When Jim and I started doing research on this ship we looked at every reference available. I mean EVERY reference. We looked at the Kerr plans and discounted them outright, we looked at Mark Dickson's photos, we looked at every set a blueprints we could find.... We looked at other peoples CG Enterprises... We took a long, close look at the existing models and found that that every one of them was inaccurate at some point, or another and that even the much acclaimed Polar Lights kit, beside it's engineering flaws was also not accurate in certain things. Virtually every representation of this ship that was available, even the DE files didn't pass muster, at least not the Uber-anal muster that all of the fanboys expect. This is when we had to find a source of files that we knew were accurate. Since I had worked for more than one website doing graphics, art and screen captures of various Trek series and movies I went back to that method and set the resolution to maximum and whenever we had an issue, or point of contention, we referred back to the screen captures.
When I started work on the TOS 1/350th Enterprise, all I went by in the beginning were the Alan Sinclair prints, later I started looking at the Casimiro prints. Later, when I started to try and get more and more accurate and get more and more detail I went to screen caps of the TOS Enterprise as well as the dimensions given at the Smithsonian site. After awhile, I realized that with the proper methodology, you can indeed use screen captures to get a lot of detail and come very close to what you are looking for, if you have the patience to keep at it and dissect the image properly. So, when it came to this point on the Refit, it was pretty much a no brainer.
This is really where it all began, as I alluded to in the first post of this particular blog and as much as some people really hate it. I came damned close for a first time scratch build with no real references other than what I've already mentioned.
If you look at this movie, you'll see how the whole thing kicked off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91ntjn7Ailk Just copy and paste in your browser.
Additionally, if you look at this blog, which seriously needs updating and editing, You see the basics fo how I worked on the TOS, the 47" TOS and how I helped with the Refit.
http://kirktrekmodeler.blogspot.com/2010/01/day-2-looking-back-at-tos-enterprise.html
There have been more than a few who have poo pooed my methods, but they are based on sound engineering and modeling methods, regardless of what some may say. BTW, the Resin-ignoratti have been keep and eye on this thread for some reason. LOL!
Back to the Refit..... First off, Jim and I are both Veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces and both of us have engineering backgrounds that range from simple mechanical to electrical, the software, to computers, to CAD, to CG, to electronics... and so on. So when we took on the mantle of making this ship, we weren't just a couple of novices, we had a real firm basis for what we were attempting.
As luck may have it, after Jim and I had worked on this thing for some time, the actual ship came up for auction at Christy's Auction House. A couple of the more dedicated fans tooks hundreds of photos and were kind enough to post them on the net. Of course we devoured them. After going through all of those photos something becamevery clear.... We were well on our way to having something very special and accurate to bring to the same community that had trashed us, belittled our separate and combined efforts and tried to make a laughing stock of the ship we were creating. We couldn't wait to get this thing done. LOL!
I said in the previous post that we had tried to give away the blueprints. Guess what, we tried to give away the files to this ship as well, all we asked was that people would pay for and send their own CD's. You guessed, crickets once again. Amazing.... Just freakin Amazing.
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