I just tweaked the curve under the saucer on the TMP E to match a photo of the top of the neck. The fun thing was that I eyeballed it and I only had to move a handful of points to make it line up nicely.
For the TOS Enterprise, I am confident the base drawings for this project are highly accurate to the model. For the TMP Enterprise I am not. There are two main sets of drawings, Kimble's and Big Jim Slade's (
https://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/slade.php). I have noticed issues with both of them so where they differ I will turn to the best resource - photos of the model. I just wish I knew someone at Amazon to get it exact. Aside from that I will have to rely on everything I learned from doing the Excelsior. There were also some minor changes in the drawings seen in the Enterprise Officer's Manual (
https://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/USS-Enterprise-Officers-Manual.php) that partially correct the pylons so I'm going to use those over Kimble's. I'm also looking at the cutaway for details that Kimble included there that are missing from the drawings.
The main points that Kimble's drawings are off are around the impulse engine in the profile, the top details of the engines, and the precise shapes of the domes on top and bottom of the saucer, the pylons, and the grid on the secondary hull. Slade's drawings have a number of issues as well. The lines don't quite match up to what I'm seeing on the model, particularly the undercut on the bottom of the saucer and the shape of the aft end of the nacelles. So I will probably be putting the two together to create a more refined version.
For the TOS Enterprise, there are many things missing from the base drawings - it is mainly for color - though the main shapes are very exact. So I will be adding what is needed and making the few corrections. I will be putting the seam between the wood and metal parts of the nacelles as a grid line and I'll make an optional layer for the additional grid (with horizontal grid lines based on the staves that make the secondary hull). They theory for the TOS Enterprise is that the grid lines are embedded in the hull and are intially invisible and as the paint ages the power radiating from those lines discolors the paint. So there were there all along, but were unseen when the ship was new and are more noticable as it gets older. The Enterprise under Kirk is likely overdue for a new paint job, at least on the saucer. Anyway, that is the theory I am operating under. I'm going to base the horizontal lines on a mix of what Jefferies has for the Phase II and what the 91-92 restoration used. That one at least made use of the seam as a grid line.
Does anyone have any opinions about where things should be located that are not listed in TMOST? I'm putting the phaser hardware on Deck 11 and the control room we saw on Deck 10. And to go with the descripton in TMOST, and to fit in with the deck layout in TMP, I think I am going to place the rec rooms on deck 8 in front and lower the deck making deck 9 a half deck (with support machinery on the other half). But any suggestions would be helpful.