NCC-1701 TOS Enterprise by AMT-1/650 scale

[trekriffic]

Here's a build of the old AMT Enterprise kit I spent over a year working on back about 6 years ago.
Modifications included extending the stern about 1/4", replacing the opaque kit bussard domes with hollowed out red resin ones, and adding lights. I also build a shuttle bay and Galileo shuttle from scratch.
This represents a Year 5 Enterprise with upgrades to the bussard sensors and deflector dish.

From The Art of Star Trek site...





Motors in the nacelles...

 

[smusno]

ooooooooooooooooooh, she's all grubby.

I love that!

 

[dazed1]

Indeed! The ship looks well used at this point. Definitely time to come home for a refit. Job well done sir! ;D

 

[Igard]

Very cool! I love that shuttle bay!

 

[ModelMakerMike]

As a guy who has also built a few of these.....I must say,
W O W
Very kewl. How much on paper designing did you ahve to do, to motorize the nacelles?
I would like to see a vid. of them turning.
Great job!
My "Republic" is 100% static

 

[Kryptosdaddy]

I missed this, and found it when looking for mine here- you killed me! Thanks for posting the detail on the warp nacelle motors! I used regular marbles! lol

 

[Splashcoat]

Very nice. I like the subtle paint variation.

 

[Glorfindel]

As a guy who has also built a few of these.....I must say,
W O W
Very kewl. How much on paper designing did you ahve to do, to motorize the nacelles?
I would like to see a vid. of them turning.
Great job!
My "Republic" is 100% static

I must say that I built them and sunk them in my pool as a kid with my Godzilla model. I had a very active imagination....just ask my invisible friend.

 

[ModelMakerMike]

I must say that I built them and sunk them in my pool as a kid with my Godzilla model. I had a very active imagination....just ask my invisible friend.

I burnt one of these up once. I started with the nacelles, and zoomed it around the front yard, and as the melting/burning styrene fell off in streams it made that really cool sound.

 

[trekriffic]

As a guy who has also built a few of these.....I must say,
W O W
Very kewl. How much on paper designing did you ahve to do, to motorize the nacelles?
I would like to see a vid. of them turning.
Great job!
My "Republic" is 100% static

Thanks! I really don't think I drew anything up before constructing the motors. I got the idea for them when I was standing in line at a store called Bed, Bath, and Beyond and saw a display of Tootsie Pop candy toys called Spin Pops. Anyway, I noticed the spin rate of the Tootsie Pop was just about right for the Enterprise's warp engines so I bought one and pried it apart. Inside were gears and metal axles small enough to fit inside the model kit. I ended up buying two more of the toys to get enough gears to do the jigs and jags I needed to do to spin the fan blades which were adhesive foil strips stuck to clear styrene "umbrellas" I made using my heat gun and a mold taken from the inside of the kit domes made out of Sculpie. These fit inside a pair of transparent red resin bussard domes I bought off the internet and hollowed out with my dremel. A rheostat switch tied into the deflector dish turns them on and off and doubles as a switch for the grain-of-wheat bulb that lights the shuttle bay. There are 3 flashing and 3 non-flashing yellow LEDs in under each dome. When not spinning the engines pulsate with an orange glow from 3 self flashing yellow LEDs in each engine.

Here's a still of the engine taken with the blades spinning:



As far as a vid of them in operation goes, unfortunately, the port engine has stopped spinning. ???

I could take a video of the starboard engine if that would suffice.

 

[ModelMakerMike]

That's kewl.
I totally like that kind of ingenuity. Finding random things and making them fit a completely different purpose.
And no, I don't really need to see a vid. of them working. It just would have been nice. Due to your description, I can imagine it.
Have you built more of these kits?

 

[trekriffic]

That's kewl.
I totally like that kind of ingenuity. Finding random things and making them fit a completely different purpose.
And no, I don't really need to see a vid. of them working. It just would have been nice. Due to your description, I can imagine it.
Have you built more of these kits?

Yes, re-purposing random objects can be an art unto itself.
I haven't built any more of the 18" kits since completing this one some 6 years ago; although, I do have an unbuilt re-issued kit in the tin box sitting in my stash. It's molded in the most lovely shade of blue plastic, in fact, it's such a nice color that I'd almost hate to paint over it!

Anyway, I'll try to take a quick video and post it soon for everyone to see.

Thanks for the thoughtful comment!

 

[YOULI]

Just AMAZING work !

The choice to give a motorized lighted engine is astonishing, most people choose to make electronics.

I wanted to do the same, using a diamant-shaped light bulb, and motorized it, with a perfect justification : it would be a pilot Enterprise. with the spikes. But never really achieved to find the miniaturized motor that would fit in correctly, plus the engines would have been heavier, and the nacelles more fragiles than ever...

What is your story about that detail ?

 

[trekriffic]

Just AMAZING work !

The choice to give a motorized lighted engine is astonishing, most people choose to make electronics.

I wanted to do the same, using a diamant-shaped light bulb, and motorized it, with a perfect justification : it would be a pilot Enterprise. with the spikes. But never really achieved to find the miniaturized motor that would fit in correctly, plus the engines would have been heavier, and the nacelles more fragiles than ever...

What is your story about that detail ?

Which detail? About the weight of the motors? Well, the motors I used were ones I found by chance at the hobby store. They are HO scale train motors, very high speed. I spent a lot of time trying to come up with ways to slow the spin down electrically but nothing worked until I found a mechanical answer using the gears inside the Spin Pops. As far as weight goes they are fairly heavy for their size but are mounted to the rear of the gearbox assembly close to the point where the strut attaches to the nacelle so they don't apply much torque. I did have to turn them so the long side was vertical in order to clear the indent on the inner half of the nacelle. The struts themselves were reinforced with two sections epoxied side by side thru which 2 sets of wires pass-one set for the lights and one for the motors. With the brass tubing in place you can hold the ship by one nacelle and there's no flexing at all. The struts are super strong.

 

[YOULI]

Super strong struts... Thanks for enlighting me

Again, amazing work !