Hi everyone. A few months back for my birthday, one of my best friends gave me a copy of the famous 18-inch Enterprise model kit, which I've dated back to about 1983, making it around my age too. I've been a very, very low-level model builder over my life, so I decided what better opportunity to try to push my skills to a higher level. I decided that I would build this kit as the U.S.S. Constellation, undamaged, but at the same time try to accurize the paint and decals as much as possible. However, I'll be using all the original parts since the original Constellation was shown as an oddly painted AMT kit. In my mind, this is what the AMT kit version of the ship "really" would look like. Here are some initial images from the assembly stage. I used Testors glue, Tamiya putty, and some sandpaper to get here. I decided to sand off the windows and use decals instead, so you won't see any of those here. I also filled in the phaser "dimples" and began sanding down the rings on the ventral of the saucer. You'll notice the yellowing from the kit from it being stored for years, made more prominent by the true gray areas from my sanding. This is the third of this kit I have put together, the other two being fifteen years ago. It is still gratifying to see just how pretty this kit is, even in this rough stage. More to come!
Looking great thus far! Looking forward to where you are going with this. I‘m just like you, I never was much of a model builder, but this (plus the TOS bridge model from AMT) was the model I was assembling when I was 15 years or so. Trying to assemble I should say, because as a kid I wasn‘t patient enough to actually build this the way it is meant to be. It‘s a smart decision to build it as the Constellation as it will essentially be screen accurate this way. Will you try to fiddle with airbrushing this or any such pro methods? Anyway, I‘d love to build her myself one of these days.
Some resources for you https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/treknographics101/plans-of-the-amt-18-inch-enterprise-t64-s80.html http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/99-sc...320865-original-1966-18-enterprise-model.html http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/99-science-fiction-modeling/387046-1960s-era-enterprise-build.html http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/99-science-fiction-modeling/380264-amt-tos-e-then-now.html http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/99-science-fiction-modeling/366457-18-tos-amt-enterprise-2.html Revell and AMT compared http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/4417998-post159.html AMT saucer changes http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/5836145-post8.html
Head on over to Starship Modeler-Both for inspiration and more advice than you could use in five lifetimes. Are the decals yellowed? There are things you can do about that. Test one of the spares to see how they go on. If it "breaks up", there's things you can do about that, too.
Head over to Starship Modeler for inspiration and enough advice for five lifetimes. http://www.starshipmodeler.net/talk/index.php My first piece of advice is check the decals for yellowing and integrity. Let us know if there are issues.
Did it still have the raised gridlines on the top of the saucer? I thought they'd gotten rid of those by the 80's era kits. Anyway, good luck and keep us posted. The only thing I would have done differently would have been to use Plasti-Zap glue. It's plastic welding super-glue and it's friggin' eternal.
The 80s AMT kits definitely DID still have the gridlines, at least at all the model shops in my neck of the woods. All of the big Connie kits my friends and I put together from TOS had those. The 3 pack with the Romulan and Klingon ships didn't if I remember right.
OK. I'm thinking that AMT 6676 kit did away with the gridlines at some point, I know I had one or two later on that I didn't have to sand them off. Hell, the damn thing was cast in blue plastic in the 70's, which made painting it a lot of fun.
I can't vouch for it, but this might be of help. http://culttvman.com/main/a-history-of-the-amt-enteprise-model-by-jay-chladek-part-1/ http://culttvman.com/main/a-history-of-the-amt-enteprise-model-by-jay-chladek-part-2/ http://culttvman.com/main/a-history-of-the-amt-enteprise-model-by-jay-chladek-part-3/ http://culttvman.com/main/a-history-of-the-amt-enteprise-model-by-jay-chladek-part-4/
I got several of the kits inthe mid 70s. Ome of was baby blue. My Klingon Battlecruiser was cast in BLACK!
I missed the black one. The D7's I had were molded in dark gray. The site @CorporalCaptain linked to mentions that Matchbox tended to go with weird colors for the sake of going with weird colors and combinations of colors.
The one D-7 I purchased in the mid 70s was a soft, pale olive, arguably not that far different from the filming miniature as I later learned. For some reason, I opted to spray paint it (simple "rattle can" technique) a flat black a few years later.