In 1992, the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum
hosted
a special exhibit celebrating 25 years of Star Trek. As part of
that exhibit, the 11 foot filming model of the Enterprise was
restored
by Ed Miarecki of
Sci-Fi
Modeling Associates. Ed, who built props and models for movies and
TV shows, including Star Trek: The
Next Generation and Deep
Space 9,
repaired, re-wired, re-lit and re-painted the big
model
and replaced incorrect or missing parts to get it to look as it did in
the 1960s when Star Trek was in production.

Above photo from Air & Space
Magazine
Since I was also conducting a restoration of sorts, I wanted to get a
look
at the newly restored studio model with the idea of further improving
the
accuracy of my own Enterprise. In late 1992, I returned to
Washington
DC and took a lot more photos.
The latest restoration left the Enterprise looking much
different
from when I last saw it three years earlier. All of the lights were lit and it was
nice to see the spinning warp drive effect working. New parts and
details
were fabricated to correct inaccuracies. Most notably, rather than
being
painted a single, unbroken shade of gray, the big model now sported a
multi-tone
paint job, showed some weathering and had a prominent network of grid
lines
covering most of its surface.
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