Phase II Enterprise Study Model

[Shaw]

Back in the Summer of 2007 I did a clean up of the one-to-one scale (with the studio model) plans and the additional cross-section and bottom view for the Phase II Enterprise (that work can be found here). I had started in on drafting plans to make a more complete view of the Phase II Enterprise, attempting to fill in the gaps in data from Jefferies' plans with information from photos of Brick Price's studio model. Even with the combination of that data, there remained gaps which needed filling... but I didn't want to pollute the plans with my interpretations, I wanted the plans to be historically accurate with what the artists of Phase II were building. So I shelved the project with the intent to return to it one day.

I had set out to start in on doing research for this project again within the coming year. I knew that to start up again and to be ready to ask the right questions I'd need to go back and reassess what I had done previously and what new data had come to light in the intervening years. Oddly enough, recent events (which I'm not at liberty to discuss) pushed this forward with the possibility of access to new data of the Phase II Enterprise that should be able to fill in gaps that stopped my previous work.

At any rate, I work better with a three dimensional representation of what I'm working on (that is, I work better with a physical representation), so I started in on building a study model. The model itself will be about 1/500 scale and the primary hull and secondary hull are heavily modified parts from the AMT/ERTL refit kit. All other aspects of the model are scratch built, and considering the amount of effort required to modify the few AMT/ERTL parts I used, I should have scratch built those sections as well (live and learn).

I've made a ton of progress in my research and now have a pretty good idea of what Jefferies had intended for the Enterprise to look like. That research has also shown that the Price/Loos studio model deviated from Jefferies' version in a number of spots (most likely because of the time pressure to finish the model and Jefferies' lack of availability). Because of this, what had originally been a project to draw up a single set of plans has now been divided into two projects, one documenting the Jefferies' designs and the second the Price/Loos studio model.

My study model should mainly reflect Jefferies' designs, but as the model has been a research tool and I'm also not really that much of a model builder to begin with, it won't be the perfect representation of Jefferies' design… just the best I can do at my skill level.

I started the model back in October, and it has reached a surprising (at least to me) level of completion.

Click to enlarge​

It only has a single nacelle right now because it was easier to build one, make a mold and then cast two nacelles that matched each other than it would have been to scratch build two. I'm pretty close to making the molds off the master nacelle and only have a few other elements to finish building (including the phaser assembly at the base of the dorsal).

Between the added information I've gotten and the process of actually building a physical model from Jefferies' plans, I've learnt a lot more about the Phase II Enterprise than I had from the clean up project I did back in 2007. This was a really cool design and I think would have been great to see on screen (even in the form that Price and Loos had built it).

At any rate, just thought I'd share this with you guys.

 

[Albertese]

Awesome! Good to see you around again. For a self-described inexperienced model, you did a damn-fine job with that build.

--Alex

 

[Kaiser]

This is Epic!

Like Forbins's or Feynman's Shipyards level of Epic

 

[sojourner]

Looks great Shaw! Good to see you again!

 

[Mario de Monti]

WOW, that´s really something. Love the overall shape and how the nacelle turned out, great job

Thanks for sharing, looking forward to more.

 

[Robert Comsol]

This was a really cool design and I think would have been great to see on screen (even in the form that Price and Loos had built it).

Great work and good to see you back at the Trek BBS (though we never "met" but given our "mutual" interests and October 2012 project starting points, this may change?).

Yes, it is a really cool design and IMHO one that would have more credibly conveyed the notion that we are looking at a refit and not "a totally new ship" (according to Decker in TMP).

Which reminds me of the sketch that Andrew Probert once made. He sketched a TOS Yorktown as a test-bed vessel with some of the new technologies implemented in the final movie Enterprise for a fan production. Starlog Magazine had an article on that.

Bob

P.S.
And in Jefferies' World that would have been "NCC-1701-A" as the "1st Upgrade and Modernize" according to his original TOS sketch.

 

[Mario de Monti]

Yes, it is a really cool design and IMHO one that would have more credibly conveyed the notion that we are looking at a refit and not "a totally new ship" (according to Decker in TMP).

Absolutely, I agree. And I guess Andrew Probert may have felt the same way, since he suggested his new TMP Enterprise be designated NCC-1800, IIRC.

Which reminds me of the sketch that Andrew Probert once made. He sketched a TOS Yorktown as a test-bed vessel with some of the new technologies implemented in the final movie Enterprise for a fan production. Starlog Magazine had an article on that.

WHERE can one see that sketch? Could you post a link?

 

[publiusr]

Yeah, I'd like to see that too.

I like Shaw making the Phase II look more back to TOS. Most Phase II efforts point more to TMP.

He has made the refit secondary hull even more streamlined in giving the shuttlebay the TOS treatment. You might want to include the sketch you made at fed-ref and hobbytalk (I think) of the saucer hull here too.

Now I seem to remember one of Jeffries TMP sketches showing what looked to be a small impulse deck at the aft base of the saucer support dorsal.

Now you are making a pho-torp tube that can be added on the front or left off at one's discretion. I wonder if you could test mount it on the back too.

I remember a Daedalus model that had a similar neck mount impulse exhaust.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

The Yorktown fan film is in production. Interestingly enough, this is the fan film which starred George Takei and James Shigeta among others.

Details about it can be found here: http://www.orionpressfanzines.com/fanfilms/yorktown.htm

A trailer featuring the Yorktown is available here:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/mswALTOF5Hg

Additional info can be found on their FaceBook page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/yorktownmovie/

 

[Robert Comsol]

Since you asked for it, here it is (Andrew Probert's sketch for the testbed USS Yorktown).

Andrew said he had a colored version of it but would have to look for it, so hopefully this one will do for the moment.

 

[Sarvek]

Nice looking ship. I did not know that Probert designed her. She is very unique is design. Was this to be the original Yorktown that Rodenberry had mentioned for the original series? It is really nice to see a ship like this.

 

[Kaiser]

Nice lookin ship there Thanks for sharing

 

[Mario de Monti]

Thanks a lot, this is really something

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Awesome! Really love the PII design. The one used on the fan series of the same name isn't quite as accurate as this one so it's great to see it realized!

 

[Robert Comsol]

Nice looking ship. I did not know that Probert designed her. She is very unique is design. Was this to be the original Yorktown that Rodenberry had mentioned for the original series? It is really nice to see a ship like this.

I think not. "Yorktown" was the original name candidate for the original series which then got changed to "Enterprise".

According to Richard Arnold at one of the conventions I visited, the Yorktown was the "refit" starship that underwent a name change and became the Enterprise NCC-1701-"A" at the end of Star Trek: The Voyage Home.

How this holds up "in-universe" with the Yorktown of the aforementioned fan production from 1986 I don't know, but apparently it was considered to be some kind of testbed for the starship refits we saw in TMP and TWOK.

Bob

 

[Mytran]

I'd also like to add my admiration for your work so far Shaw - and that the missing nacelle allows a very nice look at the shape of the pylon. I had no idea it was so organic and flowing.

 

[Praetor]

Very fine work, sir. I can't wait to see her finished.

 

[sojourner]

Holey Moley! It's Praetor! Long time no see!

 

[Shaw]

Thanks guys!

I'd also like to add my admiration for your work so far Shaw - and that the missing nacelle allows a very nice look at the shape of the pylon. I had no idea it was so organic and flowing.

Funny you should bring that up, because this is one of the biggest differences between this model and the studio model. And it is also one of the best illustrations of why building this model has been so helpful in my research.

Back in 2007 when I was first looking at the plans I assumed that the nacelle support pylons were flat. And it looks like Price/Loos made the same assumptions when building the studio model. But as I looked closer at the drawings Jefferies had made I saw the sorta wing like cross section I had overlooked before.

Similarly, I had thought (like Price/Loos) that the dorsal pylon edge had a bend in it just before reaching the phaser assembly (which was changed to the torpedo assembly for TMP). Actually, there isn't a bend at all, there is a thin sharp edge support bridging the gap. And this makes sense because the phaser assembly is actually only as thick as the widest part of the dorsal.

Because Jefferies wasn't easily accessible during the construction, and the fact that he packed a ton of information into a relatively small area (a significant amount of the one-to-one scale plans for the 5' 4" studio model were on a single 24" x 36" sheet), some of this stuff was missed. Still, the studio model was a very good representation of Jefferies final design. I had noticed during one set of progress images that I had caught an angle similar to that taken of the studio model under construction, and even though I've been favoring Jefferies' design, the two looked quite similar.

Here is a comparison I did of the Phase II dorsal (with the vertical edge) with the TMP dorsal.

Click to enlarge​

Much of this I had missed when I was just looking at the plans. When I started having to figure out how to build what was on the page, these details started to pop out at me.

But yeah, I like the more organic feel of the cross section of Jefferies' dorsal and support pylons. It might not be something that would have been that noticeable (when compared to how the studio model was being built), but it shows how much thought Jefferies was putting into this design.

Now I seem to remember one of Jeffries TMP sketches showing what looked to be a small impulse deck at the aft base of the saucer support dorsal.

Now you are making a pho-torp tube that can be added on the front or left off at one's discretion. I wonder if you could test mount it on the back too.

Yeah, early on Jefferies tried out a number of ideas (including extending the base of the dorsal along the spine of the secondary hull and having the nacelle supports attach to it).

The problem is that the dorsal has the same wing like cross section as the nacelle support pylons (thick and rounded in the front narrow and squared off along the back) and the assembly also intersects the secondary hull, so getting it to just fit from the front has been a challenge.

 

[JES]

I remember seeing Jefferies' sketch where the dorsal spine was extended to mount the nacelles pylons. A very interesting concept.

I see what you mean, by how Jefferies' concept Enterprise for Phase II had the neck have this aircraft wing-like shape when viewed from above, and how it is curved and slightly teardrops from fore to becoming flat edged at the aft.
But this sort of detail isn't surprising when you consider that Jefferies had the bottom of the saucer go from flat, to curving upwards, and then curving into a bowl shape that bulges from the bottom of the saucer section.