STAR TREK- TMP wrist communicators (...and now with more TMP goodies!)

I’m still adjusting the shape of the body, with slightly more taper on the front/emitter end, and a larger crystal and mounting ring, which looks more on-point. Still not 100% convinced that the 190.5mm length of the HMS/DST is accurate. The screenused heroes and dummies tend to look more elongated, to my eye (although I fully acknowledge that lens distortion and whatnot can play tricks on us).


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And I’d love to replicate the electronics of the hero, with emitter/crystal lights, and the setting lights activated by touch, but that’s a wee bit beyond my capabilities.

Meanwhile, I’m thinking ahead to the TWOK variants. The McCoy/Terrell hero gets the most screentime, but, like the Saavik hero, it was a TMP dummy that got repainted and upgraded with the chaser lights and whatnot. The surviving TMP hero was used by Kirk, and little reference is available on it. It presumably just got a repaint and the prismatic tape in-between the side-rails, as with the dummies-turned heroes.

Any good sources for that tape, by the way? I should probably secure some.
 
Gregatron said:
I’m still adjusting the shape of the body, with slightly more taper on the front/emitter end, and a larger crystal and mounting ring, which looks more on-point. Still not 100% convinced that the 190.5mm length of the HMS/DST is accurate. The screenused heroes and dummies tend to look more elongated, to my eye (although I fully acknowledge that lens distortion and whatnot can play tricks on us).


View attachment 1875108View attachment 1875109View attachment 1875110



And I’d love to replicate the electronics of the hero, with emitter/crystal lights, and the setting lights activated by touch, but that’s a wee bit beyond my capabilities.

Meanwhile, I’m thinking ahead to the TWOK variants. The McCoy/Terrell hero gets the most screentime, but, like the Saavik hero, it was a TMP dummy that got repainted and upgraded with the chaser lights and whatnot. The surviving TMP hero was used by Kirk, and little reference is available on it. It presumably just got a repaint and the prismatic tape in-between the side-rails, as with the dummies-turned heroes.

Any good sources for that tape, by the way? I should probably secure some.
Click to expand...

the overall lenght is indeed a bit tricky to determine precisely.
Saavik/jein's hero is said to be 8" / 203 mm long
Jein's dummies are said to be 7.5 " / 190 mm long.
Saavik hero isn't the exact base though, that one was likely vacformed with the separated P1 unit so this could explain the lenght difference.



Anyway, 1cm is quite a difference for such an object. 190mm seems to be a good compromise but I have to agree, it looks a bit small. If you look at that picture the TMP hero looks quite big compared to the BN TOS phaser replica.
1000004204.jpg



the WOK/TMP hero has the full repaint and even had the WOK control pad decal but the squares "buttons" were cut out to keep the original colored lights, the brass buttons area were cut as well to keep the original raised bars.

any prismatic tape with square pattern should do the trick
 
Last edited:
Benjo said:
the overall lenght is indeed a bit tricky to determine precisely.
Saavik/jein's hero is said to be 8" / 203 mm long
Jein's dummies are said to be 7.5 " / 190 mm long.
Saavik hero isn't the exact base though, that one was likely vacformed with the separated P1 unit so this could explain the lenght difference.



Anyway, 1cm is quite a difference for such an object. 190mm seems to be a good compromise but I have to agree, it looks a bit small. If you look at that picture the TMP hero looks quite big compared to the BN TOS phaser replica.
View attachment 1875135


the WOK/TMP hero has the full repaint and even had the WOK control pad decal but the squares "buttons" were cut out to keep the original colored lights, the brass buttons area were cut as well to keep the original raised bars.

any prismatic tape with square pattern should do the trick
Click to expand...


In my studies, it’s almost looked like the TMP heroes are longer in the rear than the stunts and TWOK versions, with rounder/softer rear edges, whereas the stunts and TWOK dummies-turned-heroes appear to have lost a few millimeters at the rear, and have much sharper rear edges.

The image of my model in the post before yours happens to show it at almost the same angle as the TMP hero in your photo comparing it to Nelson phaser. As you can see, my placement of the control pad and crystal in relation to the emitter looks pretty spot-on, but there seems to be more distance between the crystal and the rear edge of the body on the TMP hero.
 
There’s gotta be something to the idea that the heroes and dummies were slightly different lengths. It’s been speculated that there were different bucks for different versions of the props (dummies with a scribed, faux-P1 separation line, and heroes with actual, separate P1s). Combine that with variations in shell trimming, and you doubtless have different lengths.

I added that extra 13mm to my model (most of it to the rear) to represent an 8” long phaser, and the elongated look seems pretty close to the TMP heroes.

The two TMP heroes are easily distinguishable by the height of their crystal collars. The tall-collar hero (seen in the BN comparison photo, upthread, and in most other TMP hero photos), and the shorter-collar hero. The tall-collar hero appears to have had the belt-clip added at some point, since it’s missing in the BN comparison photo. I dunno offhand which of the two was converted into the Kirk TWOK hero, but I suspect it was the short-collar hero. I’ve based my model on the tall-collar version.



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While I haven’t locked down the shape and size of the body, just yet, I have been working on the separation line for the P1, and early plans to design the model to separate and reattach via magnets.


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Gregatron said:
There’s gotta be something to the idea that the heroes and dummies were slightly different lengths. It’s been speculated that there were different bucks for different versions of the props (dummies with a scribed, faux-P1 separation line, and heroes with actual, separate P1s). Combine that with variations in shell trimming, and you doubtless have different lengths.

I added that extra 13mm to my model (most of it to the rear) to represent an 8” long phaser, and the elongated look seems pretty close to the TMP heroes.

The two TMP heroes are easily distinguishable by the height of their crystal collars. The tall-collar hero (seen in the BN comparison photo, upthread, and in most other TMP hero photos), and the shorter-collar hero. The tall-collar hero appears to have had the belt-clip added at some point, since it’s missing in the BN comparison photo. I dunno offhand which of the two was converted into the Kirk TWOK hero, but I suspect it was the short-collar hero. I’ve based my model on the tall-collar version.
Click to expand...

That's confusing.

Your model and your rear length look quite close from the 7.5 inches two parts dummies yet.

Sans titre.jpg





If I may, are you sure about your control pad dimensions ? I have the impression the HMS/DST control pad is longer than it should, wich might explain why you had to modify the overall length.


I also wonder about how many different bucks were used but the separated P1 bucks could also be put together differently to shape the two parts dummies with scribbed separation line.

I personnaly don't believe the TMP heroes were shaped out the bucks with the separated P1. That configuration doesn't seem to be the best to have a perfect alignement between the P1/rear section. The hero version has kind of an engraved separation line, like if it was done on a smoothshell.
That dummy version looks rather close to the TMP hero in its overall shape and could very well be shaped out of a specific buck.

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Benjo said:
That's confusing.

Your model and your rear length look quite close from the 7.5 inches two parts dummies yet.

View attachment 1875919




If I may, are you sure about your control pad dimensions ? I have the impression the HMS/DST control pad is longer than it should, wich might explain why you had to modify the overall length.


I also wonder about how many different bucks were used but the separated P1 bucks could also be put together differently to shape the two parts dummies with scribbed separation line.

I personnaly don't believe the TMP heroes were shaped out the bucks with the separated P1. That configuration doesn't seem to be the best to have a perfect alignement between the P1/rear section. The hero version has kind of an engraved separation line, like if it was done on a smoothshell.
That dummy version looks rather close to the TMP hero in its overall shape and could very well be shaped out of a specific buck.

View attachment 1875920
Click to expand...

“Confusing” is definitely right. The heroes definitely look like the P1 separation lines were scribed on (or perhaps better-defined after being vacuformed).

The heroes generally look a bit longer to me than some of the others, though, and possibly a bit more tapered at the rear. The more I look at the HMS/DST, the shorter and boxier it looks to me, compared to the actual props.

And, as noted, I’ve been using the DTS for the basic dimensions, including the control pad. Looking at the decals on the stunts, it DOES appear that the DST control pad is wider at both the front and rear, which would make it bigger, overall, and throw the dimensions off.

The current model sits at 203mm long, which looks pretty darn close to that TWOK hero seen in my previous post, in terms of proportions and shapes.
 
The inherent problem is that I don't have a lot of solid data to work with. Sure, I can (and did) make a reasonable reproduction of the DST, but that replica seems to deviate from the originals, in some areas.

And then there are the variants in the actual props. Some are said to be 7.5", some 8". Shapes and details vary. The trimming of the shells resulted in numerous variants.
 
 
Gregatron said:
Looking into some of the auctioned props, this dummy version is said to be a whopping 8.5” long…


…the Jein TWOK hero is said to be 8” long…


…and this dummy 7.5” long.

Click to expand...
I assume you already know but, just in case, the first one is based on the longer/slimmer Miarecki replica, wich is a completely different sculpt. Not the best reference to catch the right size.
 
Benjo said:
I assume you already know but, just in case, the first one is based on the longer/slimmer Miarecki replica, wich is a completely different sculpt. Not the best reference to catch the right size.
Click to expand...

I wasn’t aware. I assumed it was a TMP casting pressed into service during the TNG era.


Anyway, still playing around. I’ve gone back to a 7.5” base length, and have moved around/tweaked some of the details. The position of the crystal, the angle of the P1 separation line, and the length/position of the control pad. The width and taper of the rear end still looks off.

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And, as an experiment, I took the existing model, and just added 13mm to the rear (for an 8”/203mm body).

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Tweaked the rear. The curvature and thickness are looking more on-point, now. The DST version is about 3mm taller than this at the rear, indicating that it’s either inaccurate, or that some versions of the props had their ends trimmed back, with less taper at the end (thus making the ends thicker).

IMG_1995.png
 
Received the steel axle rods for the tricorder, although I somehow accidentally ordered rods that are too short (60mm, when they need to be around 90mm to fit through the entire tricorder body)). That being said, they should still be useful for the purpose of this test.

That being said, they’re really, really thin. I designed the hinge mechanism to be as small and unobtrusive as possible, but I wonder if this isn’t TOO small. We’ll see when the test print comes in.
 
More tweaks to the body. I think the shape is getting very close, now. I also tweaked the shape of the control pad, and modeled the hex-head screws (minus the hex shape) to get a feel for placing them on the control pad, since the pad will need holes to accommodate them.



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I also find myself thinking about how much idealization to employ. As noted, the hex-head screws on both the tricorder and the phaser were tactile switches used to activate the lighting effects. The dummies didn’t have these details, and they probably wouldn’t be features on the “real”, in-universe items.

I’ve already leaned toward not including them on the tricorder, and now I’m wondering about the phaser.

Meanwhile, we know the Kirk TWOK hero was a repainted TMP hero, and so it retained certain hero features, like the colored lights/hex-head switches, etc. But the McCoy/Saavik heroes were TMP dummies retrofitted into “heroes” with lighting effects, which is why they’re missing the crystal collars, have control pad decals, and have the simple trigger studs (instead of the TMP style hero triggers).

Again, in-universe, the Kirk hero is probably more along the lines of how the TWOK phaser should look, but, onscreen, the dummies-turned-heroes got more camera time (particularly in the shot of Terrell raising one of his purloined phasers).
 
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