The Man Who Built the Enterprise...It does talk about dimensions, paint colours, materiels and const

Although he is largely recognized now, particularly by those who paid attention to such things, Richard Datin wasn't always given the credit he deserves as the man who built the 33 in. and 11 ft. filming models of the original TOS Enterprise. He also built the familiar miniature set of the ship's Flight Deck that housed the small Galileo shuttlecraft filming miniature. And finally he also built the K7 space station, albeit the K7 was a modification of a pre-existing model. And while he didn't build the small shuttlecraft miniature he did once repair it when he built the famous hangar deck miniature set.

Last November (2015) Richard Datin's daughter released a new book that sets to put the record straight on the man who actually built the starship designed by Matt Jeffereies: http://www.amazon.com/Enterprise-NC...r=8-1&keywords=Enterprise+and+the+model+maker

It does talk about dimensions, paint colours, materiels and construction details. It sets out to denounce and debunk some long accepted "truths" reprinted in some respected publications. It certainly asserts that no original drawings of the final form of the ship ever appeared in print no matter what has been claimed by various sources. That said it does acknowledge some respectable fan efforts have been done over the years.

Datin appears disappointed and regretful that he was never consulted for any of the 11 footer's previous restorations. He was happy to hear the model was finally getting the present recognition and respectful restoration it deserves.

I think there are some timeline errors in the book that Datin's daughter misunderstood or got wrong. For one thing she seems to confuse the ship's appearance in WNMHGB with how the ship appeared throughout the first season.

It also addresses the gridline issue. Datin asserts that no gridlines existed when he delivered the finished model. He doesn't know exactly when they were added, but he thinks it was quite sometime into the first or second season. Regarding the grid or seam lines that appeared later (on the secondary hull and nacelles) he asserts he never saw such lines added to the model during production. He suspects those lines began to appear faintly along seams on the model discolouring the paint with age and subsequently Ed Meriecki mistook those lines as supposing to be there and enhanced them along with the saucer gridlines.

An interesting notation on the colour scheme of the Hangar Flight Deck ministure set. It is asserted the colours were predominantly grey and green/grey with no mention of any beige like tones whatsoever despite what some still photos seem to show.

Also the observation deck windows and overhead panels were frosted to create the effect seen onscreen. The unseen backsides of the observation deck were supposedly open to allow studio lights to light the windows. Smaller lights were lit by small individual bulbs.

The flight deck miniature set was supposedly about 10 ft. long, about 6 ft. wide at the open foward end and about 5 ft. wide at the aft end at the clamshell doors. The set was originally supposed to allow for a while removable port side, but this was nixed during construction and thus limited photography solely from the open forward end.


If there is a disappointment to this book it's in the lack of good images of original source materiels. We don't get to clearly see (at least well) original construction drawings although there are tantalizing glimpses. We also don't get to see any previously unreleased shots of the original Enterprise filming models.

Nonetheless at any rate I do recommend this book for those interested in such things. It's certainly not heavy reading and while the book's focus is predominantly on Datin's involvement with Star Trek it does also touch on his life before and after TOS.

 

Let me quote Spock...."Fascinating!"

 

Well it sounds worthy of a quick look over, I'll see if I can find a copy at a convention cheaper than amazon does it.

 

That's already pretty cheap for what is likely a small press run.

 

Always appreciate the "inside" stuff! Thanks, Warped, for
Posting!

 

I got the book when it came out and enjoyed it. There are a few errors but for the most part a great read!

 

Thanks for starting this thread, Warped9.

 

I'm not sure, but I got the impression from what I read that the 11 footer was originally finished on both sides when first delivered in 1964 and then the port side was lost when they set about installing the lights and wiring to animate the model.

I might be misremembering that. But there is mention that a set of reverse decals were fabricated to allow them to create the illusion of the ship being filmed from the port side, but Datin isn't sure this was ever done.

Another interesting tidbit is the image of the original decals for the Galileo shuttlecraft. It's interesting because the sheet includes a large number 3 in the same font as if they were anticipating the possibility of displaying another shuttlecraft distinct from the Galileo.

 

Publisher Createspace is Amazon's self-publishing, print-on-demand wing. So, no print run. Seems a fair price, but if you buy it from the author at a con, the author will make more profit if that matters to you. When my POD book sells via amazon, I get $6 of the 15 cover price. (Which I'm ok with btw.) 11/15 when I retail it. Be well. I tsounds like an interesting book.

 

The 11' footer was never finished on both sides. It's obvious when you look at the flat areas on the side of the hull at the deflector dish; it's only on one side and the bottom but not on the other.
The unfinished side:


Compared to this side:




As far as the decal sheets for the Galileo; yes the other was Columbus which was suppose to be NCC-1701'3. They apparently were originally going to re-decal the shuttlecraft in "The Galileo Seven" but never did. Here is the complete original shuttlecraft miniature decal sheet:

 

^^ From what I've learned (on another site) parts of the port side were painted on, but physical features were not done.

 

^^^
I think only on the engines; not on the secondary hull.

 

Well that would be some.

 

50 years after Matt Jefferies designed it and it still looks cool!

 

Thanks for the post, Warped9. Its always great to get the story from one of the creators, instead of the revisionists.

 

It was done, as images below prove. This is clearly the starboard side of the ship in its second pilot configuration, as evidenced by the lighted windows.

 

And I should add that it is a great book; it does include images of a fully intact and pristine data sheet (the one in lesser condition I linked to above was owned by Craig Thompson for many years, acquired by him when the 11 footer was displayed at Golden West College in 1972). It also includes an images of the Galileo decal sheet, an interesting 4 page memo written by Gene Roddenberry to Bob Justman, Matt Jefferies and others in April 1966 about the modifications to the 11 footer made to make it "series-ready", and the original wooden nacelle caps which Datin kept after replacing them with the lighted versions. As stated previously, the images are in black and white, and not the best. I can say that there is a second version of the book already (out in early 2016) where some typos are corrected and some better (though still not great) images of the construction plans are included.

 

Here's another shot of the model wearing its reversed decals, and this one made air. It's from the tag of "The Conscience of the King," and they used the footage as shot, rather than flipping it over as intended:

This angle puts emphasis on the decal that's upside-down relative to the camera, and it turns out that when a reversed NCC-1701 decal is viewed upside-down, only the 7 really gives it away. And the N is backward, but that still looks pretty close to right. Since the ship was in motion, it probably wasn't noticed by a single viewer in 1966.

 

This isn't anywhere close to finished yet, but I figured I'd share this with you guys if anyone is interested.

Click to enlarge​

The final set will include about four different versions of Jefferies' plans showing where different elements that ended up on the final models came from. It has become low on my priority list now that it is warm enough to get back to working on my model projects.