The Model Stash

Hi, Everyone! The AMT / ERTL / Round 2 1:650 TOS U.S.S. Enterprise model is widely regarded as a classic kit.  However, that has never meant that it is a perfect kit.  Far from it, actually.  When the model was tooled in 1966, it had plenty of accuracy issues.  Then when many of the parts were re-tooled in the early 1970s, even more problems were introduced. One of the trouble spots that has never been addressed are the three concentric rings on the lower primary hull part.  From the start, AMT had it wrong.  The tooling created three raised rings which were not correctly sized or spaced.  Modelers who wish to try accurizing that area usually start by sanding away those rings.  But what are the measurements for a new set of rings? First, find yourself a detailed image of the lower primary hull that you trust is accurate.  Personally, I went with a vector-based image that was used for the Polar Lights 1:1000 TOS Enterprise model kit.  T...

Hi, Everyone! I started a project to make a decal / mask for the Polar Lights / Round 2 1:32 TOS Galileo shuttlecraft model kit. As per Star Trek historian and filming miniature information archivist extraordinaire Gary Kerr ( https://modelermagic.com/gary-kerrs-12-studio-scale-11-star-trek-shuttlecraft-for-the-polar-lights-kit/ )... The coolest feature was discovered almost too late.  Doug Drexler and aerospace historian and writer, Glen Swanson, have been sleuthing through various archives in Los Angeles, and we've all been chipping in to get 600 dpi scans made.  They discovered several hi-res photographs of the newly-built 22-incher, and I saw something completely unexpected on the miniature's roof: scribed panels that were very similar to the panels that Thomas Kellogg had drawn on his concept illustration during the 1966 design process.  This discovery came late in the pre-production process, after a smooth roof had already been tooled, but Polar Lights will supply...

Hi, Everyone! I started a project to make a more accurate deflector dish assembly for the AMT / ERTL / Round 2 1:650 TOS U.S.S. Enterprise model kit. Back in the early 1970s, AMT changed the tooling of their 1:650 U.S.S. Enterprise model.  Although the kit itself from its original 1966 tooling had its accuracy problems, the changes made in the early 1970s created even more issues.  One of the issues was the deflector dish assembly: The housing was changed / simplified where the outside wall was raised higher, the inner three stepped rings were all made the same height as the outside wall, and the three "extrusions" from the secondary hull were added. The dish assembly was changed from an overly large dish with an equally overly long stem to a detail-less pie pan looking dish with a shortened stem.   When the Smithsonian put together the team for the 2016 TOS Enterprise 11-foot filming miniature restoration project, Gary Kerr - Star Trek historian and filming miniature ...