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Star Trek Model Kit: Boldly Going…
Have you heard that we are developing a new Star trek model kit of the TOS Enterprise in 1:350 scale? We assigned the job of putting together the plans for the ship to Gary Kerr. I hope to interview Gary at some point to give you some of his background. Although he isn’t really a modeler in the sense of one who builds them. Though, he makes the yearly trip to Wonderfest. I got to meet him there last year. Bob had already started a dialog with him about the project. Gary has been around the Trek universe in a way many of us could only dream of. He has actually gained access to review and document the actual filming models used for the Star trek TV shows and movies including the 11’ model of the TOS ship.
Gary has already dipped a toe into the model making pool. Actually more like jumped into the deep end and swam like Michael Phelps when he joined forces with one of our friendly competitors to help them plan a highly detailed kit of another iconic sci-fi subject. (sorry can’t advertise for them here)
So about a month ago or so (or was it longer…) we received an email from him saying he was nearly done with the plans and would start emailing them over. The first batch was 26 sheets. They detailed the nacelles… That’s right, 26 pages covered just the nacelles. He continued to send batches over the next couple of days until we had the entire ship documented. Let me tell you, Gary is thorough and particular. There are very well spelled out details in his plans that, in all honesty, I don’t think you will pick up on in the model even at 1:350 scale. I can’t wait to get started. Since receiving the plans, we have gotten approval from the guys up stairs to get costs, etc to start the mock up. That was great news to hear. It will all happen one step at a time. It’s almost time to reserve the space in the dry dock…
11 Responses to “Star Trek Model Kit: Boldly Going…”
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Great news - I’ll be following this story! Sounds like this kit is going to be fantastic.
Are we still looking at a 2011 release date? I am anxiously awaiting this kit!!! I alreay have ideas on how to do the spinning fan blades in the nacelles.
This is great news, I’m really looking forward to this. I would like this model to be an acturate version of the original TV ship, but would also like the same options that you gave us with the 1/1000th version of doing the pilot version(s) of the Enterprise.
Tommy
I want:
-A fully detailed shuttle bay with a motor-driven rotating turntable
-Two shuttlecraft, one with alternative decals (”Galileo” and “Galileo II”)
-A top deck that lifts off revealing the bridge, complete with accurate blinking lights on all the panels
-Little corridors that you can see if you look in the windows, complete with tiny model crewmen
-Alternative “melted” nacelles that look *exactly* like the ones in the original version of “The Doomsday Machine”
-Alternative “inaccurising” parts that faithfully reproduce the look of the 70s AMT kit, including lettering in the wrong font
-Raised panel lines on the primary hull with exhaustive instructions on how best to sand them off
-An included twenty-foot-wide ‘galaxy barrier’ made of sculpted neon tubes and fibreglass.
26 sheets? On the nacelles alone, that’s not good.
Those took more time to make than the original models.
So why are you guys still using plans?
Nomad,
-You forgot to add the big hand of Apollo.
take care
cr
I hate to wish time away but I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these. From what is written above it sound like it will be the next best thing to actually owning the studio FX model.
Go ahead and use whatever resources and take whatever time you need to get it right. Please include all of those details you mentioned above and we can determine if they are visible at 1/350 scale. It looks as if you are planning to include many of the building options of the smaller kit in building either of the pilots or production versions. I hope that this is so.
This is shaping up to be the flagship kit of your line. I’m certain that the extra effort will pay off in sales. I will see to that!
Keep up the great work!
Cool, sounds like this kit will be impressive.
What I would like to see is similar to a few of Nomad’s comments, only a bit more “affordable”.
Full shuttlebay with 3 regular shuttles: Galileo, Galileo II, and Columbus. I would also like the shuttles from the animated series: Aquashuttle, Long rang shuttle, and I think there was one other.
Keep up the good work.
Hmmm, going with what Nomad said, it would be awesome to include a giant, clear-molded space ameoba to stick the ship in for a display. Would be a beast to paint, but well worth the effort. Come to think of it, a tiny engine room with real glowing impulse reactors would be awesome.
But seriously, a detailed, lightable shuttle bay, clear bridge dome with a detailed insert of some sort depicting the bridge, impulse engines, bussard domes and windows that can be illuminated would be awesome. I have several of the 1/1000 scale kits (love to *attempt* to kitbash ships out of them) and the detail there is pretty darn good. My only gripe is with the bussard domes. If the domes themselves were separate from the necelle components (flux restrictors, I believe?) and were just the domes themselves it would make painting and illuminating the engines that much easier.
Three most important things…
Accuracy, accuracy, accuracy.
I think everyone agrees that’s what we all want and are willing to pay a premium to get it. In other words, even if the kit is a bit more expensive than other kits of similar stature, but super accurate and thoughtfully designed, we’ll all jump for joy!
In other words, we’d all want a kit whereby there will be no need for anyone to make “accurizing kits” for the model.
Don’t all of you agree?
Can I get a “Whoa… ROUND 2!!”?
(Those of you who’ve watched “Married With Children” know what I mean by that!)