SCALE: 1/535

INITIAL RELEASE: 1991

MEDIUM: Polystyrene

RARITY: 2

My name is Thorsten Scholz, I’m 30 years old and I live in Kassel, Germany.

I’ve been building models since I was ten years old. My other models included trucks, sports cars, sailing ships, TV series models (Knight Rider, Airwolf, Eagle form Space:1999). But I stuck to Star Trek models for the past few years. So far I have build the classic (two times), movie (three times) and TNG (twice) Enterprise, USS Voyager (once) and the Klingon Bird of Prey (once). I keep the actual model with me and sell the old ones to friends. Future projects include the classic Cutaway Enterprise (AMT), NX-01(PL), USS Defiant (AMT), Enterprise-E (AMT) and USS Reliant (AMT) as well as the Bandai Refit Enterprise.

This is the AMT/ERTL movie Enterprise-A.  The box includes the Galileo shuttle craft, which I did not build since it’s not in scale to the Enterprise model.

As far as people are telling me it’s supposed to be 1/537 in scale, though I don’t know if that’s for true. The kit was released in ’91 when ST VI:TUC was in theatres, but rested half done in a closed until mid last year.

Since this is not the "smoothy" (ST:TMP release), I had to sand down all the wrong panelling first. Warp pylons, warp nacelles, bridge sensor dome, photon torpedo launcher, main deflector, hanger bay doors, bay door control room, impulse engine, docking ports and the dorsal it self have been modified to resemble to studio model more accurately. Missing landing foot, saucer docking port and cargo hatches have been added and the kits decals have been substituted by Federation Models decals.

The kit also features a scratch build VIP lounge and botanical gardens. The planetary sensor is the only thing that doesn’t belong to the original kit. I swapped it for the Reliant’s planetary sensor, since it’s closer to the studio model. The Aztec is hand made and took about two weeks to complete. This is a “studio model looks” paint job, thus the colors are tightly based on pictures of the actual studio model; those can be found at http://www.cloudster.com/Sets&Vehicles/STMPEnterprise/STMPEnterpriseTop.htm.

I mention it because a lot of people try to recreate the “on screen look” on their models and therefore expect different detail colors. As you can see the model is fully lit, including the spot lights and navigational/positioning lights. Originally I planed on including a means to create the lower saucer registry number spot light, but abandoned the idea when Polar Lights(PL) announced the 1/350 Refit Enterprise (will try that on her instead). The whole model took eight month to complete and is the centrepiece in my model collection.