My model of the USS Enterprise is based mostly on the plans drawn by
Alan Sinclair
(revision C, if you want to be really pedantic). As far as I can tell, his plans are
a near prefect representation of the original eleven-foot long model of the
Enterprise that now lives in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC
(which I've been to see, and can I just say how much I hate the paint job it's been
given).
I've deviated from the plans in a few places however. In some cases this is simply
due to a lack of talent on my part, but the following differences are deliberate:
- The command section (that's the teardrop-shaped bulge on top of the saucer)
is wider and more rounded at the back than shown in the plans. My version is based
more on the diagrams contained in the Starfleet Technical Manual first published in
1975. I just prefer it like this.
- I have reduced the size of the running lights on the saucer. I think that the lights
on the original model were disproportionately large so that they were bright
enough to see on TV; in reality I feel they would be smaller.
- On the rear ends of the warp nacelles my model has the pattern of holes that the
TV model had in the second pilot episode, rather than the large protruding spheres
that it was given for the series proper. Again I just prefer it like this. I will do
a version with spheres instead of holes one day.
- I've built the shuttle bay doors as a set of overlapping leaves so that they
can slide open. This is not how they actually were on the original model, but is
how they were meant be. The doors on my model can in fact be opened, but to little
effect since I haven't modelled the interior of the shuttlebay (yet).
The name and registration number on my model can easily be changed to be those of any of the
Constitution class heavy cruisers, or anything else for that matter.
