2015 Wonderfest survey, since it’s been closed so long now, first GREAT choices!
But looking through the survey, it was VERY clear, the vast majority,of fans taking the survey, greatly favored continuing the 1/1000 line of kits, reguardless the ship, just something new.But again,going through the list, the majority seemed to favor a 1/1000 Enterprise -D, which I must admit is my pick as well.But also mentioned was a 1/2500 Nebula -D variant, which would be great to, but if you did a 1/1000 D, you could save money and time by offering just a parts kit to convert the 1/1000 D into the Nebula, just a thought… 😉
If we did a D, we would do so with the intention of offering the variants as well over time.
AWESOME!!!
Thanks for the reply Jamie..I really hope this happens.
the grid line decals, will the come with the kit or seperate with the Aztec decals???
on the aztecs.
This looks GREAT!!!! THANKS Jamie..
Can’t wait to get at least a couple of these.
And with this awesome upgrade coming out, I wanted to comment on the Wonderfest 2015 fan choice survey on which kit they would like to see come out.
Looking through the survey,it’s VERY clear the vast majority want the 1/1000 scale line of ships to continue, regardless of which ship it is, but again, the majority seemed to favor the 1/1000 Enterprise-D,which I must admit is my choice as well.
With 7 ships already out in this scale,it would be GREAT to be able to build a complete fleet in that same scale.
Hopefully a Enterprise-C and E to follow at some point
Small enough to fit comfortably on a self, but big enough to show good detail.
A 1/1000 D with a smooth hull and correct phaser strip surface detail, would be awesome.
And while a 1/2500 scale Nebula would be great, a 1/1000 Nebula would be all the more sweeter.
And, you could save time and money on tooling, by offering a conversion kit of a secondary hull and awacks pod and pylon to turn the Enterprise -D into the Nebula.
Just a thought…..please please 🙂
Sorry for the double post, I thought the first one didn’t go through… 🙁
no worries. I thought I had read some of that before. 😉
All comments get reviewed before posting.
im in love finally the starship U.S.S. EXCELSIOR has come back into the light good job as always glad to see the 1/1000 scale is here to stay was wondering if in the future you were going to come out with a 1/1000 scale voyager and a 1/350 scale klingon ktinga class battlecruiser or a 1/350 scale uss reliant both would really be sweet to have with the enterprise refit btw really happy to see the excelsior back in action good job to round 2
Are you guys going to make a 1/2500 scale one
Any news on the Galileo shuttle ?
No, not at the moment.
I am glad that model kits of both kits are coming soon I cannot wait for the Galileo shuttle craft for mine collection of models kits next year for star trek movie in 2016 is there any new kits you guys think of thanks you Jamie Marry Christmas.