2ft E-D model

[Praetor]

The lumpy detail was apparently done make it easier to set up lighting that brought out hull detail. The 6 foot model obviously has very shallow surface detail and they felt that it was too hard to bring out that detail when filming. Went a bit over the top with the patchwork though.

True, and also standard TV resolution was a factor as I recall

In my never so humble opinion, the six-footer had sufficient details: the windows, lifeboat hatches, docking ports, and similar features. Aside from those features, the ship looked smooth because it was smooth.

The Enterprise-D's theoretical length is over 2100 feet. The six-foot filming miniature's approximate scale is 1:350. A plate merely 1/64 of an inch in thickness on the miniature scales up to a plate that's over five inches thick.

The four-footer's approximate scale is 1:525. A 1/64" plate on that miniature becomes over 8" thick on the upscaled ship.

Why would an organic design like the Enterprise, with its sweeping, graceful lines, be spotted with several-inch-thick detailed panels with no obvious function? This is the Enterprise, not the Millennium Falcon.

Agreed!

If I remember correctly from the TNG DVD extras, the 6 footer was found in some restaurant. The prop master lady (don't know name) and Michael Okuda identified it. The restaurant had somehow gotten it to display. It was covered in oil, dirt, etc.

I wish the guy had taken an overall shot of that 6 ft model though.

I thought that was the four-footer?

 

[Tomalak]

Sounds more likely. IIRC, the six footer was never used after Generations, so probably stayed in it's box (unless it was on display in one of the exhibitions).

The four footer was used a few times in DS9, as the Odyssey and the Venture for example, but was phased out in favour of CGI by the time the Dominion war episodes came about. I'd say it's more likely to have gone walkabout.

 

[FalTorPan]

If I remember correctly from the TNG DVD extras, the 6 footer was found in some restaurant. The prop master lady (don't know name) and Michael Okuda identified it. The restaurant had somehow gotten it to display. It was covered in oil, dirt, etc.

I wish the guy had taken an overall shot of that 6 ft model though.

I thought that was the four-footer?

The four-footer was the miniature that had been lent to a restaurant -- a Planet Hollywood, if the IDIC Page is any indicator.

 

[Joe_Atari]

Here's my favorite shot; it makes great wallpaper because it's so hi-res:

http://media.photobucket.com/image/uss enterprise/epeab3/st/NCC-1701-D.jpg

Now, when and from which miniature was this shot taken? It looks like the 6-footer post-GEN, but were the prominent (and kinda crooked) hatches on the underside of the saucer part of that renovation?

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

It looks like a CG model. It has that plasticky look and the glows are, I dunno... CG-y.

Looks to be mostly based on the 6-footer, but it seems to have the 4-footer's "buck-toothed" underside windows. The crooked hatches are probably an error on the part of the artist.

 

[lennier1]

That´s the CG model that was build for the Akiraprise finale. The only model on which the windows on the saucer rim are lit (too complicated to do on the physical ones and the Generations CG model´s textures were based on photographs of the real models).

This one actually looks much better in the test shots where Gabe Koerner tried to remake the TNG opening.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

That´s the CG model that was build for the Akiraprise finale. The only model on which the windows on the saucer rim are lit (too complicated to do on the physical ones and the Generations CG model´s textures were based on photographs of the real models).

This one actually looks much better in the test shots where Gabe Koerner tried to remake the TNG opening.

No, that's a "beauty" of the original 6'er taken under "still" lighting instead of stage lighting. It appeared in one of the early issues of the ST:TNG Magazine (the first, staple-spined run), both on page and as a poster sized pull out, which I used to have on my wall.

 

[lennier1]

You might want to get your eyes checked. The indicators are pretty much impossible to miss.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

You might want to get your eyes checked. The indicators are pretty much impossible to miss.

I am looking at the indicators. The harsh way the light plays across the texture of the hull, as it does on the real model, not the smooth lighting of the CG version. The lighting on the nacelles, esp the intercoolers has the texturing of the interiorly lit real model ones as opposed to the even "glow" from the CG version.

I SHOULD know that image...I looked at it every day for almost a decade.

 

[lennier1]

In that case the problem would be definitely on your side.

For the blind ones in here a few pointers to identify Gabe´s model:
- metallic shader effect on the hull
- on the six footer there´s a smooth transition between the neck and the engineering section rather than the sharp edge in this pic
- the saucer rim on the six-footer is much more rounded whereas the four-footer has the problem with the "fat lip" and on Gabe´s the vertical part of the profile is much too obvious
- RCS thruster on the engineering hull is just a little yellow box
- RCS thrusters on the saucer are just a box and an extruded rectangle
- blue section on the nacelle to the right of the viewer is obviously a simple texture
- navigational lights near the saucer impulse thrusters are only single-color glowing spheres
- none of the filming models had any interiors behind the windows
- smoothing problems on the bussards and the deflector area
- rounding on the deflector sections upper lip doesn´t match any of the other versions
- phaser strips had been replaced with more detailed ones for Generations
- pylons don´t even have rounded edges and don´t match up cleanly with the lower extension of the nacelles
- captain´s yacht is a dead giveaway
- area where the neck joins the saucer doesn´t match in color (because the halves were textured in parallel by two different people back then)
- nacelle pylons are missing the registration number
- renderer has caused anti-aliasing problems throughout the shot (e.g. the window bays behind the captain´s yacht)
- the mentioned wonky look of the escape hatches on the underside of the saucer
- the simple fact that the filming models didn´t even have any escape hatches on the inner section of the lower saucer or on the bottom of the engineering hull
- it´s missing the "groove" where the upper lip of the deflector area meets the upper section of the engineering hull

And even the majestic six-footer did not have any interiors behind the windows or have a lit saucer rim!!!
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/7084/gen06572211759.jpg
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/2861/gen06292220894.jpg
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/1231/gen06372225148.jpg

 

[Gepard]

^The linked image is the CG version. The lifeboat hatches are a dead giveaway....aside from the obviously CGI lighting and too-sharp detail.

ETA: Damn, lennier1 beat me to it in a rather more thorough manner.

 

[FalTorPan]

Yes, the linked image is a CG rendition of the ship. The windows are a giveway, as are the captain's yacht and the lifeboat hatches.

 

[ST-One]

You might want to get your eyes checked. The indicators are pretty much impossible to miss.

I am looking at the indicators. The harsh way the light plays across the texture of the hull, as it does on the real model, not the smooth lighting of the CG version. The lighting on the nacelles, esp the intercoolers has the texturing of the interiorly lit real model ones as opposed to the even "glow" from the CG version.

I SHOULD know that image...I looked at it every day for almost a decade.

Whatever you have been looking at, it wasn't this CG-model.

 

[BolianAuthor]

That´s the CG model that was build for the Akiraprise finale. The only model on which the windows on the saucer rim are lit (too complicated to do on the physical ones and the Generations CG model´s textures were based on photographs of the real models).

This one actually looks much better in the test shots where Gabe Koerner tried to remake the TNG opening.

No, that's a "beauty" of the original 6'er taken under "still" lighting instead of stage lighting. It appeared in one of the early issues of the ST:TNG Magazine (the first, staple-spined run), both on page and as a poster sized pull out, which I used to have on my wall.

I have that same poster on my wall. I love it.

 

[FalTorPan]

We are all talking about this image, right? It's not the six-footer, which is obvious based on the captain's yacht, lifeboat hatches and windows, among other things. It's not the four-footer, which is obvious based on the shape of the navigational deflector, neck, and other things. It's not the two-footer either. And most of all, it looks like CGI.

 

[swaaye]

Ya that's definitely no shot of a miniature. 100% CG. Not too bad, but as usual the lighting isn't quite natural. Surface reflectivity is strange making materials look fake. The usual CGI issues.




my wall =

Sorry for the crap image but that's what I found on Google images. Mine's framed. This poster is about 4 ft across. Been on a wall for about 17 years now....

 

[kitsune]

Sorry for the crap image but that's what I found on Google images.

Here you go (I know, this is poor quality as well, but it's larger).

Or this:

 

[Praetor]

We are all talking about this image, right? It's not the six-footer, which is obvious based on the captain's yacht, lifeboat hatches and windows, among other things. It's not the four-footer, which is obvious based on the shape of the navigational deflector, neck, and other things. It's not the two-footer either. And most of all, it looks like CGI.

"That's no moon... it's a space station!"

Yeah, that's definitely a CG model. But whose? Whose?

 

[lennier1]

We are all talking about this image, right? It's not the six-footer, which is obvious based on the captain's yacht, lifeboat hatches and windows, among other things. It's not the four-footer, which is obvious based on the shape of the navigational deflector, neck, and other things. It's not the two-footer either. And most of all, it looks like CGI.

"That's no moon... it's a space station!"

Yeah, that's definitely a CG model. But whose? Whose?

Mentioned before. It´s the one Gabe Koerner built for the Enterprise finale.

 

[Michael]

Oh, sweet memories! I had that very same poster hanging over my desk when I was a child. I'm pretty sure it's still at my parent's home. It was huge.