Franz Joseph's Star Trek Blueprints - Tallguy's 50th Anniversary Edition

[Tallguy]

50 years ago today (so I'm told http://trekplace.com/fj-timeline.html) Franz Joseph (Schnaubelt) (1914-1994) and Ballantine Books published The Star Trek Blueprints aka The Booklet of General Plans (BOGP).

So for the 50th anniversary of this incredible landmark work I'm boldly going where Vektor (Jason Lee) has gone before. But I'm also boldly where I have gone before. The first 3D model I ever made in 1989 on the Atari 1040st was the Enterprise (of course) and the reference that I used was FJ's plans. So knowingly or not, this was the ship that I built.

I purchased a used copy of the BOGP on September 8th (I never realized that date before!) 1985. To call them life changing would not be an understatement. This was one of my first steps into an area of fandom that has never lost it's fascination for me. (The first Star Trek blueprints that I bought were Larry Miller's U.S.S. Hornet plans earlier that summer at PhoenixCon. My gateway drug. Thank you Mr. Miller, wherever you are.)

This has been about five months in the making. For a set of documents I've known for almost 40 years this has been a voyage of discovery.

Obviously FJ's Enterprise is a whole different beast compared to the 11 foot studio model. But I think there are more than a few influences from the AMT kit and of course Matt Jefferies' sketches.

This was modeled, textured, rendered, and composited with Blender. Some texture work was also done with GIMP. A little bit of sound work in Audacity.

Thank you to all the people who gave feedback to this project. Some are members here and some are not.

By the way, if the coloring of the markings, lights, and hull seems a little unusual, I was going by this: http://trekplace.com/fj-gallery-colorguide.html Thank you, Greg Tyler!

The Booklet of General Plans:





Some beauty shots:




Edit: And here she is in her first video!

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

I'm so familiar with the 11 foot miniature that this looks like one of those "spot all the mistakes in the image" puzzles, but that modelling work is flawless. Very nicely done.

 

[blssdwlf]

Yes, very nicely done @Tallguy ! The colors and lighting turned out great

 

[fireproof78]

50 years ago today (so I'm told http://trekplace.com/fj-timeline.html) Franz Joseph (Schnaubelt) (1914-1994) and Ballantine Books published The Star Trek Blueprints aka The Booklet of General Plans (BOGP).

So for the 50th anniversary of this incredible landmark work I'm boldly going where Vektor (Jason Lee) has gone before. But I'm also boldly where I have gone before. The first 3D model I ever made in 1989 on the Atari 1040st was the Enterprise (of course) and the reference that I used was FJ's plans. So knowingly or not, this was the ship that I built.

I purchased a used copy of the BOGP on September 8th (I never realized that date before!) 1985. To call them life changing would not be an understatement. This was one of my first steps into an area of fandom that has never lost it's fascination for me. (The first Star Trek blueprints that I bought were Larry Miller's U.S.S. Hornet plans earlier that summer at PhoenixCon. My gateway drug. Thank you Mr. Miller, wherever you are.)

This has been about five months in the making. For a set of documents I've known for almost 40 years this has been a voyage of discovery.

Obviously FJ's Enterprise is a whole different beast compared to the 11 foot studio model. But I think there are more than a few influences from the AMT kit and of course Matt Jefferies' sketches.

This was modeled, textured, rendered, and composited with Blender. Some texture work was also done with GIMP. A little bit of sound work in Audacity.

Thank you to all the people who gave feedback to this project. Some are members here and some are not.

By the way, if the coloring of the markings, lights, and hull seems a little unusual, I was going by this: http://trekplace.com/fj-gallery-colorguide.html Thank you, Greg Tyler!

The Booklet of General Plans:





Some beauty shots:

The colors make this work very well. Nicely done.

 

[publiusr]

The teardrop secondary hull makes it.

Here is the best replica of it:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Someone here came into possession of one—there is a tiny shuttlecraft with it—the shuttlebay door slides out like a kitchen drawer.

On the underside you can put a fingernail in a slot and pull aft gently.

 

[FalTorPan]

You've done a remarkable job with this. It's stunning.

And thanks for the shout-out. I'm happy to hear that the Trekplace website still gets a view every now and then.

 

[publiusr]

The Galoob Micromachine of this and the FASA TOS Enterprise were FJs—as was this beauty:

Franklin Mint’s 25th anniversary Enterprise

The Franklin Mint 25th anniversary Enterprise is one of the most beautiful models ever produced, and I took a bunch of really nice photos of it.

collectingtrek.ca

I think the 1983-onward AMT Enterprise kits used the FJ for paint/decal suggestions…I hope at some point they adopt Shaw’s AMT drawings.

Speaking of that, the AMT and the FJ are very similar (outline art comparisons would be appreciated).

Now the old three-ship set had the TOS Enterprise a bit closer to Matt Jeffries (TMOST) and the technical manual outlines. Corgi’s offering is very like that of the three-ship set.

 

[Tallguy]

Edited my original post to include a video.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

I'm so familiar with the 11 foot miniature that this looks like one of those "spot all the mistakes in the image" puzzles, but that modelling work is flawless. Very nicely done.

When I built this the first time back in 1989 I can't say that I was that familiar with the ins and outs of the 11 footer and at that time almost every fan schematic used the FJ ship. (Until the Starfleet Printing Office and Mastercom started differentiating the pilot / series / FJ Enterprises as separate classes around the same time.)

But now? Oh yeah. So this has been wild. It's the secondary hull that has some of the widest divergence. And of course most of the details on the warp nacelles are quite different.

Yes, very nicely done @Tallguy ! The colors and lighting turned out great

The colors make this work very well. Nicely done.

Thanks. It was fun following the FJ guide, especially when it clashed with TOS. It was when I realized looking at the color guide in the Technical Manual that when he said "platinum" he really meant a metallic, shiny platinum that it really started to get interesting.

The teardrop secondary hull makes it.

Here is the best replica of it:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Someone here came into possession of one—there is a tiny shuttlecraft with it—the shuttlebay door slides out like a kitchen drawer.

On the underside you can put a fingernail in a slot and pull aft gently.

The Galoob Micromachine of this and the FASA TOS Enterprise were FJs—as was this beauty:

Franklin Mint’s 25th anniversary Enterprise

The Franklin Mint 25th anniversary Enterprise is one of the most beautiful models ever produced, and I took a bunch of really nice photos of it.

collectingtrek.ca

I think the 1983-onward AMT Enterprise kits used the FJ for paint/decal suggestions…I hope at some point they adopt Shaw’s AMT drawings.

Speaking of that, the AMT and the FJ are very similar (outline art comparisons would be appreciated).

Now the old three-ship set had the TOS Enterprise a bit closer to Matt Jeffries (TMOST) and the technical manual outlines. Corgi’s offering is very like that of the three-ship set.

It's crazy to realize how much influence FJ had on wider Star Trek. Part of that is just from the point of view of licencees saying "Hey! We need the Enterprise! What have we got?" "Well, there's this OFFICIAL SET OF BLUEPRINTS over here." "Perfect! Run that baby!"

You've done a remarkable job with this. It's stunning.

And thanks for the shout-out. I'm happy to hear that the Trekplace website still gets a view every now and then.

I know I go there fairly often these days!