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Gary provided some information on the blueprints featured in the calendar:
Behind-the-scenes on the Ent-C Plans
by Gary Kerr
Here's some more background on the building of the Enterprise-C model and the drafting of my blueprints:
The construction of
the Enterprise-C model for "Yesterday's Enterprise"
was something of a rush job, which was pretty much the norm during Next Gen's heyday. The model's genesis began with the drafting of construction blueprints by Rick Sternbach, Senior Illustrator for The Next Generation. Here is how Rick described the process to me:
"The deadline for sketching and blueprinting the Ent-C
was pretty normal in that I had a few days preproduction to sketch up the ship as first suggested in Andy Probert's color painting, get it approved as an intermediate shape between the Excelsior and the Galaxy classes, and then work up the blueprints. Greg Jein was given the miniature job, as we know. I suppose it took about three or four days to draft up the hull shape. Greg and I knew the shorthand for all the Starfleet stuff that had to go on the ship, so I only had to loosely indicate what went where on the plans."
Next it was up to Greg Jein to translate Rick's rough plans into a 3-dimensional, neon-lighted model. Greg had neither the time
nor the budget to build a museum-quality miniature, but this was not necessary since the model was intended to appear only in wide shots on relatively low-resolution TV screens.
Nevertheless, it
still takes a fair amount of time to build a filming miniature. Since time was short, Greg farmed out the fabrication of the warp nacelle master to David Merriman, and the secondary hull master to Ed Miarecki. Assembly of the metal armature, neon lighting, and outer hull (made primarily from 0.060" thick plastic sheet) was done at Greg's shop in Marina del Rey. Not all of Greg's techniques were high-tech: the lifeboat hatches were made from adhesive labels. Certain practical considerations and Greg's own creative license created several differences between Rick Sternbach's initial design and the finished model.
As the
last step in the construction process, Greg meticulously applied the model's paint scheme and decals, then proceeded to obliterate much of it with "battle damage." Greg's techniques for applying battle damage were simple, but effective: he masked portions of the hull with brass screen, then sprayed black paint over it, creating the illusion of holes in the hull with structural framing showing through. Smudges and blast marks came courtesy of fireworks sparklers.
Following its appearance in "Yesterday's
Enterprise," Greg performed a substantial rebuild of the C into an updated Ambassador-class ship. The model appeared in later Trek episodes as the Yamaguchi, Excalibur, Zhukov, etc.
I'd been collecting information on the Enterprise-C since "Yesterday's Enterprise" first aired, and fortunately I was able to get that information directly from those who built the model.
Greg Jein had
given me access to his photo collection and spare castings of Enterprise-C parts. I was able to lift the contours of the saucer from a set of Greg's spare vacuforms. Dave Merriman and Ed Miarecki provided construction photos, copies of their annotated blueprints, and stories of working under incredibly tight deadlines.
In
1994, I got a phone call from Bill George at ILM. Bill has worked in a variety of capacities on many of the Star Trek movies (as well as numerous others), and most recently served as visual effects supervisor for Galaxy Quest and Planet of the Apes. During his call, Bill mentioned that the updated C-model was at ILM for possible use in the final scene of Star Trek: Generations. I told Bill that I needed certain specific information about the model, so he humored me and did everything I requested: he took photos of the model, measured it, and made rubbings & tracings of various parts for me.
I drafted the plans of the
Enterprise-C (and others) for inclusion in Mike Okuda's proposed book on the starships named Enterprise. I used all the materials I had collected over the years as references, supplemented by phone calls and emails to all those involved in the construction of the model. I used AutoCAD Release 14 to draw the plans. Mike Okuda had planned to use Adobe Illustrator adjust the line weights and add color to these plans, but the book was put on hold before he could do any of this. I was as surprised as anyone else when my plans appeared as the centerfold of the 2002 Next Generation calendar. For some reason, Pocket chose to print the raw AutoCAD plot instead of a more finished product, but I won't complain too loudly.
Enterprise-C corrections
Here's a jpeg that shows the corrections I made to the
Enterprise-C plans that are in the centerfold of the 2002 Next Gen calendar. When I originally drew the plans I miscounted by one grid line, and this lead to a chain reaction of various features being slightly mispositioned. It was a case of my drawing too many Enterprises, too late at night, with too short of a deadline. To make matters worse, I didn't catch the mistake at the time because I had to send the plans to Pocketbooks before I could thoroughly proof them. I must admit that it's nice to see the plans in print now, even if they're not totally perfect. I thought I should make the corrected plans available to as many people as possible, so that's why I'm sending them to you.
The main changes in the plans are:
1. The inner ring of saucer windows is moved one grid line toward the center of the saucer.
2. The Deck 2-3 structure is slightly lengthened.
Gary
Click on the image below for a large 600kb
file showing the corrections in detail
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January 13, 2002 Update
When I initially drew the Enterprise-C plans I lacked complete documentation of the detailing on the rear surface of the
dorsal. The upper end of the dorsal juts backwards, creating an overhang above the impulse vent, and a number of plastic strips are glued to the overhang. While Bill George had taken a beautiful set of clear, close-up photos of the Yamaguchi (an updated Ambassador-class ship) for me while it was at ILM, the detailing on the Yamaguchi's dorsal was different from the C's. Photos of the original Enterprise-C were hard to come by because Greg Jein had been more concerned with completing the model on schedule, rather than photographing it. Consequently, he took only a limited number of snapshots before handing the model over to Image G for filming. Gary Hutzel, Visual Effects Supervisor for Next Gen, confirms that no official portraits of the ship were ever taken. In light of these facts, I decided to omit the dorsal panels from the files that I sent Pocket Books, rather than draw inaccurate surface details.
The subsequent publication of the Star Trek Mechanics book (ISBN 4-8211-0588-8) changed the equation
somewhat. The Mechanics photos, in conjunction with photos from Greg Jein's personal collection, provided me with almost enough information to draw the panels. I knew that Greg had relied heavily on Evergreen styrene stock for detailing both the Enterprise-C and Yamaguchi, so I called him and asked another series of nitpicky questions about the construction of the C. Since Greg is a normal human being, he didn't recall precisely which stock he had used on the dorsal. (Actually, I would have worried about Greg if he had remembered.) Greg did provide some insights into what materials he might have used. I also checked with several other friends in the industry, but they didn't have any photos that I hadn't already seen.
Since no more resources were
available, I reluctantly sat down at the computer and drew the panels as best I could. Guided by The Force (and assisted by my old Evergreen plastics catalog and reference photos), I believe I've drawn a good approximation of the paneling. As far as I know, I had access to every bit of reference material related to the C, so barring the discovery of a handy temporal rift, this is about as good as it's going to get.
I've provided Steve with a rear view of the revised dorsal, as well as an annotated close-up view that gives my best guess regarding the dimensions of the panels. The side view shown
here is not included in the Next Gen calendar. I've removed the starboard nacelle so you can see the entire dorsal.
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