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

Found this interesting postcard on Ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/161937320988

Funny that the postcard (which I assume must be from the early 70s or perhaps even ealier) touts their connection to Trek with what appears to be an AMT model.

I know some people have been to the location of the Production Models shop and posted photos of the same location depicted in those famous late 1964 photos of the big E and its builders on the street. I have never been there, but plugging the address from the postcard into google maps:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/1...!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x2a5f36ffc3665f47!6m1!1e1

s-l1600.jpg
 
Excellent work, as always, Shaw! Your documentation of the Enterprise models as models is always fascinating. I look forward to your final versions.

I am inspired to maybe build up one of my 1:1000 Polar Lights kits as the 11-footer, complete with wires cluttering up the left side and a scale version of at least some of the sound stage.

Here's a question: do you (or does anyone) know exactly what sort of camera would have been used to actually shoot the model? It might be fun to scratch build a camera to display next to the model of the model.

--Alex
 
I love these photos. The Enterprise has always been my favorite character.
I will definitely check out the book!
 
It is a light grey though the exact colour has yet to be positively identified, although there are some very close matches.

Gary Kerr, while being involved in the 11 footer's restoration, has said he has found out some interesting things about the original colour and would reveal it when the project is complete.
 
After re-reading through an old issue of Star Trek: Communicator that mentioned it, I found the episode of the Discovery Series "Movie Magic" on Youtube that contains some brief interview snippets of Howard Anderson Jr. and Richard Datin (starting at time marks 2:28 and again with Datin towards the end at 20:55):

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Not much related to ClasicTrek, but it's still interesting to see Mr. Datin speak.

By the way, I double-checked the forum rules; the thread has been dormant for EXACTLY one year (by a rather remarkable coincidence), so I think I got in just under the wire.:)
 
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I'm glad they went with the exposed sensor-deflector dish for the front of the secondary hull. Some fans may think the "dish antenna" looks dated, but that "giant nipple" would have looked ridiculous!
 
1704221110070098.jpg


I'm glad they went with the exposed sensor-deflector dish for the front of the secondary hull. Some fans may think the "dish antenna" looks dated, but that "giant nipple" would have looked ridiculous!

I couldn't agree more. The dish antenna looks like serious hardware and it makes an implicit statement about the lack of drag in space, while the rejected nose cone makes the secondary hull look like a baby bottle or male appendage. The mockery might have been unrelenting and dispiriting to fans, and it might even have stopped the reruns from evolving into the major franchise that ST became.

But as I think about it, there's no way a finished version of the model would go to air if it was going to have that problem. The nose cone concept would have been realized in a cool-looking way or not at all.
 
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I always thought that the dish would look better if it was flush with the concentric rings. There was no need for it to protrude, unless it was meant to swivel. They fixed that with the TMP Enterprise.
 
I always thought that the dish would look better if it was flush with the concentric rings. There was no need for it to protrude, unless it was meant to swivel. They fixed that with the TMP Enterprise.

I believe it was meant to swivel. After all, there is an elaborate hinge mechanism on the stem just behind the dish.

--Alex
 
I believe it was meant to swivel. After all, there is an elaborate hinge mechanism on the stem just behind the dish.

I was wondering about that recently. The disk and its stem were missing when the model arrived at NASM in 1974. They weren't even seen at the ship's Golden West College exhibit in 1972.

So are we sure the hinge was an original feature, and not just on the replacement part that was made for the museum? I can't recall a TOS-era photo that shows it.
 
It was an original feature per Jefferies:
evolv_04.jpg

Though the swivel function was never shown...well. not till the 31:40 mark in the following "episode" :)

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It was an original feature per Jefferies:
evolv_04.jpg

Though the swivel function was never shown...well. not till the 31:40 mark in the following "episode" :)

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"Sweeping" all of the dust particles and rocks and other junk out of the path of travel, makes sense.
 
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