1992 Hallmark Shuttlecraft "Galileo" Rebuild

1992 Hallmark Shuttlecraft "Galileo" Rebuild

Got two of these in the mail a while back (for $20.00 plus $8.00 shipping; helluva deal, imho), but kind of forgot about them, lol:



I'd originally bought them for the sole purpose of improving on Hallmark's design, since as I've become more of an expert on the TOS Shuttlecraft through projects like my 22-inch filming model and 1 9/16" small-scale models, the more I wanted to see an accurate version of this ornament made.

While rummaging through some of my prop stuff the other day, I found them again, which rekindled my interest in doing these justice. The first thing I did was open one of them up, to see what I was working with:



I actually kind of mangled it a bit trying to safely open it, but as I'll have no need for the original hull it's not a big deal. Next, I got to work drawing up a basic set of plans to work from for the rebuild:






I kept the length and width the same, as I didn't want to make the ornament any bigger, though I did have to add about 3/16" of height to get everything proportionate. All the contours look to be in scale to each other now. I also thickened the nacelles a bit to 1/4", so they too are proportionate to the rest.

And as with both my 22-inch and 1 9/16" models, I intend to add the angled, recessed detailing at the rear beneath the main impulse engine. What with the way Hallmark designed theirs it wouldn't have been possible to add in that detail, but with a slight shift of the circuit board placement I'm confident I can.

Though I'll be scratch-building a new hull and nacelles, and so won't be needing the original one, I found the forward windows, impulse engine, "Press Here" button and screws for securing the circuit board are all salvageable, as is the cicruit board. I plan on designing the bottom half of the hull as Hallmark did, to retain the same features.

You know, there was a time when I felt bitten by the "Phaser" bug, and focused on nothing but those for a while. Seems lately I've been bitten by the "Shuttlecraft" bug, lol.

- - - Updated - - -

Here's a bunch of WiP pics of my "New and Improved" Hallmark Shuttlecraft Galileo Ornament.

As can be seen, I already have all of the major parts fabricated. Just need to clean some of them up. I'm pleased to say I didn't cut through anything I wasn't supposed to, which was a concern regarding the window cut-outs, but they came out great and intact. There's a noticeable difference in size between the original ornament's nacelles and the proportionately scaled ones I'm using:







Just like I said I would, I was able to repurpose the "frosted" plastic insert for the windows. Took me a while to get it in there, as there was a lot of fine trimming involved to make sure it fit properly. Ended up having to trim off some of the sides so the windows would fit in the angled cut-outs I made, but now it fits like a glove:




- - - Updated - - -

I took the next two pics simply to show the difference in size and shape between the original ornament and my accurized version, wherein the ones after those are to show the difference of everything between the two:








And now for some beauty shots:







Questions? Comments? All are welcome

Great work and I love seeing this as I have always been curious about the insides of this thing. I still wished that they still made these plug in type of ornaments. Even though they are still very nice I hesitate to call them ornaments anymore.

Thanks, it's been a fun little thing to put together so far. I've always liked the Galileo ornament, I just knew they could've always done it better. At least now I'll have one that's what I always wanted.

This might end up being the kewlest Star Trek ornament on my tree this year, simply because I made it, lol. I've gotten kind of used to the fact their newer ornaments don't require a plugin, but I know what you mean.

I just lost all of my keepsake ornaments in the flood this summer and was thinking back on them recently. THIS one was my first one! So weird to see a new thread about it!!

"Shuttlecraft to Enterprise....shuttlecraft to Enterprise. Spock here. Happy Holidays. Live long, and prosper!"

My first Hallmark Star Trek ornament was the plug-in Voyager, but my favorite is my Enterprise-E.

Looks like you've done a man's job so far!

Some new WiP pics:

Quick l'il update. I've managed to successfully do a bit of transplant surgery, and removed the screw anchors and box housing for the "Press Here" button from the original shell and installed them in my rebuild. Just have to wait for the glue to dry, then I should be able to do more with it.

I'm pleased to say that the circuit board fits perfectly inside, with just enough clearance at the rear for me to add the correctly angled rear section. Once the screw anchors are solidly in place, I'll secure the circuit board with the screws also salvaged from the original ornament and work on fabricating, then fitting, that rear section beneath the impulse engine.

Oh, I've also marked off where I need to drill some holes for the speaker. That's something else I should be able to quickly get done once the glue's all dried on the inside of the bottom half of the hull. Pics to follow.

As promised, here are those WiP showing my current progress. With the new scribing tool I just bought earlier today, I was able to begin scribing the lines for the access hatch:



And here's the bottom half I added a lot of the original shell to ("Press Here" button housing, circuit board screw anchors; one came off when I first test-fitted the circuit board, still have to glue it back in place):




Didn't take long for me to rough out all the holes for the speaker, so it should now sound as good as it did in the original ornament:




Another test-fitting of the ciruit board, as well as the "Press Here" button underneath:






I managed to lay out the speaker holes pretty much the same as on the original ornament, though was able to move everything up a little bit so I can add the correct angled rear section beneath the impulse engine:




That's all for now, folks. Little by little, she's getting there B)

I keep forgetting how small this is. All the more impressive

It's very impressive how you've made theses subtle changes to the design and how they have made such an enormous difference to the overall impact of the model. Looking very impressive and will be watching with interest.

CaptainDave1701 said:

Great work and I love seeing this as I have always been curious about the insides of this thing. I still wished that they still made these plug in type of ornaments. Even though they are still very nice I hesitate to call them ornaments anymore.

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Shoot all mine are displayed in my office, I don't think I've had one on the Christmas Tree in years!

Mike J. said:

I keep forgetting how small this is. All the more impressive

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Craious said:

It's very impressive how you've made theses subtle changes to the design and how they have made such an enormous difference to the overall impact of the model. Looking very impressive and will be watching with interest.

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Thanks, fellas! I've found it a very fun and enjoyable experience myself, so I'm glad others are enjoying it, too.

Though there's really nothing more to show pics of, I have begun working with the scavenged impulse engines components. Test-fitted the circuit board again, and am just starting to figure out how those parts will go into the build.

Given that the impulse engine on my rebuild is noticeably wider than on the original ornmanent, I'll be using the original part to help diffuse the light across the entire width from behind, but will be fashioning my own frosted engine detail in front of that.

I've also been giving some thought as to how to do the rear landing gear. That's right; I've decided to add accurate landing gear to the nacelles and beneath the impulse engine. The nacelle ones are easy enough, the rear landing gear's the one I've got to figure out.

dgtrekker said:

Shoot all mine are displayed in my office, I don't think I've had one on the Christmas Tree in years!

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Since the wife and I moved in together a few years ago, I've always had my own little Christmas tree to put up in my prop room, themed with nothing but all of my Star Trek ornaments. We typically refer to it as the "Prop Tree", given it's placement, lol.

Got quite a few of them now, too. Always makes for an easy gift idea for my wife around the holidays

Here's another update, a really exciting one, too. First off, I added all of the finer surface details to the bottom half of the hull:



Some beauty shots to show how those details look (really adds something to this small a model, imho):





I also managed to fabricate the rear angled section underneath the impulse engine, as well as put a little something together for the rear landing gear:






Though it's not easy to see, I did add most of the surface details underneath the impulse engine. The only one I won't be able to is on the far left, since that's where the plug has to come out.

And yes, the piston for the rear landing gear is made of two brass rods. The landing pad itself I made out of styrene, and built up to resemble the larger version made for my 22-inch studio-scale model.

The colour of the brass and the painted gold on the pad are slightly off, but not enough to really notice. I'm happy with how it turned out

More progress pics! Yay!

Here's both halves of the hull nicely primered to show off the finer details:





I cut out the area where the plug will come out, also primered to show the surface details:





Another thing I managed to do was fabricate the new lens for the impulse engine, using black self-adhesive vinyl for the engine detail:




The original impulse engine part will sit directly above the rear bulb and diffuse light through it and my new lens, which I lightly sanded on the back to help evenly spread the light out across it (and also hide the inside components from view):



I think I'm now ready to move on to the nacelle sub-assemblies, while I finish off detailing the rear landing gear.

Alright, bit of a necropost, but it's update time! Managed to get the new angled panel underneath the impulse engine done (with surface details scavenged from the first attempt):




But more importantly I was able to get a lot of detail work done on the nacelles, such as the three vents at the back of each nacelle:




I also added in the cross-braces on the underside of the nacelle wings, which not only does makes it even more accurate to the full-size mock-up, but also adds a little stability and ensures everything lines up for ease of assembly:





And of course, I added the forward landing gear and (although hard to see) scribed some lines at the front of each nacelle with my pipe cutter:




Group shot of the work now done:



I finally got back to this build as I decided to make it part of my 2015 product line of Christmas ornaments, so want to get it finished so I can mold/cast it well in advance.