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The first time I saw the U.S.S. Excelsior I new that I had to build her. The color scheme alone was striking and begged for a
challenge.
This is the quarter front view of the ship I assembled after watching as much video and looking at as much of the material available a few years ago that was on the internet. I especially enjoyed the alternating bands of color around the bridge. I used a Testors Paint Pen for the alternating panels of blue and silver. The kit is an AMT/ERTL polystyrene that I purchased as soon as it was available. It sat in the box until I could summon the time and courage I knew it would take to do it up nicely.
The side shot shows a couple of things that stike the eye from the very moment you first see her. First of all, the lower hull looks a lot more elegant than the later versions of this ship
seen in the movies and tv series...especially underneath the sensor dish. Personally I like this look. Her back looks almost
the deck of an old sailing vessel and the neck of the ship makes a very strong presence to the eye.
I like this top down view because it shows the new look of the nacelles. It's something that I
think was incorporated nicely into the Enterprise-E when it came time to come up with a new look for the Soveriegn class. The blue parts of the nacelles was painted from the inside using Tamiya
Color #X-23 to give it a nice glow. I know that there are probably a lot of modelers who would like to spend a lot of time accurizing the Excelsior. For me, she looks beautiful and didn't
need to much work. The inpulse engines are a little sharp out of the kit and needed to be sanded down a bit to take a bit of the edge off the corners, but other than that, I didn't have to do much
more other than just enjoy myself putting her together and getting what I think is a nice paint scheme.
Tim Roy
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