You're right though that it does look odd with the "1701E" jammed together like that. And without knowing the backstory it might just appear as an error to a random observer. Hmmmmm
Yes, I recall this as well. It seems like a stylistic choice rather than an error to me. I'm all for correcting errors, but not this sort of thing. Now, if it said 1701F, that would be another story.
The same style was used on the Enterprise-A as well. I think this was intentional, with the em dash separating the prefix from the numbers and the short dash separating the suffix, which was technically part of the number.
I wonder if that had to do with the shape of the saucer; they were putting the registry in a much tighter arc than previous ships, so the em dash might not have worked, aesthetically.
I love your gold models, but I think you got them too accurate. I don't think the on set models were nearly as accurate. I think the Enterprise B was the Playmates toy plated gold and your Enterprise B looks so much better than that.
And now you'll never unnotice it whenever you see it! Was it the same dash on the B and C though? Gotta add buttons behind that bridge
They used the em dash on the C (link). The B is harder to tell, because there aren't a lot of good shots of it in the film, and when it finally went up for auction, all the markings had been changed to the USS Lakota, from DS9 "Paradise Lost."
In the opening christening shot of Generations there's a hatch with the registry number of the B on it. At least there, the same long/short dash scheme was used.
While not clear you can tell that the second one is shorter And while not on the model itself, it does use the same artwork (incluidng the bluish color) that was used on the model.
We discussed this up thread at length. I decided to standardize all the models to have a similar level of detail, to my choosing. I also adjusted the scales to be more presentable. A rare departure from screen/set accuracy for me.
I never knew where this was actually supposed to be on the ship? If they wanted to do a close up, surely they could've just replicated part of the model in a larger scale!
Really? It is the bottle of champagne hitting the ship. They made a close up to show it. Just don't ask me where on the ship that is because that doesn't match any detail I've ever seen on the studio model.
I get the impression it's supposed to represent the gangway hatch like what was seen on the port-side rim of the Refit/E-A primary hull, but yeah, the Excelsior/E-B filming miniature never had such a feature on either side of its PH.
I'd leave it as a stylistic choice since all the necessary characters are there and the lack of hyphen doesn't change the serial number. The models do look great though
That's exactly what TOMFAN was saying. Through the wonders of editing, I'd never really felt like I didn't know where it was until closer analysis when I began making my own models and... yeah, no idea.