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1701-D "6ft" model more like 6.83 ft model????

1968gtcs

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Red Shirt
According to some analysis of the 6ft model, it appears the model dimensions were 82 X 66.5 X 17.5 (+ or - 1''). Any ideas why they called it 6ft?
 
According to some analysis of the 6ft model, it appears the model dimensions were 82 X 66.5 X 17.5 (+ or - 1''). Any ideas why they called it 6ft?

'Cause it's easier, less pedantic, and fairly normal for people to round off?
 
Then it would be more accurate to say "seven footer", rounding up from 6.83'.

Depends on how technical one's brain is, I guess. For instance, when I see a price like "$6.83" on an item, and someone asks me how much it was, I'll probably say "around 6 bucks."
 
I looked through the Starlog-published TNG magazine I still have, the extended article in issue 2 on ILM's FX work and the construction of the Enterprise-D. It says at one point that ILM was asked to build a six-foot miniature and a two-foot miniature. Maybe those were just the target lengths and there was room for flexibility depending on how the construction process worked out. So maybe it was called the six-footer because that was what it was conceived to be, even if it didn't meet that figure exactly.
 
The 2-footer was used for early distance shots during the first few seasons, and was actually way better detailed than the 4-footer, because it didn't have the godawful raised paneling. I posted a picture of the 2-footer in the TNG thread a while back.
 
I never understood why they switched to the 4ft model and quit using the 6ft model. What difference does it make, except from looking totally different? And the most disturbing thing about it is that the little AMT/ERTL model looks way better than the 4-footer, imo (the shape, not the details).
 
Wow I never realized the shape and proportion differences between the 4ft and 6ft. I assumed they were reasonably similar other than the raised paneling and saucer's edge. I prefer the 6ft model.
 
The Reading Rainbow special on TNG (which you can find on YouTube) had a segment where they gave us a VERY close-up look at the 6-foot model. I knew as soon as I saw that close-up scene on TV, that the 6-foot Enterprise-D model was without a doubt the absolute most beautiful filming model I had ever and would ever see... the model itself was so clean, so perfect... so meticulous in detail...

I hated what they did to that thing of beauty for GEN... they uglified a object of perfection, and when I saw the model at the Christie's auction... it made me so sad to see how dirty and uncared for it was.
 
I understand that the post-ILM folks who filmed the Enterprise-D miniature had an easier time filming the smaller four-footer than they did filming the six/seven-footer... but I wish they hadn't made the four-footer look like a toy.
 
Pretty sure they made the 4-footer to have something smaller, lighter and easier to handle.
 
^Sure, and more accurate to the proportions of Ten Forward. Still, they changed the overall proportions of the ship so much that it was decidedly less aesthetically appealing. They could've made a smaller version that was still more faithful to the original's proportions.
 
^ Seconded. The 4-footer's secondary hull is so far off from the original that they don't even look like the same ship. I remember "way-back-when" that I noticed almost immediately that the ship changed from shot-to-shot. It was so different that even my untrained thirteen year-old eyes picked up on it.

And I have to say, the 6-footer (or however long she actually is) is a thing of beauty, elegant and refined. I remember seeing her for the first time in "Encounter at Farpoint" and falling for her totally. She made my then eleven year-old mouth water and imagination soar. I also had the same feeling seeing her on the big-screen in "Generations". Watching her glide onto the screen in front of the observatory bathed in golden light made my eyes well up. Of course then the bastards had to go and wreck her... *sigh* I cried twice that night over a starship.
 
The ship looked its best in "Encounter at Farpoint" and Star Trek: Generations. Perhaps not coincidentally both stories featured footage of the six-footer shot by ILM.
 
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