Oh, sorry, I thought you were talking about the Romulan BOP kit, not the D7. My mistake…
Unseen TOS....
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
I always had the sense this was a lesser class of ship, which is why the Klingons had to play the distress signal game. The glimpse of the ship on the viewscreen showed it as vaguely boomerang shaped.
I had one as well…very dark plastic.
In the basement. Where I thought it was safe.
A neighbor’s kid picked it up and said “does this (cobra-head) come off?”
And before I could say no—it did.
#~}##$;!
While my guardian angel stays in rehab—my guardian demon (Carruthers) is quite competent….yep…
I had the big Rom BoP…but didn’t want the decal…so my Dad put in on the driver door of a Dodge (yes—Dodge) Matador he converted into an El Camino type car-truck after failing to find the back glass.
The kids called it the Batmobile…push button gears. Good days.
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A childhood friend had an AMT Enterprise later after I’d gotten one. Sometime after he assembled it he was running in his yard and holding it aloft like it was flying. They had apple trees in his yard and he didn’t see a low hanging apple he ran into which instantly snapped off one of his nacelles and left it hanging by the lighting wires. Not my model, but still painful to see.
After I had built my 1970 Christmas gift one following evening when it was lightly snowing I took my AMT Enterprise outside for a few minutes to hold it aloft as the snowflakes softly fell. At just the right angle in my imagination it looked like stars were whipping by the ship while at warp. Mindful of snow flakes maybe melting on the decals I didn’t stay out long and went back inside to carefully wipe it clean.
Man, the good old days. I hummed Star Trek music while building and playing with my Trek models. In that respect I’m still a kid as I build my 3D Trek ships.
After I had built my 1970 Christmas gift one following evening when it was lightly snowing I took my AMT Enterprise outside for a few minutes to hold it aloft as the snowflakes softly fell. At just the right angle in my imagination it looked like stars were whipping by the ship while at warp. Mindful of snow flakes maybe melting on the decals I didn’t stay out long and went back inside to carefully wipe it clean.
Man, the good old days. I hummed Star Trek music while building and playing with my Trek models. In that respect I’m still a kid as I build my 3D Trek ships.
We used to buy the AMT model kits, both the TV series and the film version in the early 90s. They were cheap and model glue was flammable. Still one of the more interesting way to create 'real' battle damage on a model kit. 
Ahh if only I'd saved a few of those instead of building and destroying them with friends...
The only two models I have left from that rampage are aa well built but crapily painted Excelsior and a decently painted but broken headed K'Tinga.
Ahh if only I'd saved a few of those instead of building and destroying them with friends... The only two models I have left from that rampage are aa well built but crapily painted Excelsior and a decently painted but broken headed K'Tinga.
I was thrilled when I got my first AMT Enterprise and Klingon ship. Slowly over time I realized the AMT Enterprise was rather divergent from what I was seeing onscreen. Decades later it was great when Polar Lights released first their vastly more accurate 1/1000 scale then later 1/350 scale Enterprise.
I was less than thrilled with the subsequent AMT kits: the Galileo shuttlecraft, the Romulan Bird of Prey, Enterprise bridge and Space Station K-7. They were cheesy and way off as if no one really cared. The Galileo was particularly disappointing in light of AMT having been instrumental in building the original filming miniature and fullsize exterior and interior mockups. Yeesh!
The TMP refit E was nice, but it also soon showed its differences from the film version. I gave up after that.
I was less than thrilled with the subsequent AMT kits: the Galileo shuttlecraft, the Romulan Bird of Prey, Enterprise bridge and Space Station K-7. They were cheesy and way off as if no one really cared. The Galileo was particularly disappointing in light of AMT having been instrumental in building the original filming miniature and fullsize exterior and interior mockups. Yeesh!
The TMP refit E was nice, but it also soon showed its differences from the film version. I gave up after that.
I got both the AMT on first release in the sixties, cost a princely sum of $2.50 each and I saved my allowance for weeks. Back then there were no real references and very few photos from the show (most were cast publicity poses). It was so wonderful to actually hold the ships, squint the eyes and duplicate the same view as on screen- then I would try and find new angles which loked even better (the D7 was great at that},
It was many years later I found out the inaccuracies in the Enterprise model but the Klingon always held up. In my opinion the original release D7 model kit is correct and the filming model is missing details...
It was many years later I found out the inaccuracies in the Enterprise model but the Klingon always held up. In my opinion the original release D7 model kit is correct and the filming model is missing details...
Agreed. Thats exactly how I feel. When I get around to building the Klingon D7 the AMT version is what I will build. I think in their rush to get the studio miniature to the Star Trek production they rushed things a bit too much. Thats what I tell myself anyway.
I'm looking at the bird of prey graphic on the TOS ship and I gotta say...I'm not crazy about it. I find it looks like a fat overfed bird and not at all imposing. I like to think maybe Wah Chang could have done better with a bit more time. At the risk of sounding egotistic I like my bird of prey graphic better on my earlier Romulan design.
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Round2/AMT did reissue the D7 some years back, with some minor "upgrades" to make it more accurate. All the original pieces are still there, but there are a few corrections here and there. The details on top of the wings are gone, there are alternate parts for the rear of the "Graph Units" (warp nacelles) and other little things.
Main thing left to do: add the oversized Romulan chicken.
On the previous attempt using the McMaster drawings I was able to make the upper surface of the wings flat because the sides of the main hull were straight—that simplified shaping the wings. With curved sides the construction of the wings became more complicated and a flat upper surface was impossible. Surprisingly the curved sides did not make shaping the upper and lower surfaces of the main hull much more difficult.
I admit to having some thoughts about what little extra detail could be added to flesh out this miniature a bit more. Sure it sufficed as is for the small screens of the day, but a little extra finishing would have been nice.
VERY nice!!!
I don't think all the original parts srs there, aside from the main hull missing those to grills the forward leading grills are misding- these are mold changes. I understand why they did it, i just regrete it. They make the ship look unfinished
It is quite clear that although the mentioned details are absent from several of Jefferies’s finished 3-views, they are there on this final concept sketch. So he envisioned the ship having them - at least at this point.
https://66.media.tumblr.com/111d7474c06e0f501dc5d441a821cec0/tumblr_oa2kyyOzc11rzu2xzo1_1280.jpg
https://66.media.tumblr.com/111d7474c06e0f501dc5d441a821cec0/tumblr_oa2kyyOzc11rzu2xzo1_1280.jpg
Actually (and I have no proof to base this on other than my own eyes), it looks like they took the top half of a tank model kit (sans the bottom half of hull, wheels & treads), and added a glowing effect all around it. I once took the top half of a Russian T-64 tank model kit (which would have been available in the '60's) and held it in the same position that the Klingon ship was seen on screen, and it matched.
Also, because Kras's dialogue indicated he came from a 'small scout ship,' the vessel on screen was clearly meant to be that ship. Why TOS-R decided to change it into a battlecruiser is beyond me, since there would have been no reason for its evasion antics unless it was smaller and less powerful than the Enterprise.
That would be great! Either Round 2 modified the existing molds like they did with the first refit kit or deemed it too expensive to include two sets of the largest pieces of the kit. This sort of like having two saucers for the TOS E- one with grid lines and one without.
I’ve decided to build two versions of the BoP. The first is to be the ship we saw onscreen. The second will be a tweaked version adding a few added details to “fill it in” so to speak. I’m not talking anything radical, but adding a few bits to make it look a bit more complete.
It isn’t really necessary to fully flesh out these things. A bit of mystery doesn’t hurt particularly when it’s an alien ship.
It isn’t really necessary to fully flesh out these things. A bit of mystery doesn’t hurt particularly when it’s an alien ship.
My little tweaks have been mostly subtle and trying to keep within the overall style and aesthtic of Wah Chang’s design. Two of the details I’ve added are more prominent, but from certain angles you would never know they were there. The other two details are much more subtle and visible only if the light catches them at the right angle to cast shadow.
In universe one could always pretend those details were there, but not really noticeable on a smallish CRT screen. Or one could rationalize the Romulans upgraded their BoP after the one seen in “Balance Of Terror” failed to return. Of course, that would assume the original BoP miniature had not been lost and it could be subsequently modified for its appearance in later episodes…
…or they manage to build another one.
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The impulse ports and greebles on the nacelle inboard sides are the most obvious details I added. The grating on the tail fin and the small bit at the very top of the hull (just ahead of the fin) are barely noticeable and certainly not from any real distance. I also detailed the inside of the aft nacelle caps even though you likely could never see it unless looking right into the end cap with a bit of light.
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You said "woodworkers" and I heard "woodpeckers" and my brain went to a very strange place...lol!
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