The saga begins long ago, 1967, to be exact. Star Trek had been on TV for a full season. Though its ratings weren't the best, it was considered one of the most novel science-fiction series ever to air and offered a variety of unique spaceships, the likes of which had never before been seen either in film or on television. It was this year that AMT first released one of the all time, biggest selling model kits ever.
For an excellent article on the history of the AMT kit, see "A History of the AMT Enterprise Model by Jay Chladek" on the CultTVMan website.
My first Enterprise was from that first issue. This was a BIG kit. While most other model kits of the day were under 10 inches long and usually sold for under a dollar, this one was a massive "18 inches long when assembled" and sold for a whopping $3.75! (It wasn't difficult to justify the expense to my parents. My father was a big fan of the show and was actually responsible for my interest in it.) The kit was popular, too - many of my friends also bought the kit at the same time. It became a friendly competition to see who would finish it first.
It was a fun, easy kit to build, even for an 11 year old kid. Though my skills were very limited, I managed to slap the model together and successfully wire up the saucer dome lights that were included with the kit. What little painting I did was based entirely on the photograph of a finished model on the kit's box. (My knowledge of the Enterprise would be based on seeing the show on a 17 inch black and white TV - it would be another couple of years before I would actually see a Star Trek episode on a color television set in a local department store!) I proudly hung the model from my bedroom ceiling. My pride was bolstered by the fact that I was the only one in my group of friends to actually finish the model when others had gotten bored or frustrated with the kit before completion. My enjoyment was such that I went on to build other model kits.
Well, boys will be boys and two years later at the age of 13 I had been introduced to the world of Fourth of July fireworks. Having a fondness for high drama, I was instinctively drawn to the concept of blowing up many of the models I had so carefully assembled and painted, including the Enterprise. (Did you know that an M-80 is a perfect fit inside a warp engine nacelle? I'll bet you do!)
Fast forward 6 years to 1975. The 11 year old is now a 19 year old college student who hasn't built any models since sixth grade. Scale Modeling had been ignored as interests shifted to girls, cars and guitar playing.
Star Trek was canceled several years before but was now more popular than ever thanks to syndication and reruns. A friend of mine was an avid fan who had built the AMT kit himself. Built, that is, but not painted it. Seeing the model, I suggested to him that it just didn't look right and offered to do some very basic painting on it. He was so thrilled by the half-hour paint job I provided that I was rewarded with an Enterprise kit of my own. Using what little modeling skills I had at the time (I had no idea what an airbrush or filler putty was) I did my best to build a Trek-worthy model of the Enterprise. Resources were few. My sole research sources were the book THE MAKING OF STAR TREK by Stephen E. Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry and again, the photo on the box. The only colors of paints used were the most very basic available. The two photos below are of that model.
Of note is the fact that the model is mostly bare plastic with only some details painted on. Decals were applied directly to the plastic without any overcoat. All paint was hand brushed and part seams show themselves proudly. Extra windows were painted on at the whim of the modeler. No attempt was made to correct or modify the kit. Still, I was proud of my work on it. Thirty years later, it is still on display with the rest of my models.
Fast forward again, this time 13 years to 1988. The 19 year old college student is now a 32 year old professional Industrial Model Maker. (How cool is that?!?) I had, over time, acquired Modeling Skills as well as a good portion of the knowledge needed to build better models thanks to co-workers in the model shop where I worked who were more than willing to share techniques and ideas.
I was very interested in seeing what my recently developed skills could do with AMT's kit but had turned my attention to kit-bashing and scratch-building models of my own design like the Millennium Warthog and the Angel's Pencil. I was lacking a motivational push to get started on a kit again. That push came at a model show, the first of many I was to attend.
At the November, 1988 show of the Long Island Historical Miniatures Collectors' Society, I met Ed Dietrich. Ed brought photos of the U.S.S. Lucifer, a modified AMT-Ertl Enterprise kit. (By now, AMT had been bought by the Ertl company which specialized in kits of trucking and farm equipment.) The Lucifer was the "Destroyer-Class" variant on the design which had come to be known as the Constitution Class Starship, seen in Franz Joseph's very popular book the STARFLEET TECHNICAL MANUAL. The black and white photos were a perfect illustration of what can be done with the kit. Seeing Ed's excellent work on the Lucifer was the extra bit of motivation I needed to finally get started.
I was ready. All I needed was a kit (easily acquired) and a plan on how I was going to modify and light it up (not so easy). The first thing I decided to do was take a trip to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum to get a good idea of what I wanted my model to look like.
on to chapter
2:
RESEARCH
introduction chapter 1 chapter 2 chapter 3 chapter 4 chapter 5 chapter 6 chapter 7 chapter 8 chapter 9 chapter 10
The History of Space Exploration
Figures: People, Creatures and Dinosaurs
