For my project this month, I will be making a prop that I figure should have existed in TOS. This is desktop model of Kirk's first command, mentioned in the writer's guide parts of The Making of Star Trek. It's a destroyer type vessel, but I'm approaching the design as if I'm a prop builder for the show in 1967. So, I'm ignoring all Trek that occured later than that. So No FJ Tech manual. No Trek movies. No spin-off shows or animated series. Just making some set dressing that might have been made using materials that could have been had in '67.
Now, I'm cheating a little as the kits I have avilable are not all vintage. The 18" AMT Enterprise I'm using is the current repop, and you can see I've lowered the "B-C" deck area to lose the high straight wall effect on the current kit and and make it look a bit more like the 1967 kit. Also I've lowered the bridge dome quite a bit. My intent is that this ship is a much smaller vessel than Enterprise, there fore, the idea is that the whole superstructure is the bridge, rather than just the top bubble part. And I've added another smaller dome to be a turbolift terminal.
Also, I'm making impulse engines out of the guns for a model of the battleship Missouri. Now, this donor kit was originally tooled in 1954, so These particular parts would have been available in '67.
These will be the warp engines. They are converted from a model of a P-61 Black Widow. Now, the kit was tooled in 1974, so again, it's a bit of a cheat. But the aircraft was from WWII so I assume a kit of it probably existed somewhere in those days. I had to cut off the wings from the engine nacelles and glued in some stacked up sheet styrene to fill the whole. The front domes are taken from the same Enterprise kit the saucer comes from, and the whole surface was liberally treated with a few applications of Squadron Green putty.
I'm doing this a lot quicker and dirtier than I usually approach model-building, as I want to A) finish it before the end of the month and B) simulate the tight production schedule of a TV show. After all, if this is just dressing meant to decorate Kirk's cabin and will never be a featured item, shortcuts can be taken.
Thanks for looking!
--Alex
Now, I'm cheating a little as the kits I have avilable are not all vintage. The 18" AMT Enterprise I'm using is the current repop, and you can see I've lowered the "B-C" deck area to lose the high straight wall effect on the current kit and and make it look a bit more like the 1967 kit. Also I've lowered the bridge dome quite a bit. My intent is that this ship is a much smaller vessel than Enterprise, there fore, the idea is that the whole superstructure is the bridge, rather than just the top bubble part. And I've added another smaller dome to be a turbolift terminal.
Also, I'm making impulse engines out of the guns for a model of the battleship Missouri. Now, this donor kit was originally tooled in 1954, so These particular parts would have been available in '67.
These will be the warp engines. They are converted from a model of a P-61 Black Widow. Now, the kit was tooled in 1974, so again, it's a bit of a cheat. But the aircraft was from WWII so I assume a kit of it probably existed somewhere in those days. I had to cut off the wings from the engine nacelles and glued in some stacked up sheet styrene to fill the whole. The front domes are taken from the same Enterprise kit the saucer comes from, and the whole surface was liberally treated with a few applications of Squadron Green putty.
I'm doing this a lot quicker and dirtier than I usually approach model-building, as I want to A) finish it before the end of the month and B) simulate the tight production schedule of a TV show. After all, if this is just dressing meant to decorate Kirk's cabin and will never be a featured item, shortcuts can be taken.
Thanks for looking!
--Alex
