I am working on the 1:1000 Polar Lights TOS Enterprise, but am making a what if model... and I want to depict her in something akin to the TMP livery. I already have shot the ship with Tamiya Pearl White as the main color (over Rustoleum Gloss White) but I am now at a point of making some choices about painting details... such as grilles on nacelles, impulse decks, the deflector housing, etc. I have found several Tamiya colors, specifically Light Sea Gray and IJA Gray (both with greenish tints) and IJN Gray (Sasebo Arsenal), which seem to work well with the strongback and similar details on the refit vessel from TMP. I was wondering, what colors might members of this forum assign to different parts of the TOS Constitution Class on the basis of this proposal? Rob+
regarding the bits raised be newtontomato; while blue would be kinda cool, it might be a little closer to the 'JJprise' style than the TMP ship. I'd be tempted to do something even more out there with the nacelles... maybe a white light? I think that would suit the clean, minimal aesthetic of the refit style I take it the deflector dish doesn't have a way to illuminate as-is? you might want to just leave it copper then (after all, the refit dish was seen to glow with a copperish hue in the early movies, so it wouldn't be entirely unheard of). I suppose a glowing dish would have more 'cool factor' though Other than that, you might want to look around online for some resources on how the original miniature was painted (assuming you haven't already, that is). Didn't Andy Probert use to have a colour guide on his website at some stage? or was that for the TNG ship? Anyway, Good luck! I'll be looking forward to seeing how it turns out!
The (supposed) bussard collectors on the TMP Enterprise were black, so make the TOS engine front domes black. The navigation/deflector dish white in the center, transitioning to a shade of blue around the edges. Yellow rectangle outlined in red for the phaser location. (although I've alway thought identifying your weapon's exact location for a new adversary to be idiotic) Same colors, different shapes, for the locations of the maneuvering thrusters.
Parts of the array behind the deflector dish were originally intended to be lit, but the constraints didn't allow for that. Integrating some kind of illumination would simply bring it full circle.
That's what I was thinking too....maintain the copper-colored dish, but light it blue behind it. I think that would look pretty snazzy.