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I found this 1/650 Enterprise kit in a hobby shop for 10 bucks. so of course I grabbed it. When I started building, I
decided to do something a little bit different. Taking some ideas from Colin Riel's book, Ships of the Star Fleet, I decided to "update" this ship with some modern systems and markings.
I have always thought of the U.S.S. Constitution as the pride of Starfleet, being the first of her class, which would put her first in line for any special refitting. That is, until James T. and the gang
returned from their five-year mission and spoiled the whole thing. This ship was refitted just prior to the return of the Enterprise.
I loosely followed the buildup shown on the Thomas Models
website, although I used different methods. For the B and C decks, I used a razor saw to cut the original oval shape into a teardrop and completed the shape using sheet styrene and JB Weld. The edge of
the saucer was sharpened by assembling the saucer, drawing the new lower edge with a compass, cutting around the lower edge with a razor saw (one half at a time), then building up the new rim with
styrene. The indents on either side of the secondary hull were built up also with styrene and JB Weld. I added a hangar bay, but needed to lengthen the rear of the ship about 1/4", so I fully
assemble the secondary hull first, made the length correction, then cut open the rear of the hull just behind the engine strut slots so I could build the hangar.
"Updates" I decided to
include are: A new bridge, navigation dome, new phasers (a bit large, I admit, but the sewing pins were all I had available), a "neck" mounted torpedo launcher, main sensor, and the movie-era
markings. I also included an open hangar bay with a shuttle I carved from styrene. I wanted to illustrate "shadows" left behind from the old markings (much like the American Airlines logo on
the NASA 747's). Masks for this were made from photocopies of the decal sheets.
The base color for the ship was Light Gray (which my airbrush did not like for some reason). The grid was airbrushed
on with Light Ghost Gray. Other colors used were Primer Gray, Aircraft Gray, Flat White, Flat Black, Light Sea Gray, Insignia Red, and Insignia Yellow.
Decals came from the Shane Johnson detailing
set, an old Thomas Models sheet (which, fortunately, had shuttle markings), a Thomas Models 1/576 Enterprise-A sheet, and a Web Games 1/1000 Excelsior class sheet.
Benjamin Bailey
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