Below are photos of my Round2 1/350 scale U.S.S. Enterprise-TOS model, built in the 1st Pilot configuration. It required a total of 243 hours over a six month period. About one-half of the time was spent on cleaning parts and sub-assembly work, and one-half on painting and decaling. The total number of parts I used was about 91, which is not many for such a large model. I believe Round2 did an excellent job on this kit. Their product is not perfect but it is very good, and more importantly it is EXTREMELY accurate! Certainly they invested the required time, effort and expense to get it right, and fore filled a wish voiced by Star Trek modelers for decades. In my opinion this kit holds up really well even under close inspection. The least fun part of the project was removing the recessed panel/grid lines from the saucer section. The most exciting part was adding the decals, since they transformed the model from something plain into the fantasy starship I grew up with. Nothing on this project was scratch built or required any special tools, I just had to stay committed to very tedious re-sanding/re-painting/re-decaling until the parts were as good as I could make them. I hope you enjoy the photos.
Phillip1
Gamera/gregbale/jibber/midnightprowler-Thanks for the compliments.
midnightprowler-When the 11ft (and 3ft) models were first built they did have a glossy light blue dorsal. The colors and color scheme were dictated by Matt Jefferies. For “The Cage” a black backdrop background was used, so the blue color was not an issue. Later it was decided a chroma blue screen background would be used so the model’s blue sections were repainted the same flat light gray-green color as the rest of the ship. Knowledge of the blue dorsal seems to have only become more mainstream since the Round2 experts brought it to many people’s attention while they were developing this model. Attached are two photos to help prove the point. The first photo shows the 11ft. model just completed by The Model Production Shop on December 29, 1964. The model still lacks some of the technical markings and the intercooler/control reactors parts would be repainted, but the dorsal and “impluse accelerator”(?) are blue. The second photo is a still from the opening scene of “The Cage” and shows the glossy blue dorsal.
In addition to the pics of your great model, I can’t say how much I like the pic of the production model outside the model shop. Makes me dream of driving down that LA street street in '64, catching a glimpse of the guys standing next to the big model, and wondering “what is that?”. …
…clueless that I’d have been looking at the beginning of an entire new age of science fiction.
Not that I’d be able to think all that through at 8 yrs old, but a guy can dream, right?
Wow, I had no idea they were painted a different colour. And I didn’t notice in your photos either, I just assumed being in shadow they looked darker. Well, I learned something new today!
Wow, that is excellent! Thank you for the information on the dorsal, it is very helpful when I do my build. It’s a curious color combination, like the light purple/green for the D7!
Greg/moose421/Banshee1000/Gerry/midnightprowler-Thanks for the compliments. They are appreciated.
midnightprowler-No plans to do a Production version. I got it “out of my system” with this build. Besides, this model is huge and takes up a lot of room!
Gamera/Banshee1000-The 11ft model actually had a good bit of color variation, but most of the time it is washed out by the bright lights used for filming.
I wanted to share my good fortune with you. My build of this 1st Pilot Enterprise is the cover story of the May 2016 issue of Fine Scale Modeler. It is a great honor as they are a quaility organization to work with.
Same here! This thread had slipped my mind. A big congrats to you!! And BTW, I was pretty excited to see 1701 on the cover, just very cool that it is this one, yours.
I’m glad you resurrected this thread, it is most deserving. [Y]
