On some of the close up shots, you can really see how they attempted (and largely succeeded) at reproducing the pearlescent aztecking on the hull. It’s particularly evident on the oblique angle of the 2H. I agree that they should have had less of a downward slant on the stand, but yeah, it’s a prototype and it is incredible for what it is.
So, I’ve spent many hours pouring over this design for the past 45 years since I first saw it in a small Pennsylvania theater in the Christmas of ‘79 and this one just feels… well… I don’t want to say “off”, but some things about it, particularly some shapes and proportions, don’t feel quite right to me. The PH and nacelles should be in alignment with each other horizontally, and it looks like there’s some sagging on both (again, prototype, I get it), but there are other oddities. The PH seems a bit flat on the top and bottom, where it comes up to the bridge and goes down to the lower navigational dome. Like it should be thicker or ... something. The tapered tail ends of the nacelles also don’t seem quite right, as if there’s too much tapering off and flattening of the engines there, when there should be a more gentle transition from roundness to straightness at the end. The Polar Lights model did it perfectly, and I somehow had hoped that maybe they could have licensed that model to make this beefier version, especially since this one is 1:350 scale as well. Instead, it looks like they started from scratch and didn’t quite get the details right.
I’m honestly surprised nobody took an officially-sanctioned 3D scan of the original before it got sold off at auction (or even after, with permission from whomever now owns it) that Paramount could have licensed out to companies like this who wanted to make faithful copies.
I dunno…. It’s definitely a noble effort. Just don’t know if it’s worth the price tag for me.