Finished Photos of Round2’s 1/350 Scale Star Trek U.S.S. Enterprise-TOS (1st Pilot Version)

[phillip1]

Fellow Modelers, 

 

Below are photos of Round2’s 1/350 scale (32" length) U.S.S. Enterprise-TOS model-1st Pilot configuration built in 2015.  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 fulfilled 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.  The last few photos are of the actual 11ft. prop that does confirm the semi-gloss blue neck.  Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy the photos.

 

Phillip1

[Pete in Lincs]

Very impressive. The blue parts are news to me and the saucer looks better to me without the panel lines.

[phillip1]

Pete in Lincs-Thanks very much!

 

Phillip1

[Thom216]

What a lovely Lady. Great job!

[phillip1]

Thom216-Thank you very much!

 

Phillip1

[Steve27752]

Very nice, however I do not believe that neck of the studio Enterprise was blue. I think it is a trick of the light.

 

[The Rat]

Just... wow. 

[dhanners]

That is one of the cleanest builds of any model I’ve ever seen. Excellent work!

 

Modelers have debated the “real” colors of the Enterprise since the show first aired. The restorations by the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum have helped determine some of the colors with certainty, and we have to remember the color bias of films of the era, filming techniques, etc. Also, the filming miniature was repainted after the pilot. As the series progressed, it was repainted again and even weathered.

 

As weird as it looks to us today, the “interconnecting dorsal” (the pylon connecting the saucer to the engineering section) was indeed blue on the pilot version. You can find a more detailed discussion of it (and everything else on the filming miniature) here: https://culttvman.com/main/a-modelers-guide-to-painting-the-starship-enterprise-by-gary-kerr/

Edited 15 hours ago by dhanners

[phillip1]

Steve27752/The Rat/dhanners-Thanks for the compliments. 

 

Steve27752-dhanners is correct that the blue neck color on the 1st and 2nd pilot Enterprise has been well documented.  TV Sci-Fi prop historian Gary Kerr brought this discovery (and many others) about the color history of the Enterprise to the general public while doing research for Round2 on their 1/350 USS Enterprise-TOS kit.  The neck and top-cover connector were only blue for the 1st and 2nd pilot episodes, when the prop was shot against a black background. When the show went into production a blue screen background was used which made the neck almost invisible, so it was mostly repainted the same light gray color as the rest of the ship.

 

Phillip1