Day 4 "Learning From Others"

I've been researching this ship for years and I've seen a lot of really good work. So many people have done so many different versions of the Grey Lady that it's almost impossible to name them all. When researching any subject in depth, you have to amass as much information as possible and then start weeding through the errors, or incorrect information. Included in this post are some nice works of others that have went down this path. All credit goes to the original authors and the subject material is only used to learn from.

Dave Shaw did a great job of reviewing the various examples of the Enterprise, in his attempt to come up with a workable draft of the 33" version that was owned by Gene Roddenberry and lost later on. In the process Dave came up to some interesting conclusions. Let's go over some of his work below.

One of the things that Dave came up with is a pretty good example of the different primarily hull layouts, as shown in various publications. He also extrapolated from that info and came up with his version of the primary hull profile.

Dave did comparisons of Alan Sinclair's prints as well as Charles Casimiro's. He did this for every aspect of the ship. I wont show all of the work here, but will show the highlights. Below we can see where he also compared them to the "Polar Lights" 1:1000 instructions. As you can see Alan's prints were pretty close, despite what many may have said.



As stated before, Charles Casimiro's call outs give us a lot of information in one sheet.


One of my favorite representations of this ship was done by Jon Heilman. Something about his version really calls to me. For one thing he actually shows some of the details that I had not noticed before, in particualr the color of a few of the windows. Add this to Charles's call outs and we've got even more details that you don't see elsewhere.


Jon gave me permission to use his orthos years ago and I like to show off his work every chance I get. Here's an awesome profile shot.



Our next step is going to be to start drafting the engineering hull and going over some basic drafting techniques. Before we begin, let's look at a few more representations of the actual ship. Here's a decent shot of the rear shuttlebay sans clam shell doors and observation booth.


Let's also have a look at the details on the forward section of the Engineering hull as well. Later we'll get into all of the details of every section. There are 12 of these grills on each side of the engineering hull and none on the bottom. You barely see the last grill, but it's there. I'll have to come up with a better reference at a later date.


Armed with what we have now, I'm sure that we can move forward with the drafting part of this.

Stay Tuned........ =/\=

Day 3 "Learn all that is learnable."

Before I proceed with creating my own prints, I had to nod to a few that have went before me. I started building my own 1/350th Enterprise about three years ago, maybe a little more... I wanted to show that it really isn't all that difficult. It may not be quick and easy, but it is doable. When I first started, like this discussion, I wanted to keep things as simple as possible and use the simplest parts and easiest methods I could come up with, so that others that didn't have my experience could follow. At the time I used Alan Sinclair's blueprints and a card model created by Ron Caudillo, based on those prints. I also used info from Charles Casimiro's blueprints. I'm not going to rely to heavily on either of these, but felt obligated to link to some of the best looking prints available for free. Others have used these prints and the data included and have taken credit for the discoveries included in them. I will not do that. So, here are a couple of links to the prints.

Alan Sinclairs' Prints.

http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/sinclair-enterprise.php

Charles Casimiro's Prints.

http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/ccd-enterprise.php

Charles included a lot of callouts of specific details.

Day 3 "The Basics"

The Enterprise, at its base, is predominantly a collection of cones and spheres. To start with some basic math and geometery go here. http://www.math.com/school/subject3/lessons/S3U4L4GL.html If you follow that page through, you can get a basic understanding of area, circumference, volume and so on. I'll be using basic math and a little trig to go through a few methods and plotting out the plans, but will not load this discussion up with a lot of technical jargon, engineering speak, of techno babble. It just isn't neccesary. If you wish to follow along with this project I suggest you check into some basic drafting and isometric drawing. I'll cover as little of this as possible and will only show what is neccesary for this discussion.

Day 3 "Beginning the process"

Before you can start any project of this nature, you have to have a set of accurate blueprints. Before you can lay out a set of blueprints, you have to have accurate data to go on. Matt Jeffries gave the dimensions of the ship as 947ft long and superimposed a top view of the starship over the CV 65 Aircraft Carrier and this pretty much checks. The actual Starship model resides at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. That seems like the best place to start, with the actual physical model and dimensions. http://www.nasm.si.edu/visit/concessions/shops/enterprise.cfm
On that page you find the dimensions as stated by the Smithsonian staff. Since the had information direct from Paramount, I'd say that settles any dimension dispute. I'm not going to get into the various theorys of what scale was used, or why it was 11' feet long, or any of the rest. For the topic of this blog we will use the data given by the experts and will not engage in an excersise in futility and attmept to rationalize a theoretical ship from a 40 yr old television show. We want to deal with the real model and factual dimensions. There's more information here.. http://www.nasm.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?id=A19740668000 . And here is an X-Ray of the engineering hull. http://www.nasm.si.edu/imagedetail.cfm?imageID=2210 There was much more available at one time, fortunaely I saved every bit of data that was published on the site. Unfortunately, without permission I cannot reproduce that data here until I get permission from the staff at the Smithsonian. This model has been through several different versions and has had more than one *restoration*. I wont take the time to detail all of that here, but will instead go through the references for the production version of the craft and will later get into the separate screen versions. There are a number of helpful photos here http://www.cloudster.com/sets&vehicles/STEnterprise/SmithsonianMiniature.htm . Phil Broad has done a fine job of documenting a lot of information here. http://www.cloudster.com/sets&vehicles/STEnterprise/EnterpriseTop.htm#11foot Check all of the links and enjoy.

Day 2 "Looking back at the TOS Enterprise."

This will be the beginning of creating the TOS Enterprise "Accurate" blueprints.
My goal is to put together a set of accurate prints that people can use to build their scale models and, or CG models. There is plenty of information out there these days and a great many have attempted this and have done quite well. So, why will I try the same thing again? Well, the short answer is that I feel that I can come up with something worthy and I feel that this is something I must do for myself. I'm always willing to hear from others and always open to positive and constructive input from those that speak with authority, but will do my best to confirm everything. I will be building a new physical model from these prints and will be attempting to build one in LightWave at the same time.

Before I begin, I want to make sure that I credit everyone I can and give a list of those who have inspired me. First off, I think Walter "Matt" Jeffries deserves the most credit for designing the original, followed closely by Richard C. Datin and staff for actually building the 11' model. I'll be relying on quotes from Jeffries and data that was originally supplied, more than anything. There have been so many that have put their spin on things, but I believe the original designer should have the final word. Since Matt is no longer with us, we can only go on his notes, statements and blueprints. I've been inspired by a lot of people to work on this project by many who have went before me, the list includes, but is not limited to Eric Fickas (KirkUnit), William Scott Gammans (Professor Moriarity), John Heileman, and many others. Having said all of that, I've been even more inspired by those who say it can't been done and by those that purposely put out false information to muddy the waters. These are the people that inspire me to move forward and do my own work.

I'll be going over every detail while working on this project. I've worked in engineering, fabrication, electrical and mechanical as well as the construction trades since I was a kid. I rebuilt my first carburetor when I was 16 and spent eight years in the U.S. Navy, I have a degree in Electrical Engineering and have taught school both in the service and out. I think all of this gives me a firm foundation for this project and lends me the talents to teach others in the process.

So, let's get on with it, shall we? ...................=/\=

Depot 47 The New Website =/\=

Stop on by the new website http://kirktrekmodeler.websitetoolbox.com/ it's still a work in progress, but it's going be updated within the next few days and will be updated regularly after that. Everyone is welcome to view, but we are keeping security tight. We want to avoid some of the issues that are prevalent in some modeling forums and want to provide an enjoyable atmosphere for all of our members.

Still Trekkin After all of These Years! =/\=

Day 1 "The New Begining" Trekkin Forward...

Greetings and Felicitations, welcome to the newest venue for my artwork, models, electronics, drafting, CG, and design work! =/\=

Though this is only day one and there isn't anything much to look at, there will be plenty as we move forward together through any number of projects and look back in retrospect at previous works of art, model construction and so on.

Hang on tight and expect a wild ride......... Whoosh..... Keep on Trekkin!