110621 Star Trek 1:350 USS Enterprise Prebuilt #POL978 #ncc1701 #enterprise – YouTube
hi there this is jim from weird nashville and today we’re taking a small side step from our scheduled progression through the various shooting models used in the original star trek series as i was finishing up the first video on the long-lost 33-inch model of the enterprise i became aware of a reproduction of the studio model that could be purchased today and most impressively it came already pre-assembled pre-painted and weathered now somewhere around mid-april of 2020 word leaked the new polar lights model kit was going to be introduced in 2021 and that this model kit would be a pre-assembled and pre-painted version of the 32-inch star trek uss enterprise from the original television series it started showing up in some retailers websites like high performance distributors added on their website when they showed up they were somewhere in the narrative about 450
per model now what you can see on the screen here is some pre-production artwork that was released at that time showing the top and side elevation of the model as well as the box art now polar lights have been selling these kits for about 10 years now you would give them over 150 and they would give you a box filled with pieces as you can see here and then you would work on separating the parts sanding the parts painting the parts gluing them together applying the decals and clear coating the ship and when you were done you would have a ship that would look as beautiful as this that is you might but for people like myself who have no model making capabilities the very best i could ever hope to do was the photo of the unfinished model you now see trust me i’ve tried this since i was a child all the way back in the 1970s and the rock bottom truth is i suck at making models and i sure as heck can’t paint them either so how close do these studio model
reproductions come pretty close in the top right hand corner you see a top-down shot of the original three foot model and then in the bottom left hand corner you see a top down shot on the model that i received now actually as you can see in this next shot they pretty much nailed it this is probably the most screen accurate model i’ve ever owned to date and i’m likely to ever own period and the similarities go beyond the outside and actually are mirrored in the structure itself look here at the main sections that are delivered to you for the final assembly on the left and how the smithsonian recently disassembled the 11 foot model for its restoration on the right i don’t think it’s a coincidence in how the structure fits together it looks to me like polar lights really did their homework on the design now let’s first take a look at some of the publicity shots that were released when the model was first released in stores now this model adds weathering to the paint which is to make it look like it’s not brand new throughout the decades the
idea of what the perfect enterprise looked like was constantly changing even the 11 foot model in the smithsonian was changed three different times each time to make it more attractive for that period although the very last restoration was designed to make it look like it did the day it was used for filming now these next series of shots are very basic it’s a shot of my model on the top and underneath a similar pose with a professionally constructed model by a professional model builder so you’ve got the obvious side shot you’ve got the underside shot coming up underneath the saucer shape coming up underneath the saucer of the enterprise and then of course you have the the dolly down shot that begins as if the enterprise were coming at you but going slightly beneath you and therefore you’re gonna pass over the top of the saucer which is quite a bit actually in the tv series and last but not least we take a quick look at the side of the
pylons where the engineering hall attaches to the top hall so that we can actually see how the little windows are positioned and what things look like between the two the overall structure and everything looks pretty good i do have to admit the one on the bottom looks really really good but all of those bells and whistles it lights up you may have noticed and it probably even makes sounds they cost money the average price today for a custom build of what you see here that lighted enterprise that we’ve been looking at is around fifteen hundred dollars and even if you pay him the fifteen hundred dollars you’re going to wait between five and twelve months for the modeler to build it for you and paint it and ship it back to you depending on two factors what you want done to it and how many other clients he’s doing at the same time okay i really feel i have to mention that there’s a lot of chatter on the net over
the quality control on these models apparently each one’s painted by hand and that’s resulted in quite a few people posting photos of models you see them on the screen here showing damage to the ships and the paint usually it has to do with the paint so that sometimes the ships are scratched at least one youtuber filmed his unboxing saw the marks and decided right there in the video he was sending it back my model did in fact come with two issues the deflector’s dish was broken but a spot of crazy glue fixes it and on the underside of my saucer one of the little fake lights had actually fallen out so i need to put another one of those in it’s about the size a fifth the size of a pea very unnoticeable you really don’t even see it but again everything else was good my paint job was nearly flawless and i can tell you that from the distance that you’re seeing in the video right there and i don’t have it actually rotating but even if i did for someone to look at that model they would not see a single defect