[fiercegaming]

I guess I have always been curious what the differences in the paint scheme are. I know they used the 7 ft model for movies one through six. The only thing is they had to paint battle damage on it for star trek 3, which means they must have repainted it for ST4-ST6. I am assuming it did not get a brand new paint job, rather just in the areas of the battle damage.


Green Debate (threads)
Time chronology of blue/green color switch?
Enterprise Engineer Green: Myth or Fact?

Enterprise Refit and A Photos
Cloudster Site
Enterprise A (close up shots)
Note: Starts on second page.

 

[spe130]

Search here, lots of info. It's been discussed round and round and round many times.

 

[fiercegaming]

I am sure it has, I guess I could do a little research...thought someone might know off hand.

 

[fiercegaming]

courtesy of cloudster

http://www.cloudster.com/Sets&Vehicles/STMPEnterprise/STMPent66.jpg
See the neck grills (not sure of the correct name) its dark here. Also here the neck is painted just white

http://www.cloudster.com/Sets&Vehicles/STMPEnterprise/ColorPhotos/cSTMPent17.jpg
not dark here on the grills. Here the neck is painted faint blue.

Just a difference I have found.

 

[fiercegaming]

Can someone give the link to the other topics on this? I searched the forum and couldn't find much.

 

[razorwyre1]

The only thing is they had to paint battle damage on it for star trek 3, which means they must have repainted it for ST4-ST6. I am assuming it did not get a brand new paint job, rather just in the areas of the battle damage.

in short, the battle damage for ST3 were decals, which seriously damaged the paint job beneath them when they were removed. the model was almost entirely repainted at that time. at some point after that, stresses on the models hull caused small cracks to appear in the paint so the paint was gone over once again. unless youre being extra-festideous, the main differences between the paint jobs is that the darker areas of the hull (deflector housing, the stongback between the nacelle wings) have a green tint to them on the original paint job, and a blue tint on the "A", and the original paint job is more pearlescent overall.

some physical details have changed from time to time as well, most noticably the 3 structures at the front of the secondary hull whee it connects to the deflector dish housing, and louvers added to the small recessed area at the bottom rear of the connecting dorsal neck between the 2 main hulls. there are others but those are the most apparent.

again there are other small differences, but thats it in breif. all of the differences have been kicked around on the forum in a great number of threads, so have fun digging.

 

[Lloyd Collins]

The refit is 1701 and the A is 1701-A. Any other questions? :devil:

 

[fiercegaming]

Thanks razorwye1, where did you hear that decals where used? Lloyd is that an attempted at saying there pretty much the same or your not sure??

 

[Lloyd Collins]

There are differences. I was being silly. It is alot of searching to see the difference. When I build my refit, it will be the 1701A. Photos of that version are all over the net.

 

[fiercegaming]

Yeah thats very true. The pictures over at cloudster of the refit are in black and white. Oh well I will just have to see.

 

[razorwyre1]

Thanks razorwye1, where did you hear that decals where used?

ive heard that from several sources. i think cinefex magazine was the first place i read it.
the battle damage was peel-and-stick decals, the idea being that after the foilming of ST3, all they'd have to do is peel them off and the ship would be good to go again. however, they didnt bother trying to remove them until well into the making of ST4, and over time the decals had bonded to the paint, so when they went to peel them off, a lot of the paint came off with the stickers.

 

[razorwyre1]

Yeah thats very true. The pictures over at cloudster of the refit are in black and white. Oh well I will just have to see.

well im sure the really fussy modelers would disagree, but when it comes down to it, the differences in the aztec pattern between the refit and the e-a are about negligable. the refit's coloration was far more pearlescent (in the lighter areas of the hull), but other than that, if you just go with greenish greys for the refit and a bluish grey for the e-a for the darker areas of the hull youre safe.
(the pearlescence got toned down a lot during the making of ST2, because the ship was so reflective it made it hard to pull a clean matte shot of it.)
look for posts on the forum just prior to and just after the release of the polar lights model. everybody was gearing themselves up for its release so the topic was debated endlessly at that time

 

[fiercegaming]

thanks again razorwyre1, you don't still have that article do you? It would be intresting to see. So the pearlescent got toned down in the making of star trek 2...I was going to say in the motion picture the ship looked rather shiny in some shots and images. I think I am going to go with the refits paint scheme and build up the refit. I am just in the planning stages right now...I still have that reliant to finish up, taken me awhile, just trying to profect somethings.

 

[fiercegaming]

I have the directors cut of ST1 and behind the scenes of 1 and 2. I am sure it shows the model there--maybe I can see the color scheme from that. I will post pictures later.

 

[Flux Chiller]

decals for battle damage? Seems crazy. They certainly don't look like decals as there is depth to the damage! And why bother when you are blowing up the ship at the end of the film. The idea to resurrect the Enterprise only came late in the day of ST4 production as far as I can remember, intention was for them to use the Excelsior.
When they turned the Excelsior into the Ent B they didn;t worry about being able to convert it back again. In the motion picture industry, you live for the moment and let someone else worry down the line.

 

[razorwyre1]

decals for battle damage? Seems crazy. They certainly don't look like decals as there is depth to the damage! And why bother when you are blowing up the ship at the end of the film. The idea to resurrect the Enterprise only came late in the day of ST4 production as far as I can remember, intention was for them to use the Excelsior.
When they turned the Excelsior into the Ent B they didn;t worry about being able to convert it back again. In the motion picture industry, you live for the moment and let someone else worry down the line.

not always. the original refit model cost a small fortune, far more than a typical model of its size, and way more then the excelsior. (the budget for st:tmp was pretty much carte blance, and the modelmakers went berserk on it. get the cinefex and cfq issues on st:tmp and st2 for more about that) they knew they would want to use the model again, even if it wasnt appearing as the enterprise, and wanted to minimize the amount of repaint and repair work that would be needed. alas that backfired on them and the model neded a complete repaint. (remember they didnt actualy blow up the hero model for the explosion either..... nor was it one of the things up for grabs at the recent sothaby's auction, although the hero of the e-d was and the e-d hero model was also far more expensive and built to last in ways that your typical spfx filming model simply doesnt get.)

a side note: the guys at ilm hated the refit model because of its enormous weight. while a couple of guys could lift the largest millenium falcon filming model onto its mount for shooting, the refit required a forklift.

perhaps the term "stickers" and "decals" is being used loosely... a 3 dimensional decal, while being more like a prosthetic appliance in spfx makeup, is still a decal. (i dont know this one way or or the other.. just speculating.) no matter what, the fact is that it was all superficial and intended to be removed easily, but it didnt work out that way.

i still have the magazine, but its buried deep in my storage unit. your best bet would be to order the back issue on star trek 4. there are other guys on this forum with a far more extensive knowledge of the history of the refit model than i have.

 

[Flux Chiller]

perhaps the term "stickers" and "decals" is being used loosely... a 3 dimensional decal, while being more like a prosthetic appliance in spfx makeup, is still a decal. (i dont know this one way or or the other.. just speculating.) no matter what, the fact is that it was all superficial and intended to be removed easily, but it didnt work out that way.

Yes, I can live with that explanation....

The fact that the model falls apart in storage, gets left under leaky ducts, all that sort of thing, they never really looked after it properly IMHO, despite the model makers' intentions on each project perhaps...the missing/broken impulse grilles at the Christie's sale didn't give a very good impression. Wouldn't it be nice,if it actually ended up in safe hands?

 

[Flux Chiller]

By the way, the hero model was most certainly sold at the Christies auction, hence the masses of close up photos of it doing the rounds at the time (Oct 2006)

 

[fiercegaming]

Flux I am fairly certain the model was not destroyed at the end of three (the physical model that is). Decals does seem odd--I am still alittle skeptical about that. Razor had an article that I would like to see. It looked to me that they painted the battle damage on there, but now since razor told me about the decals it does make sense. It was true that they didn't believe there would be another film after that. I think they just wanted to reserve the history if you know what I mean.

 

[Treadwell]

Another by the way: the Excelsior changes were made to be temporary. Read it Cinefex or something like that. I don't think they were ever removed as it turned out, though.