Reworking AMT-Ertl's U.S.S. Enterprise Kit, chapter 8

This Old Starship Kit

In 1992, the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum opened 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 re-wired, re-lit and re-painted the big model to get it to look as it did in the 1960s when the show's effects shots were filmed.

Since I was also conducting a restoration of sorts on my own Enterprise, I decided to update and improve the model by researching the newly restored original. In late 1992, I returned to Washington DC and a lot more photos were taken.

Photo from Air & Space Magazine

Visible in these photos are the controversial "Deflector Grid" lines on the saucer and lower hull. These grid lines became a major source of discussion among Trekkies after the 1992 restoration.

On one side are those who claim that the Enterprise never had any such markings and that the surface of the big model was mostly featureless. Others claim that these lines actually were on the model and were never seen because they were washed out by the heavy stage lighting. Many in the middle say that the gridwork was there, that it was just overdone on the restoration or that AMT's kit was correct all along and that the big model indeed had grid lines but only on the top of the saucer.

The question remains whether these lines were there while the big model was being filmed or if they had been added by a later handler of the Enterprise after the show ended production.

Finally, after around 2008 or so, long after I completed the Ertl kit, pictures of the big model taken during the show's production began to circulate on the Internet. Some of the images were from black and white publicity stills which showed the model in great detail against a starry background. These images appeared in the books The Making of Star Trek and Famous Spaceships of Fact and Fantasy and prints were occasionally sold and traded at Star Trek conventions in the 1970s and '80s. One of them was taken from the front and below the model. A cropped version of the image appears on the right. Now we know. Let's move on.

The depiction of the grid lines on the big model led to some lively discussions on internet forums and some unfair bashing of Ed Miarecki's restoration work.

As for any real evidence, it was tough to come by in 1992. Until the internet became what it is today, resources were not as readily available. Because of television image quality of the day, even good prints of Star Trek viewed on what we now refer to as "Standard Definition TV" fail to show any obvious lines on the surface of the Enterprise.

Mr. Miarecki documented his work with many photos, one of which shows a finely drawn gridwork over the entire top surface of the saucer. For preservation purposes, that area had never been painted or altered by the Smithsonian since they had acquired the model in the early 1970s. There's also an image showing a small portion of the saucer's bottom where some paint appears to have worn away revealing a finely drawn gridwork, similar to the markings on the saucer's top but on an area less than a foot across and nowhere else. These and other photos taken during 1992 restoration can be seen on this page on the "Modelers Miniatures and Magic" website.

In September 2014, the 11 foot filming model was removed from the Museum Gift Shop for yet another restoration to be completed in time for Star Trek's 50th anniversary and the model's 2016 inclusion in the museum's Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall. The restoration complete, the Enterprise is now displayed alongside other such historical artifacts as Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, the X-15 rocket plane and the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia.

on to chapter 9:
PAINTING II

chapter 8

TUTORIALS AND KIT REVIEWS