David Shaw’s 22″ Enterprise

Two-Thirds 33 inch Enterprise Study Model

This project started a few years ago as an attempt to document as much of the original 33 inch model of the Enterprise as possible. Studying all the images of the model I could find, I spent a couple months drawing up plans of the model. I knew the plans had errors and omissions, and that the only way to track them down would be to build a model based on them and compare it with the reference images.

The driving motivation behind the making of the plans had always been to have a representation of the model for myself. Not being much of a model builder I decided that I needed to make the task of construction less daunting. I found that by scaling the plans down to two-thirds their original size I could make use of a number of elements of the AMT 22 inch cut-away kit, plus third party parts and decals for it.

After taking inventory of what I had to work with, I determined that I would need to scratch build the primary hull and dorsal. The secondary hull, nacelles and nacelle supports could be used from the kit… though all needed modification. In addition to parts from Don’s Light & Magic, the secondary hull was lengthened by 3/8 of an inch, the inner trench of the nacelles was extended further back by 1/4 of an inch, and the connection points of the supports were moved further below the nacelles (bringing the nacelles closer together).

All of those changes were made pretty early on while I attempted to figure out a strategy for building the scratch sections. Because I still needed to make sure that the parts would work together correctly, I made foam core board stand-ins for the primary hull and dorsal. And when I couldn’t find a good solution for making those parts, I decided to attempt to make them using the stand-in pieces as a foundation. I filled in the stair steps with a paper mache pulp, and then used layers of paper and Elmer’s Glue (and a lot of sanding) to slowly even out the surface.

Throughout the building of the model I would stop, assemble the parts and take photos from approximately the same angles as the images I had of the original. I made notes of what worked, what didn’t and even reworked some parts to help the model be a better match. The notes will be used to improve my plans so that I can at some future date make further attempts, including a one-to-one build using materials similar to the original model.

The images included here are of the final study model (a few of them with some of the reference images of the 33 inch Enterprise) using a friend’s camera.

David Shaw