I'm building the entire Starship Enterprise interior at 1:25 scale
- Thread starter Mike Nevitt
- Start date
I love that he’s even modeling the GNDN works, but egad he has laid out a task for himself. This is one fraction of a wedge of a saucer-shaped structure thats as tall as a 10-story building with — just for the two biggest decks — more square footage than a city block in New York City. If he’s going to continue with this level of detail, I’ll be retired long before he’s finished just the saucer section!
Ever seen Fantastic Voyage?
Warped9 saw one of the videos where he (the OP) said he was going to build it so sections could slide out.
The size of the workload is manageable because he enjoys the hobby, and intends to plug away at it for years. Even so, he'll need a way to make the repetitive parts efficiently. Staterooms alone number in the hundreds.
My biggest concern is how he can devote so much floor space to the finished model, and for how long in the years after it is finished. At scale, the saucer will be 17 feet wide. From bow to hangar doors, the overall model (with no warp engines) will be 28 feet long. That's 476 square feet of indoor space, not counting the needed margins for a person to be in the room with it.
The length reminds me of another large model, the 28-foot Titanic miniature built by 20th Century Fox for its 1953 film of the same name. You hate to throw it away after the movie is made, but finding a place to put it is an issue. From 1972 to 1985, it was displayed at Northtown Mall in Blaine, Minnesota. Now it's at a museum in Fall River, Massachusetts. It was lucky to find a home— and its width is substantially less than the Enterprise model we're discussing.
My biggest concern is how he can devote so much floor space to the finished model, and for how long in the years after it is finished. At scale, the saucer will be 17 feet wide. From bow to hangar doors, the overall model (with no warp engines) will be 28 feet long. That's 476 square feet of indoor space, not counting the needed margins for a person to be in the room with it.
The length reminds me of another large model, the 28-foot Titanic miniature built by 20th Century Fox for its 1953 film of the same name. You hate to throw it away after the movie is made, but finding a place to put it is an issue. From 1972 to 1985, it was displayed at Northtown Mall in Blaine, Minnesota. Now it's at a museum in Fall River, Massachusetts. It was lucky to find a home— and its width is substantially less than the Enterprise model we're discussing.
Another thing: I don't know if Mike Nevitt has mentioned this in his videos, but if he's smart, he will affix a hidden part number to each piece of the model, and maintain a written key that maps out just where each piece goes.
A model of this size, if it survives for any length of time, will inevitably need to be disassembled, packed up, and moved to a new location at some point. Worse: it might even have to be reassembled by someone other than Mike, say a museum worker. Numbered parts and an instruction sheet will be a lifesaver.
"Fortunately, I keep my feathers numbered for just such an emergency."
A model of this size, if it survives for any length of time, will inevitably need to be disassembled, packed up, and moved to a new location at some point. Worse: it might even have to be reassembled by someone other than Mike, say a museum worker. Numbered parts and an instruction sheet will be a lifesaver.
"Fortunately, I keep my feathers numbered for just such an emergency."
Pan-dimensional engineering would be THE way to build models like this! Any Timelords on the forum?
Yes. Given his level of planning and attention to detail, I can't believe he didn't anticipate the issue of where to keep it once assembled *before* beginning his exhaustive work.
I don't understand Mike's numbers in this video:
He says his saucer is going to be 14.5 feet in diameter. But 14.5 feet times 25 (the scale) is about 363 feet. The Enterprise saucer is supposed to be 417 feet across:
https://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints/uss-enterprise-space-cruiser-sheet-1.jpg
So I don't see where he's getting 14.5 feet. It ought to be just under 17 feet.
He says his saucer is going to be 14.5 feet in diameter. But 14.5 feet times 25 (the scale) is about 363 feet. The Enterprise saucer is supposed to be 417 feet across:
https://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints/uss-enterprise-space-cruiser-sheet-1.jpg
So I don't see where he's getting 14.5 feet. It ought to be just under 17 feet.
Hmm, you’re right… he says he’s using the Franz Joseph blueprints, which indicate the Enterprise is 127.102 m in width (i.e., the diameter of the saucer section), which is indeed 417 feet.
