My kit version was an original from 1975. The model was later reissued as a 25th anniversary edition, sold in a box with paint.
My first Enterprise build was in 1976. I remember being disappointed with the fit of some parts. To be stable, a long "recovery probe" is connected to the model. The starship is dragged behind during boost.
It was launched twice, both flights had damage. The vacu-form parts are delicate.
You can review the instructions at Jim Zs: CLICK HERE
You can review the instructions at Jim Zs: CLICK HERE
No overall parts picture - there was just too many parts to capture.
Take a look -
Both the USS Enterprise and Klingon Battlecruiser models were challenging. Indeed the extensive use of vacuform parts in the USS Enterprise model made it quite a challenge (especially if it is your first experience with vacuform models). Some prior experience with vacuform models could be useful (for example you would have developoed some skills like how to separate the part from the sheet, how to cut and fit tabs so that you get a better join on the thin plastic, how to deal with the internal armature and bulkheads, etc).
ReplyDeleteWith the USS Enterprise, the model isn't simply dragged along, but basically becomes a weirdly-shaped fin unit. I did find interesting how an engine hook was used for locking the nose probe to the model.
The somewhat rough edges and splintering of the plywood (partly due to the "die-crushing" method of cutting) parts did pose some challenges.
Alignment of the parts on the USS Enterprise kit did pose a challenge. There's one strange aspect about the way the shape interact with each other that sometimes tricks your eyes, so you should use measurements to check alignment rather than eyeballing it. At certain angles, the nacelles appear splayed out, and other angles they're it's other way around. At certain viewing angles, one nacelle looks like it's drooping, but from an opposite angle the other nacelle is drooping. This also happens with the various plastic models that I'd built.
die-crushing -- humorous way to refer to die-cutting process. After some usage, the wear on the tooling results in crushing of wood parts rather than cutting.
I do recall in the past that the Estes model was sought out by some modelers back in the late 1970s and early 1980s for the decals. The Estes kit was the same size as the AMT model, so the decals were cross-compatible. The decals in the AMT kit used the wrong typeface, and the Estes kit had better match to what was found on the 11-foot filming miniature.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that's interesting is that the first year the Star Trek models appeared in the Estes catalog, the Klingon Cruiser model has a slightly different configuration than what was released (likely an earlier prototype was used because a model of the final design wasn't ready to be photographed at the time). This changed by the second year the model was listed. One peculiarity I did notice is that the "notch" on the bottom of the primary hull (aka saucer) of the Enterprise model is conspicuously missing in the catalog pictures.
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