[1701ALover]

Maybe this has been posted somewhere, before, and I missed it, but does anyone know how much the 8' studio model of the Refit Enterprise weighed? I know...weird question, but it just popped into my head while looking at some photos taken of her prior to the Christie's action. (And, I'm sure I'm not the only one on this forum who wishes they could have been the lucky one to take her home! )

 

[John F]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the model weighs over 100 pounds, I could be wrong tho...

 

[WarpCore Breach]

I once read that it took 3-4 people to get the Enterprise Refit studio mini onto the stand and a comment it weighed at least 200 lbs... probably mostly because of the armature. I remember it because it was complaining by some of the ILM staff in comparision to "how easy" it was to get the Reliant mini set up - only 2 people, apparently. I don't remember where I read that - that was decades ago - don't think it was Starlog, but another of the ST magazines of that time (in the '80s) Wasn't there some comments from/about ILM because they really hated doing anything with the Refit mini?

 

[X15-A2]

A friend of mine and I removed it from its crate shortly after the first film had wrapped and we could barely lift it. I would say that it was at least 200 pounds at the time but probably more. We almost dropped it...

 

[Guy Schlicter]

A friend of mine and I removed it from its crate shortly after the first film had wrapped and we could barely lift it. I would say that it was at least 200 pounds at the time but probably more. We almost dropped it...

Allan Asherman once said it weighed about 70 pounds but since you actually handled it I'd say that can't be correct and Thank God you didn't drop it!

 

[RSN]

I know ILM hated it for the very reason of weight. They built a smaller, lighter version for non close-up shots. Anybody ever done a study on this overlooked model in the Enterprise line?

 

[geino]

The answer to this question and how much many of the other Star Trek models sold for is found on the Star Trek Remastered DVDs season 1 disk 10 (the last disk from that season.) It is a 2 hour special and they cover the prices for 1701-A, C, D, the Klingon Bird of Prey, DS9, Voyager, and a few others. They also list prices for many of the costumes, and prop items.

They don't cover everything, but they cover enough to answer your questions.

For those of us who are model builders, there are some really good shots of the original studio models, including the Star Trek 3 destroyed 1701 model.

 

[irishtrek]

I know ILM hated it for the very reason of weight. They built a smaller, lighter version for non close-up shots. Anybody ever done a study on this overlooked model in the Enterprise line?

That one was just an AMT kit of the refit they built up and painted.

 

[Trek Ace]

185 pounds sounds right to me, but I'll ask someone who would know first-hand.

 

[HabuHunter32]

I once read that it took 3-4 people to get the Enterprise Refit studio mini onto the stand and a comment it weighed at least 200 lbs... probably mostly because of the armature. I remember it because it was complaining by some of the ILM staff in comparision to "how easy" it was to get the Reliant mini set up - only 2 people, apparently. I don't remember where I read that - that was decades ago - don't think it was Starlog, but another of the ST magazines of that time (in the '80s) Wasn't there some comments from/about ILM because they really hated doing anything with the Refit mini?

The same complaint about was made later about the Enterprise D when they started making the movies. The original plexiglass version was too heavy to move arround and they ended up making a lightweight version for some of the film work. Not sure where I read it but I think that the reason the refit never appeared on STTNG was because they already had one big heavy ship to move arround and did not want to deal with another i.e. the refit. The Reliant was much lighter and appeared on STTNG in various forms. It would have kinda been nice to see the refit on STTNG ! I know how happy I was to see the Reliant even not under that name!

 

[John P]

The 4-foot 1701-D was built for the fourth season of the TV show, IIRC, for the weight/handling reasons stated above. The 6-footer was the only D model used in the TNG movies. It was detailed a bit more with a new paint job for its big screen closeups. Since the D only appeared in one movie, there'd be no reason to build another one.

The 4-footer is regonizable in the series for it's ridiculously heavy 3D paneling detail, often accented with backlighting.

 

[RSN]

The 4-foot 1701-D was built for the fourth season of the TV show, IIRC, for the weight/handling reasons stated above. The 6-footer was the only D model used in the TNG movies. It was detailed a bit more with a new paint job for its big screen closeups. Since the D only appeared in one movie, there'd be no reason to build another one.

The 4-footer is regonizable in the series for it's ridiculously heavy 3D paneling detail, often accented with backlighting.

A lot of the D footage in "Generations" was actually footage shot for "Encounter at Farpoint", 7 years earlier. ILM shot all that footage, in warp, fly-bys and saucer seperation, blue screen theater quality. Smart thinking for them!

 

[Trek Ace]

The only difference being that the ILM stock footage played somewhat slower in Generations than on the TV show, since the film was originally timed for a 30-frame, 1:1 video playback rate as opposed to the 24fps film rate.

 

[razorwyre1]

i remember reading in either cinefex or cinefantastique that the guys at ilm needed a forklift to put it on the filming mount.

 

[geino]

I know for Generations the crash sequence of the saucer was all new because they made a special model for that which was attached to a fork lift and was driven across the terrain to look like it was skimming the surface and finally landing.

The funniest scene from Christie's Auction is them pushing Shuttlepod One across the street in New York City. It was blocking traffic as they did this.

 

[john_trek]

The Generations large saucer model was at the Star Trek Exhibition when it was in Long Beach a couple years back. It was a big puppy.

I had never heard that a Shuttlepod mockup was sold at Christie's. Was that the merely somewhat convincing Shuttlepod from Enterprise, or the flat paneled, not-even-remotely convincing shuttlepod from TNG?

 

[bigjimslade]

I still find it amazing that there are so few details available about the refit's construction. There must have been blueprints to create it.

Obviously, some of it was ad lib'ed (e.g. the tt's, rec deck) but the underlying construction framework must have had a formal design.

 

[irishtrek]

The Generations large saucer model was at the Star Trek Exhibition when it was in Long Beach a couple years back. It was a big puppy.

I had never heard that a Shuttlepod mockup was sold at Christie's. Was that the merely somewhat convincing Shuttlepod from Enterprise, or the flat paneled, not-even-remotely convincing shuttlepod from TNG?

If you look at online images of the Christies auction you can see at least 1 shuttle pod on display prior to the auction. st-bilder would be your best bet for shuttle images from the auction.