The Tolstoy…

BolianAdmiral

Well-Known Member
So, I’m taking a wee break from the Trieste, and working on my first “commission” piece, for a very dear friend - the U.S.S. Tolstoy, from TNG’s “The Best of Both Worlds”. Luckily, this is a very simple and straightforward build. I’ll be using the same black primer/window masks technique to make the windows. I plan to include all the Starfleet arrowheads and stripes, but unless I can find someone willing to create decals for the name and NCC number, those will be left off.

B766F17D-1447-4606-AA91-9314B5DC72D0.jpeg

342E085D-9F41-46BF-AFF9-1A73B956F2EE.jpeg

041C2CA1-867E-4C56-BB95-45047B355D94.jpeg


For those who are unfamiliar with the Tolstoy, here’s a link with photos of the studio model. I’d be really interested to know if anyone’s ever been able to identify the ship in the Wolf 359 footage from the TNG HD Blu-ray.


- BolianAdmiral
 
Interesting approach. Just want to make sure you're aware this isn't a studio model you linked to. No model for the Tolstoy was made for BoBW, as the line was changed in post for Shelby's voice-over from "Chekov", which the producers thought was too cute a reference, so they went with a different Russian author. The Chekov WAS in the graveyard scene, but the Tolstoy only exists as a dialogue reference... and fan-created designs like the one you linked. :)

That is just to clarify, not dissuade.

My current self-appointed challenge is trying to make the Buran look not-stupid.

ETA: To further clarify, I've been deep into Treknical matters since the old days on usenet (rec.arts.startrek.tech). When that platform went defunct, I wasn't a fan of the early TrekBBS (it has since gotten better), and many of us gravitated to a new online forum (at the time) called Flare (the Solar Eclipse sci-fi forums!). Ah, the late '90s were an interesting time. Bernd Schneider, who went on to establish the Ex Astris Scientia site, has an article on said site compiling a lot of the research we did on Flare into the BoBW ships. I still stick my head in from time to time, but, since Voyager went off the air, I have had little interest in the more recent stuff coming out.

I know the guy who made that model and posted that image gallery. Here's his post from a couple years ago on the matter:

So here's the story on this model.

Back in the early 2000's when the 'Wolf 359 research' was going on, one of the contributors was a guy named Markus Nee. Here's his website, although it hasn't been updated in 17 years [as of 2019]:

MCN's Starship Models Page

Anyway, Markus mentioned that he was in the same modeling club as Ed Miarecki, who built the BoBW kitbashes. Markus even said that on several occasions he'd even go over to Miarecki's house, where he saw the construction of some of the kitbashes first-hand. I once had asked him if he'd seen any other models that never made it to the 'fleet' of study models that Miarecki made for Okuda. Markus told me that he did indeed see an unfinished model, which he described as "two Enterprise-D saucers stacked on top of each other, with nacelles in between, like the Federation version of the Romulan warbird." (Paraphrasing here.)

That was the extent of his description to me, and I assumed that he specifically meant the model was made from two large 1/1400 Enterprise-D saucers and two 1/1400 nacelles on either side between the saucers, to mimic the look of the warbird.

However, apparently Markus later gave a more specific description to someone else who posted a diagram on his now-defunct blog: That the model was in fact made from two smaller 1/2500 Enterprise-D saucers, with only one larger 1/1400 nacelle in between them:

http://shipschematics.net/startrek/images/federation/superscout_cerebus.jpg

Again, this diagram was just made by the blogger, not Markus, so it's unknown whether the proportions were correct. Obviously I decided to place the nacelle closer to the inside of the saucer to make a more compact ship, and then added the larger bridge dome, captain's yacht and shuttlebay doors from the 1/1400 model to scale the ship down to the same size as the Chekov, Ahwahnee, etc. I didn't want to actually cut into the model to create battle damage so I added 'scorch marks' by mixing black paint with water and dousing the model with it. The name and registry decals were custom-made and were not cheap.

The models built for and used in BoBW were the Melbourne (Nebula-class), Chekov (Springfield-class), Ahwahnee (Cheyenne-class), Buran (Challenger-class), and Kyushu (New Orleans-class) -- all built by Miarecki with assistance from some of the Art Department -- and the Princeton (Niagara-class), and Firebrand (Freedom-class) -- built by Greg Jein's model shop. There was also a Type-VII shuttle from a "USS Liberator". Additionally, not built specifically for this, but several pre-existing Excelsior study models were thrown into the mix, along with the separated saucer and engineering hull of the self-destructed Enterprise from TSFS.

[EDITed again to clarify who built what.]
 
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Interesting approach. Just want to make sure you're aware this isn't a studio model you linked to. No model for the Tolstoy was made for BoBW, as the line was changed in post for Shelby's voice-over from "Chekov", which the producers thought was too cute a reference, so they went with a different Russian author. The Chekov WAS in the graveyard scene, but the Tolstoy only exists as a dialogue reference... and fan-created designs like the one you linked. :)

That is just to clarify, not dissuade.

My current self-appointed challenge is trying to make the Buran look not-stupid.

ETA: To further clarify, I've been deep into Treknical matters since the old days on usenet (rec.arts.startrek.tech). When that platform went defunct, I wasn't a fan of the early TrekBBS (it has since gotten better), and many of us gravitated to a new online forum (at the time) called Flare (the Solar Eclipse sci-fi forums!). Ah, the late '90s were an interesting time. Bernd Schneider, who went on to establish the Ex Astris Scientia site, has an article on said site compiling a lot of the research we did on Flare into the BoBW ships. I still stick my head in from time to time, but, since Voyager went off the air, I have had little interest in the more recent stuff coming out.

I know the guy who made that model and posted that image gallery. Here's his post from a couple years ago on the matter:



The models built for and used in BoBW were the Melbourne (Nebula-class), Chekov (Springfield-class), Ahwahnee (Cheyenne-class), Buran (Challenger-class), and Kyushu (New Orleans-class) -- all built by Miarecki with assistance from some of the Art Department -- and the Princeton (Niagara-class), and Firebrand (Freedom-class) -- built by Greg Jein's model shop. There was also a Type-VII shuttle from a "USS Liberator". Additionally, not built specifically for this, but several pre-existing Excelsior study models were thrown into the mix, along with the separated saucer and engineering hull of the self-destructed Enterprise from TSFS.

[EDITed again to clarify who built what.]
If you have Contact with Bernd, you may wish to alert him that I sent him an email he may be interested in. Never heard back from him, and I’m not gonna bug him.
 
I’d like to ask for a bit of help here… would anyone happen to have two extra/spare decal sheets from the 1/1400 Enterprise-D they’d be willing to donate for this build? I need two of the Starfleet arrowheads, and both pairs of nacelle pinstripes, as well as two of the markings that surround the tractor beam emitters. If anyone can help, it’s appreciated. I’ll gladly cover shipping.
 
Trying to get my head around the kit(s) you're building...

First, are they both the same scale? The saucers look different sizes...

Second, what kit(s) are they?
 
Trying to get my head around the kit(s) you're building...

First, are they both the same scale? The saucers look different sizes...

Second, what kit(s) are they?
The two saucers are the 1/2500 scale 1701-D. Added to those two saucers are 1 1/1400 scale 1701-D bridge, 2 1/1400 scale 1701-D captain’s yacht tops, and 1 1/1400 scale 1701-D captain’s yacht bottom. The warp nace is constructed from two top halves of the 1/1400 scale 1701-D nacelle.
 
The two saucers are the 1/2500 scale 1701-D. Added to those two saucers are 1 1/1400 scale 1701-D bridge, 2 1/1400 scale 1701-D captain’s yacht tops, and 1 1/1400 scale 1701-D captain’s yacht bottom. The warp nace is constructed from two top halves of the 1/1400 scale 1701-D nacelle.

LOL no wonder I was confused!
 
PM me. I cleared out my Air Force base BX back around '96 when they had a bunch of hobby stuff clearanced. Eight Enterprise-D kits for under ten bucks each. Some are being converted to Nebulas, some are going to be Galaxys, and a couple are just parts donors. All of the decals I upgraded, so I have all the decal sheets still. :)
 
PHArchivist -- and anyone else who's fuzzy on the details -- here's a thumbnail of what went down...

Back around 1989/90, the Art Department of TNG (well, Mike Okuda, really) had one of the people they knew make a bunch of concept models for potential new ship classes to add into the show so they could stop re-using the Excelsior and Grissom miniatures. This guy, Ed Miarecki, got a bunch of the AMT/ertl 1:1400 scale Enterprise-D and 1:2500 scale Enterprise three-ship set (but only for the -D) model kits and went to town. At least nine models were constructed, often using the bridge module from the larger kit on a saucer from the smaller to force-scale them into smaller ships of the same technological generation. One group of three similar models got picked, refined, and ultimately debuted in TNG's fourth season as the Nebula class. The rest were set aside.

Then the fourth season premiere happened, where the Enterprise arrived too late and found the wrecked remnants of the forty Starfleet ships (and, later retconned, some Klingon ships) that Admiral Hanson had mustered to try to stop the Borg from reaching Earth. To populate the debris field, the Art Department grabbed many of Miarecki's study models, gave them names and decals, and thoroughly, ah... "distressed" them. They also called in Greg Jein's shop (who had built the Enterprise-C last season, and built both the Nebula class ship and the new, smaller Enterprise miniature for the new one coming up) to make a couple more to toss in.

Jein's ships were the Princeton and the Firebrand:
niagara-freedom.jpg


While Miarecki's models became the Kyushu, Buran, Chekov, Melbourne, and Ahwahnee:
neworleans1-rick.jpg

challenger3-rick.jpg

springfield3-rick.jpg

nebula3-rick.jpg

cheyenne2-rick.jpg


Along with these ships -- suitably trashed -- they also threw in some older concept models from the aborted "Planet of the Titans" TV movie project, the "destructed" Enterprise saucer and secondary hull (separated) from Star Trek III, a few bits of nearly-unidentifiable debris, and a wrecked Type VII shuttlecraft from a ship of unknown class named Liberator.

A couple years later, the pilot for Deep Space Nine showed a bit of the active battle, newly filmed, with the addition of Sisko's Saratoga prominently featured, as well as the Nebula-class Bellerophon, Ambassador-class Yamaguchi, another re-use of the good old Grissom miniature -- called out as the Bonestell in the script, and a now-Excelsior-class Melbourne, with the same registry as the proto-Nebula-class ship pictured above. Made even more problematic by that wrecked Nebula-class Melbourne ALSO being used in that sequence (seen drifting above the Saratoga as Sisko's lifeboat launches from the shuttlebay). Since the footage of the Excelsior-Melbourne getting taken out by the Borg was re-used for the Roosevelt in Voyager's "Unity", I happily mentally relabel that ship appropriately and keep the Melbourne a Nebula.

Then there were other production issues. The script for "Emissary" called for an Apollo-class Gage that ended up not being in the episode and, as far as anyone can determine, was never designed or built. In "Best of Both Worlds, Part 2", Shelby was supposed to call out three of the wrecked ships she could identify on the viewscreen as the Chekov, Kyushu, and Melbourne. After everything was filmed, someone higher up thought the Chekov reference was too cute and mandated a re-dub, so they went with a different Russian author and "Tolstoy" was added in post. No model was labeled as such, and none of the models used was intended as such. As I posted above, one of the members on a forum I have been on since the late '90s knew Miarecki and saw the various kitbashes, including the ones that didn't get used in the show. One of those he decided was the Tolstoy, and this model is based on a blueprint created by someone else from his verbal description of the kit-bash Miarecki had built.

In the end, though, my biggest frustration is that we still only have eighteen of the forty ships that were there -- in name or in model or both. I dearly want that to be filled in -- well -- at some point. I personally think this double-saucered monstrosity is engineering nonsense, but I appreciate good workmanship regardless. :)
 

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