OMG, absolutely fantastic. I really love the progress that you have made. She looks fine and not a soap dish to me but a work of art.
It is a lot like our space shuttle. Folks call it a brick but on closer inspection, it has a lot of curves. Bad for tiles though. Now--talk about a brick: http://www.fantastic-plastic.com/RockwellC-1057BreadboxShuttlePage.htm Its side view is actually rather like a TOS shuttle...
I keep meaning to get back to this and I keep getting diverted to other projects. I really should pick up where I left off particularly in light of what I've learned since.
Great work! Post # 35 really illustrates what a great design the shuttlecraft had been. No matter from which angle you look at it, it looks interesting from all angles which I believe is the characteristic of any great design. Bob
Yes, Warped9, you should get back to it. And I agree with you Bob - from every angle, it's interesting.
My understanding has always been NBC had an arrangement with the AMT models company, AMT paid for the construction of the full-sized shuttle and the model company reserved the rights to produce and market the plastic kit. NBC also did a similar deal with AMT concerning the Piranha automobile from the Man From U.N.C.L.E. TV series, funding in exchange for kit production and distribution.
^^ I know AMT built the mock-ups (both the full-size and miniature exteriors and possibly the full-size interior as well), but it was still a pretty elaborate and impressive effort particularly when you consider the dorky looking shuttle pods TNG had in the beginning and it was supposed to be a more polished production with better resources.
FWIW, the full story of how the Galileo model and full-size prop came to be built are exhaustively detailed in Marc Cushman's meticulously sourced These Are The Voyages: Season One book. Yet another excuse to buy it!
I know cause that's where I got some of my info. I knew from way back (reading TMoST) AMT built the full-size exterior, but I didn't know until recently that they might have built the miniature and the interior as well.