Revell 1:600 U.S.S. Enterprise
Greg Jein's 50th anniversary design
- Scala:
- 1:600
- Stato:
- Completato
- Iniziato:
- April 2, 2023
- Completato:
- May 7, 2023
- Tempo impiegato:
- 37 days
This is the notorious Revell Enterprise that's covered in gridlines - it even has gridlines where no gridline has gone before! 😄 Basically it's a kit of Kirk's Enterprise that is based on the model that Greg Jein designed and built for the 50th anniversary Trek episode (Deep Space Nine, "Trials and Tribble-ations").
In the episode they needed new shots and angles on the exterior of the ship, so they got Jein to build a new model. And for some reason, probably a complex legal one, he had to make his Enterprise model subtly different. It looks like he modeled it on the Smithsonian's 1991 restoration of the original filming model, which includes the original pencil grid lines on the saucer, which he then extended to the engineering hull and pylons too. There are some other subtle differences in the shapes of the thing too, including a pendulous lower saucer half that looks most like the Enterprise as it appeared in Star Trek The Animated Series (TAS).
And so here we are today! The way I understand it is that for their European market, Revell apparently could only license this 'weird' Enterprise design from the anniversary episode. Many Trek modelers hate it, but when they build it they tend to agree that the tooling and precision is fantastic, and that it fits together superbly well. The kit is also designed to be lit up, for which you can buy an optional lighting set, or do what I'm going to do and jam loads of cheap LED tape inside it.