1/1000 PHASE II Enterprise

After many years of patience, I finally have a model of the refitted Enterprise, from the aborted STAR TREK PHASE II (originally just "STAR TREK II") TV series! This is the recently-released, 1/1000 scale kit from UGH Models. The kit is excellent, but requires some fairly extensive modifications to more closely match both Matt Jefferies' original design, and the visual effects model built by Brick Price and Don Loos. David Shaw's incredible research and scratchbuilt model (http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/99-sc...g/376313-phase-ii-enterprise-study-model.html) were invaluable resources for this project, and I shamelessly copied--er...used his work as my primary reference, with a few minor tweaks (and the occasional mistake) to suit my own tastes.

Alterations to the UGH model include:


* Removing and shortening the B/C deck superstructure, and adding the connecting piece between the two turbolifts on the Bridge.
* Extensively modifying the impulse engine "spine" on the upper rear saucer.
* Removing and replacing the lower sensor dome on the underside of the saucer, and filling the two outermost engrave rings on the lower saucer.
* Removing and replacing the sensor/deflector dish detailing.
* Adding detail to the phaser assembly at the base of the dorsal.
* Filling in all of the molded-in windows on the secondary hull.
* Rescribing the panel lines on the hangar deck doors.
* Adding navigation lights to the saucer and secondary hull.
* Shortening/reshaping the nacelle pylons, and replacing the molded-in vents with scribed sheet styrene.
* Removing incorrect detailing on the nacelles, and adding new detail (vents, ribbing, fins, upper channels).
* Scribing gridlines into the upper saucer, secondary hull, and nacelles.


The decals were custom-printed from a scaled-down version of Shaw's excellent decal art, with a few tweaks.

Nice work Greg, she turned out really good.

Outstanding.

*blows off dust*


Okay, so, it’s been a few years.

While I was very proud of this model, certain little things nagged at me:


* For starters, the length of the nacelle pylons. The stock UGH pylons seemed too long when attached to the model, resulting in the nacelles sitting higher and sticking out further than they should.

* The vents on the nacelles and pylons. As noted, I had replaced the kit’s ribbed vents with scribed sheet styrene, but I was never happy with how they turned out. They never came across as very slightly recessed (with clear outlines), as they should, and the indented areas at the leading edge of each vent were not as straight and crisp as they should have been. Also, some of the scribed lines on the vents ended up very shallow and hard to see, due to multiple layers of putty and paint.

* The lack of sharpness in certain scratchbuilt or modified details, such as the Bridge, secondary hull docking ports, and linear accelerator on the rear of the saucer.

* The crudeness of the scratchbuilt marker lights on the sides of the saucer.

* The lack of the “chin guards” on the lower front nacelles, as well as the too-boxy and not-organic-enough shapes of the nacelle front ends (which are hollow, vacuformed plastic in the UGH kit).

* The grid lines, which I had scribed by hand. Getting the proper line depth and radial/concentric look is a tricky prospect. Also, I was rethinking the addition of the lines to the secondary hull. David Shaw omitted them from his magnificent model, and the actual PHASE II studio model molds didn’t appear to have them, either—only on the upper saucer, apparently.


A few weeks ago, with great trepidation, I resolved to solve only that very first problem: The length of the nacelle pylons. With a mix of determination and horror, I cut them off with a Dremel, then began working to measure, cut, and reshape them for the proper look, using Polar Lights’ 1/1000 Enterprise Refit kit as a guide for the proper size and spacing.

After the work was done, I reinstalled them, then carefully began work filling, sanding, and painting the new joints with the secondary hull. The final result was acceptable, but the new paintjob didn’t blend in particularly well.


Then, the mad idea struck me: What if I completely stripped down the model and rethought it almost entirely from scratch?

So, again with a mix of determination and horror, I soaked the model in a cleaning solution for several days until all of my paint and custom decals could be scrubbed off. After that, it was off to the races. I dived back into my (and Shaw’s) research on this lost ship design. I printed new decals, again using Shaw’s art (scaled down to 1/1000) as a basis.

Then, I began the bodywork. Dremeling away the grooved styrene nacelle and pylon vents. Filling and sanding the scribed gridlines (which, this time around, will be drawn on with pencil, then misted with the base hull color).

After that, I installed new nacelle and pylon vents, and began carefully building up the areas around them with treatments of putty and filler primer (with tape masking the vents, allowing the primer to build up around them). They look MUCH improved, now, although more layers of primer are still needed.


After awhile, I realized I could go even further. Given my recent experience in learning 3D modeling, I realized that I could model and 3D print replacement parts which would be very accurate, and not suffer from the inevitable wonkiness of being handmade.

So, I loaded Matt Jefferies’ original blueprints into Shapr3D (while also referring to the reference photos of the unfinished studio model), and began tracing, extruding, and shaping parts. At first, it was just the dual-turbolift Bridge, the lower saucer planetary sensor, and the marker lights. Then, the nacelle/pylon support/shield pieces. Then the linear accelerator. Then the secondary hull docking ports and their pentagonal hatches. Then the nacelle chin guards. Then the nacelle front endcaps themselves, which can be printed, shaped to fit the contours of the kit’s nacelles, molded, and cast in tinted resin. Then the B/C deck.


What began as an engineering refit evolved into a redesign of the whole model.

Here’s the current progress. I’m very excited. Parts like the bridge and B/C deck have been designed to key into each other, and various parts have sprues connecting them, for both cost and ease of printing. The photos seen below of the model itself (which still includes the tape on the nacelles/pylons, as well as the original, scratchbuilt parts, since the replacement parts have yet to be finalized and printed) show what a difference just the pylon length tweaks make. In its first life, the model looked a bit…off. Enough to be quietly nagging at me for the past few years.

Well, not anymore.

Thanks ever so much for doing this!
Something you might be interested in.

There are those circular “bucket dirt traps” by pro elite, chemical guys, workshop solutions and DETAIL GUARDZ the original Grit Guard insert with washerboard combo packs that would make great saucers.

On a tangentially-related note, I’m also modeling a few parts for my Richard Taylor/TMP preproduction version of that ship. Since the Tetryon Parts replacement is no longer available, here’s the impulse crystal:




And what I really need to do is model some upgrade parts for the 1/1000 Reliant, such as proper details for the underside.

I wasn’t able to buy their wide Refit impulse deck. They go under?

publiusr said:

I wasn’t able to buy their wide Refit impulse deck. They go under?

Click to expand...

Apparently.

So, I spent the afternoon removing the thin styrene strips I’d laid down on the nacelle trenches, four years ago. After carefully gluing down new strips, I found that it’s just really tricky to get the strips all aligned correctly while also avoiding glue squishing out in-between them.

So, I began modeling drop-in pieces which will be much more precise.

This is maybe my favorite starship design in all of Trek, very excited to see how this turns out.

ForbiddenOnion said:

This is maybe my favorite starship design in all of Trek, very excited to see how this turns out.

Click to expand...

Listen, I fell in love with this thing when Shaw did his research and built his model. The various blueprints and photos of the unfinished filming miniature all finally "clicked".

While I love the TMP version we ended up with, the PHASE II design is absolutely a more logical upgrade of the TOS ship (aside from the shape and proportional changes to those components which theoretically would have gone unchanged, in-universe), and represents Matt Jefferies' final statement on the most iconic spaceship in history (real OR fictional).

I was comparing my in-progress model with one of my TOS-era models, the other day, and found myself really admiring how Jefferies had refined the proportions and overall look. Amazingly, the bigger saucer and sleeker nacelles actually make the TOS ship look somewhat unbalanced and clunky, by comparison. And I say this while also reaffirming that the TOS design is greatest spaceship design of all time.

Understood.

Now, I seem to remember some profiles Matt drew that had nacelles coming out of a “spine” that was part of the saucer support dorsal. You might want to tackle that—at least with the spine terminating as a torpedo and/or secondary impulse deck so both hulls are mobile after saucer sep. that might also be an idea for you—magnet wise.

I wish I had your skills.

One project you might consider might be a form fitting bracket for the bigger AMT that Round2 repopped. This bracket would tab into the socket for the nacelle..but would have its own socket just a bit farther back so the one piece nacelle pylon can tab into that and not “crowd” the saucer as much.

Still working on modeling parts whilst awaiting the first batch of printed parts.


Meanwhile, I’m also working on replacement parts for the 1/1000 TOS kit. I’ve never been happy with the shape of the inner nacelle dome inserts, nor their inaccurate fan-blades. I also created an insert FOR the insert, replicating the 1/350 kit’s simulated Christmas tree lights, just for that extra layer of detail. Fact of the matter is that the 1/350 kit does not have tapered fan-blades, so this may be helpful for that eventual build, too.

The first batch of printed parts came in—the two-piece Bridge, two-piece lower saucer dome, and saucer rim marker lights (with extra copies, attached by sprues). I won’t be using the Bridge print, since I had subsequently redesigned it to key into the B/C deck part that I put into the second, forthcoming print batch.

I’m VERY pleased with how these turned out, and they’re a big step up from my original, scratchbuilt parts. Much sharper and more precise. I’ll work on installing the lower saucer dome first.




And here they are after a quick coat of primer:

Dremeled off the scratchbuilt lower saucer dome and installed the new bezel. The actual dome part can be painted separately and then installed, without having to worry about masking parts off.

While I wait for more printed parts to arrive, I’ve been thinking ahead in terms of the finer details.

Shaw’s logical supposition was that the missing details from Jefferies’ PHASE II construction plans would have been filled in by referencing the TOS Enterprise—and, more specifically, the three-foot model, which was still in Roddenberry’s possession, at that point.

So, as a result, certain details on Shaw’s fantastic study model skew toward the look of the three-footer (the hull lettering, the triangular landing gear hatches on the underside of the saucer, etc.). This includes the navigation beacon on the rear of the secondary hull, above the hangar deck.

However, I find myself rethinking the PHASE II design’s marker lights. Jefferies made a point of depicting small-yet-yet prominent marker lights (which were not on the TOS ship) on either side of the saucer in his blueprints, yet none on the upper or lower saucer (whereas the TOS design had big lights on the top and bottom of the saucer). Sure, it’s possible that he figured the missing lights on the top and bottom would be added in later, but I’m not so sure.

Some depictions of the PHASE II design, including both Shaw’s model and the CG model made to promote the Eaglemoss replica, also feature small lights on the top and bottom of the saucer, resulting in clusters of three lights on either side of the saucer.




However, I find that this looks a little…I dunno…too busy. The lights on top and bottom are no longer big and prominent like on the TOS design. The new saucer rim lights are now the prominent ones, and are supplemented by lights which are now dinkier than the TOS lights on the top and bottom of the saucer were.

Also, unlike the big navigation dome on the TOS ship, or Shaw’s three-footer-inspired dome on his PHASE II model, Jefferies actually drew a small marker light—looking about the same size as the new saucer rim lights—on both his general blueprints and his cutaway of the new ship design.








All of this together makes me think that Jefferies may actually have been streamlining the design by including only three marker lights, and all of them being the same size/design: port saucer rim/green, starboard saucer rim/red, and above the hangar/white. And that’s it. Which might just be what I end up going with, especially since I do have extras of the saucer marker lights that I had printed, which could easily be added above the hangar.


Also, I continue to go back and forth on the hull lettering. Jefferies went right back to the original TOS pilot font for the “NCC-1701” on his blueprints, with the sans-serif “1”s, and the “7” with the angled top right corner.



However, the closeup section of the secondary hull which was built for the docking port sequence of the PHASE II pilot script featured the pilot “1”s and the production “7”.




And, of course, both the three-foot TOS model and Shaw’s PHASE II model used the TOS production font.

So, the question becomes…which lettering would have actually appeared on the completed PHASE II model? For the first iteration of my own model, I stuck with the hybrid font of the docking port closeup model, since that’s an actual, tangible model which was made for the production, and may well have represented the look they had ended up choosing.

I’m leaning toward doing the same thing yet again, but am open to ideas.

I might go with the clean pilot font.
Good that you made an insert for the TOS insert. Soon enough, we may have tiny hemispherical “screens” with the pattern hardwired in…no moving parts.


The glowing Phase II endcaps? There is a part of me that would like to see the cascading M-5 lighting effect move top to bottom, but 1/1000 would be too small.

Next batch of parts arrived. I’m very pleased. For some reason, only one of the chin guard parts that go on the nacelles front domes was included—either the other wasn’t packed, or it few off into the unknown when I opened the package. Either way, I’m gonna slightly tweak the fit, so I’ll be reprinting them both, anyway. The nacelle front end master also needs a bit of tweaking, as it’s slightly too large. I may just shape the current part to size, instead of tweaking the digital model. We’ll see.

Still have yet to install the docking ports, but I did install the other parts. It didn’t take long to Dremel off my scratchbuilt Bridge and B/C deck. I installed the new parts, as well as the linear accelerator and the nacelle underside shield pieces that sit next to the pylon attachment points.

Disregard the crudeness of the nacelle ribbing—those are the styrene strips that I’ll be removing and replacing with printed parts.

And the B/C deck structure still needs another round of putty, sanding, and filler primer to blend it into the saucer, but it already looks great. These printed parts are a huge improvement over the originals, and I’m delighted.

Stripped off the styrene nacelle ribbing. Also managed to lose the tiny docking port parts. Not a big deal, since I’ll just reprint them (with extras) along with the new nacelle trench grills.

One more round of printed parts (nacelle grills, chin guards, docking ports) should just about do it, I think. A bit more bodywork (mainly attaching the nacelles to the pylons after the new parts are installed), and I can finally move on to painting.

And I may end up just casting the stock kit’s vacuformed nacelle front ends in resin, instead of trying to create new masters, since they already fit the countours of the kit’s nacelles.

Ordered what will hopefully be the final batch of printed parts--the nacelle grills, spare docking ports, and slightly resized nacelle chin guards.