Star Trek III & IV Spacedock "Tug" Shuttle

For anyone interested in building a replica of the "tugboat" shuttles seen in Star Treks III and IV (notably in Spacedock), here are seven photos of the original filming miniature.




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Thank you for those!

Looks like it's mostly an F14 and 16.

Yep. Bill mentioned an F-14. And you're 100% right about those being F-16 inlets.

Beautiful model! Thanks for sharing!

Adolfo

Awesome! I've never seen pics of that filming miniature before. Thanks for sharing

So, was the whole thing made of found kit parts? Or just the inlets? And the rest (top shell) was scratch-built?

Thank you for posting these! Any idea how big the miniature is? Might help to nail down which F-14/16 kits were used.

Looks like the cockpit dashboard is from the F-16's landing bay bulkhead.

Here's the port on the top.



Looks like it's the 1:32 Hasegawa kit
http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/ki...as_08913.shtml

Another nice ship,, I mean tug boat to have. It seems easier to put parts together to make a worker bee than an actual Starship

Thanks soooooo much for posting these!!! I've always wanted to build this up, even more than the major ships.

The only pic I've ever seen of the miniature was in a Star Trek magazine. I'll have to find it and post here as it was held in someone's hand.... so might give an idea of size.

Thanks REL for IDing that part. Perhaps the intakes were from the same kit??

Dan

Very nice! A tad too sooty-looking in my view, but beautiful.

Sooty?

Maurice said:

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Sooty?

Dirty, weathered. It's out of character for Trek ships.

Thanks for the pics, I've never seen such detail for this model.

Great pics, thanks for sharing, love this model, wouldnt mind s bash myself to break free from the SW stuff!

Lee

I LOVE that shuttle. In fact, I'm probably the only Trekkie I can think of who is more fond of that Trek shuttle design than any other. Can't tell you why, but it rocks. It remains in my top 3 most desired builds. Based on the elements used, I might even be able to whip one up, myself. Still...One day, I'd like to commission a first rate build of that craft. Thanks for the pics and reference info!!!

Okay, I dug my Hasegawa 1/32 F-16A kit out. Yup, the intakes are most certainly Hasegawa 1/32 F-16 based (the instrument panels use the front main gear bulkhead). The tell I could find is there is an offset divot in front of the nose gear opening which is slightly offset to one side (which this model seems to have on both of its intakes).

The F-14 kit is more than likely the Tamiya 1/32 F-14. Reason being is it was the only 1/32 F-14 kit at the time which had an open speed brake option. Revell also did one, but it had closed speed brakes (i.e. no openings).

I have a feeling the round bits on each edge of the "motorcycle cylinder" tractor emmitter section are probably main gear tires cut in half. That lower front body section to me looks like something donated it as well as opposed to fabricated. But I can't come up with a candidate. That bit (as well as the upper body) will probably have to be made from scratch.

Another nice thing about this studio model is one could scale down elements to use 1/48 or 1/72 F-14 and F-16 kit parts and proportionally, things would still work. But, considering the F-16 and F-14 kits used on this have been replaced by better ones, they aren't as in demand and the prices for them on the secondary market should be less. This is a good thing as in its heydey, that Tamiya F-14 kit was the first aircraft model kit to sell in the triple digits.

very cool love that

Perhaps the windscreen (hmmmm... in space what would it be called? ) is from a car or van and could be a clue to the hull pieces.

Thanks Maurice and everyone else. I just ordered my F-14 and F-16s today. Can't wait to get to work on this. I still have a few questions on how I'll tackle some parts of it, but I'll figure it out eventually. BTW - this thread is why I joined the RPF today. Thanks again!!

--Del

Cool! I can't wait to see someone tackle this.

Another picture of the "orbital shuttle" with the ST:IV decals and dirtier paint job:

Welcome aboard DEl 2!

I love seeing Trek models with weathering.