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Shortly
after completing the Enterprise model, I made epoxy castings of
the custom vacuform molds used to make the warp drive domes. This was in
the hopes of being able to share what I was able to do with other modelers
and also make a little cash in the still new Garage
Kit industry. The STARSHIP LIGHT-UP KIT by Plastic Things
included all of the parts needed to light up the kit's saucer domes and
add the missing "Aft Navigation Beacon" to the kit. It also came with the
translucent parts necessary to light the warp engines in the same manner
that I did. (Learning from my experience, the kit's warp dome parts consisted
of a streamlined 2-dome arrangement.) An eight
page instruction booklet was included. (Adobe Acrobat Reader required.)
The first and only run consisted of about 25 kits, most of them sold over
a period of about five years in the mid-1990s. Around the same time I had
the Light-Up Kit ready for sale, Ertl had discontinued their 18-inch Enterprise
kit after a successful run of about 35 years. It had been replaced on hobby-store
shelves by a 22-inch "Cutaway" version also by AMT-Ertl and later by an
11-inch,
highly accurate kit of the Enterprise by a company called Polar
Lights.
I had been told of some buildups of AMT's Enterprise using the Light-Up
Kit but to this day haven't seen a single example or photo. If you happen
to be reading this and you have built up the AMT-Ertl Enterprise
with my lighting kit, please, please email me a photo at alanoodle1
"at" optonline.net. With your permission,
I'd even like to post your photos on this website! |
