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Round 2 Models: Random Thoughts
It’s been too long and I’ve got nothing real specific to go on about so let’s see what’s rattling around inside my head.
I’ve been trying to get to those posts about my China trip I promised… wow… two months ago. I’ve run into a snag in getting my video transferred so I can pull images from it and post a little bit of video I took. I haven’t forgotten.
Recently, I’ve been finishing up some of the most complicated decals and instructions we’ll probably ever do for the Enterprise D re-release. I’m not about to count them all but with all of the aztecs and lifeboats, there are well over 200 decals. Diagramming them and making sure I had every one accounted for was mind bending. Now it is onto getting quote requests for 2011 product and sales information for the end of 2010 out there.
The 1:25 Batmobile mockup is nearly finished. There is plenty of refining I would have liked to have done, but time has run out. We’re sticking to a Christmas release date for the snap version. If all goes well, we’ll be showing the first detailed look at the car in our Round 2 Models newsletter that comes out at the end of the month. If you haven’t already, sign-up for the Round 2 Models newsletter on our contact page, so you don’t miss out on this first look.
The new movie Enterprise has hit a delay, but we are trying desperately to get it finished by the end of the year as well. The delay comes from our desire to see the kit engineered from the original CG file from the production company. It turns out, after mountains and valleys, that you can’t get where we wanted to be from where we started (it’s complicated). So, we’re nearing completion on a digital model generated from the CG file that will let us “grow” a rapid prototype of the ship to send to our factory in China. They’ll need to scan it into their computer and add the attachment pins, etc. to create tooling. It had been originally hoped that they would be able to use a digital file from us to cut the tooling from. We still have the benefit of the kit looking as close to 100% accurate as injected plastic will allow us to be.
Hmmm… Did I ever tell you what’s up with the whole Enteprise B/ Excelsior tooling? If I did I probably wasn’t definitive because some people keep asking about it. Basically, the factory tells us the tool they have is solid as in no inserts for parts specific to one ship or the other, just the Enterprise B. Without photographic evidence (which they never seem to have the time to supply) I have to believe the tool was permanently altered to create the B from the Exclesior. So that is how we are proceeding. At some point in the future, we will have to retool parts to bring back the U.S.S. Excelsior kit. We should have the B out by the end of the year though.
UPDATE: (6/18/2010)
I’ve been reviewing my test shot of the Enterprise B. I had noticed it was missing the small frame of clear parts so I asked the factory for photos of the tooling (again). The buggers met me 2/3 of the way and supplied a photo of a full sprue shot of the majority of the kits which tells me nothing about how the tool may have been altered. It is interesting to note that according to our tooling list, the Excelsior only calls for two tools while the B requires three. The third tool is the base. This means the Excelsior base should have been included with all of the other parts on the big sprue. This would make sense that all opaque parts for the kit are all on one tool shot. But where would it have fit in the layout…? I’ll be taking another look again soon. Even though the photo of the full sprue isn’t as conclusive as a photo of the tool, it still offers some clues. I just need to find a minute more to compare…
I transferred my China video to DVD last night. I’ve tried it on three computers and it looks like there may be a formatting issue. Hopefully i can resolve it next week.
UPDATE: (6/22/2010)
And so the last piece of the puzzle has been placed. I received the photo of the parts tool this morning that clarifies things. Though the tool shows that it is no longer a solid piece of steel, the sections are also not removable inserts. So as feared, the original tool was indeed changed forever. I received a message the other day from Steve Iverson of culttvman.com…
“I finally got a hold of Bruce Byerly, who worked at AMT/Ertl the last few years they were around. He did a lot of design work there, including the Enterprise C and Galor kits. Asked him about the Excelsior and Enterprise B. This is what he said.
‘As far as the B, from what I can remember we did make permanent changes to the mold. Might have been Brylium inserts but I doubt it. They kinda decided the Excelsior had run its course.’ ”
So there we have it. No happy ending this time…
But, there can always be a sequel if the first release is a success…
Star Trek Model Kits: Wonderfest Count Down. 2…
Today, I’m placing the focus back on Star Trek model kits. Some times we get to a point in our development plan when we have to figure out “is this kit worth doing?”. Or in the case of today’s kits “what could we do to this kit to make it worth doing?”. We have to weigh the expense of course. In the case of today’s first kit, our appetite was originally bigger than our mouth…
U.S.S. Enterprise 1701D 1:1400 scale. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this one before. Essentially the story goes like this. We wanted to eliminate the inaccurate raised detail from the ship, fix up some other details here and there, add a new base and add a set of Aztec decals. What we found out was that the raised details were probably added by the same means that the raised panels were added to the original AMT Enterprise Refit. We were told that the tools could not be modified this intensely and that new tools would be needed. The cost of which could have bought us two or three other entirely new kits. In addition to that, the mechanics of one of the tools was also substantially damaged. In the end, we canceled that iteration of the ship. So we took a step back and said “is there anything we could do with this kit at all?” After all, it is one of the most well known versions of the ship. After some serious thought, we thought about the requests we get for clear versions of various Star Trek ships. We figured, we’d fix the mechanical part, inject it in clear, fix up a couple fit issues here and there and add in our signature decals. So that’s what we’ve done. We’ll have our buildup with prototype decals on it as well as a clear test shot built on display at the show.
We’ll also have a prototype buildup of our new release of the U.S.S. Reliant. Again, we’ve invested in some key revisions in this kit. We have thickened the saucer, eliminated the inaccurate lines around the edge of the saucer as well as the “window” pock marks on the forward bulkhead and lastly, added ridge detail around the bridge dome that had been missing for unknown reasons. On top of all that, we are adding a new base which is essentially a bigger version of the one included in our 1:1000 scale Refit. To keep the price of the kit reasonable, we have decided to leave out the Aztec decals from this release and offer them as a separate item. The kit still includes all of the expected markings, etc. We’ve done our best to make this kit, if not 100% accurate, at least more appealing.
I’ve said before that The Reliant is probably my favorite Star Trek ship but of the enemy vessels, one has always really appealed to me. That is the Klingon Bird of Prey. I like it for the polar opposite reasons why I like its Romulan ancestor. The Klingon ship show conveys the aggression that is synonymous with its people. We’ve added some new and significant parts to this little birdie. First, we have adjusted the baffle angles to match the stance in Star trek III: The Search For Spock. In cruising mode, the wings raise above horizontal and as much as I like the aggressive attack stance, the original kit took it a touch to far. On top of that, we’ve decided to include a brand new “pose” for the kit- a “landed” pose. For the first time, the kit will include all of the parts to show the ship in its landed stance as seen in ST3 complete with ramp and a third set of wing baffles. We’ll add a little bit of real estate onto the decal sheet to finish it off. We will have a buildup of the adjusted wing angles and mockup parts of the landing gear to show off.
Tomorrow… Batmobile.
Star Trek Model Kits: Wonderfest Count Down. 5…
Ok. I’m crammed for time but I promised so I want to deliver. We’ll be setting up our booth once again at Wonderfest and we will be showing off some plans for upcoming Star Trek Model Kits. Today, I’m going to give a quick review of our plans for bringing back some classic AMT kits.
First, we’ll be showing off our buildup of the K-7 Space station. (Don’t mind the kitty cat induced battle damage- feel to ask me about it) Jim Small went through the added step of adding lights to this great little build. We’ll be posting a how-to article on the Round 2 models website to coincide with the kit’s release. The kit is basically a pressing of the old jalopy from AMT. It reminds us of the K-7 but don’t get too picky about the accuracy. The new release includes our standard dome style stand and a small sheet of decals that includes some alternate numerals so you can make it any space station you wish.
Next, we’ve got the Romulan Bird of Prey. Again, this is a re-release of the vintage AMT kit. We’ll be including the stand as well as optional parts to add the weapon on front and adding nacelle domes. This is personally one of my favorite TOS ships. Many have requested it and we’ve listened. You could have one of your very own by the end of the year.
Both the K-7 and Romulan Bird of Prey will be released in their standard retro-style packaging. The K-7 gets a new illustration while the Bird of Prey will get its classic box illustration. And both will also be released in collector’s tin editions to go along with the others we’ve already brought out. The K-7 will come with a bonus Tribble while the Bird of Prey will get a print of the box art.
Speaking of tins, we have special plans for a couple 2011 releases of the AMT Enterprise. Come see me at Wonderfest and we can talk about them…
Round 2 Models: Ever heard of this old show called Star Trek?
You know, it had been a long, long time since I had watched an episode of the Original Series of Star Trek. I’m not sure if I had seen one since my elementary school days before we signed up the license. I remembered it fondly but I fell into the “Star Wars guy” division of sci-fi fandom. I couldn’t help it, it was all the timing of the thing. Sure I had seen Star Trek: The Motion Picture on the big screen but it didn’t have the quick pace of Star Wars. What can I say? I was just a kid.
Fast forward to the last year or so. Once we lined up the license, I went back and watched a few old episodes over the net. I had to do a google search to find out which episodes were supposed to be the best. It was a novelty for a while. I watched a few episodes of the remastered show before it too was cancelled.(around here at least) Then I asked for and received the first season on Blu-ray. I watched a few episodes and marveled at the beauty of the cinematography, the lighting, etc. It is a beauty to watch.
As I was working on the K7 Space Station illustration, I played old episodes over the net again. I concentrated on the second and third seasons since I has season 1 waiting for me downstairs. There is a lot more good stuff than I remembered. Then this last weekend, I watched a couple disks worth of season 1 while assembling test shots. I’m just past half way through season 1 now. I have to admit, I feel like a fan now. I genuinely like the show whereas I had just respected it and remembering liking it as a kid. I can take it seriously now I guess.
What I’ve found is that my personal preference is that I like the episodes where they stay on the Enterprise more than the ones where they have an away mission. Stand out episodes…
Balance of Terror – My favorite single episode. The Romulan Bird of Prey is becoming one of my favorite ships. I can’t stand Yeoman Rand though. I’m interested to see what order the episodes were filmed in. This one seems pretty early even though it aired in the middle of the season.
Carbomite Maneuver – It was good until we got to Ronny Howard’s ugly little brother as the big bad. Couldn’t take it seriously after that.
The Menagerie– I liked everything that happened in the “present” much better than the stuff from the pilot.
Trouble With Tribbles – I LOVE Scotty. He’s by far my favorite character and the fight scene sealed that.
Mirror Mirror – Made me want to shave my beard into a goatee so I could become evil.
Whom Gods Destroy – Green Yvonne Craig… Yum. It dawned on me while watching this one that Star Trek has to be the show with the highest babe guest stars per capita. Virtually every episode had an outstanding guest-babe that put today’s starlets to shame… except for Yeoman Rand. I still don’t like her…
Let That Be You Last Battlefield – I’m not one for having to “think” about my sci-fi but even as heavy handed as their social message was in that one, it was done very well.
Shore Leave – started VERY weak but ended pretty strong.
Squire of Golthos – I’ll never get that 45 minutes back again. It seems like I either love an episode or hate it. There are only a few I would say fall between. This is the worst I’ve seen so far.
Other favs in no particular order… Tholian Web, Doomsday Machine, Galileo 7, Naked Time, Immunity Syndrome, Amok Time, The Enterprise Incident, Deadly Years and The Ultimate Computer.
With all that said, I can’t wait to put my hands to work on more Star Trek TOS projects for Round 2 models.
Star Trek model kits: A New K-7 Box Illustration
I had the opportunity, so I had to make the time to do a new box illustration for the K-7 Space Station Star trek model kit. It was a fun change. I had to decide whether to do an image showing the “real” station as seen in “Trouble With Tribbles” or more likely “Trials and Tribblations”. I decided it would be best to just paint it as the kit since that’s what’s in the box. The kit is way off model (pun intended) from how the station looked in the shows.
I had hoped to achieve an old school look with this one. Since it is going on a retro style box I was hoping to emulate the look of the boxes of the other vintage Star Trek model kits. I overworked it so it got too tight for me to call it a success from that standpoint. (I need to loosen up) This is the raw scan so it will probably look quite a bit different once I tweak the colors and do a little retouching.
I’d estimate about 30 hours in it. b/g including ships was all done with acrylics. The station itself was rendered in 15 year old bullet point Design markers. (I chickened out of painting the whole thing or airbrushing it after the last illo.) I went back in with colored pencil here and there and a few touches of gouache.
U.S.S. Enterprise 1701 Refit: IT’S HERE!
In case you might not have heard, we’ve been developing a 1:1000 scale U.S.S. Enterprise 1701 Refit. It’s kind of been a big thing.
Well, they came in today. I bet they all fly back out today too. More are on the way. This batch should hit distributors next week and then they’ll go on to retailers soon after. Get ‘em while they’re hot!
Star Trek Model Kits: To “B” or not to “B”…
Long story short (don’t worry it’ll get longer again in a minute) is that we ran into a snag in our plans to re-release the 1:1400 Enterprise 1701D. I’m not going into that right now. To be honest, the result of looking for a replacement kit is much more intriguing anyway.
We keep a handful of kit ideas in our back pocket in case our intended plans go awry (which happens all too often). On our backup list is the U.S.S. Enterprise 1701B and U.S.S. Reliant. Personally, I like the design of the Reliant but I’ve always seen an overwhelming amount of support for bringing back the B or the Excelsior. To be honest, I wasn’t very familiar with the B. I had seen ST: Generations when it came out years ago but I think we can all agree it was a pretty forgettable film. I barely remembered the Excelsior. In my mind it was the new ship that could live up to the A. It wasn’t until recently that I re-watched that one again to see that it was Scotty’s ingenuity that made the ship stall out.
We were scrambling to figure out which kit to do. So I put some feelers out. I asked Jim Small, our go-to buildup guru about the Reliant and the B and then I put a poll out on Starship Modeler. Between these two sources, I knew I’d quickly be educated on the state of the kits and get a better feeling about which way to go. It seemed like the majority of folks who liked the B actually would have preferred the Excelsior. This led to a lot of discussion on the board about what state the tool of the B would be in. Had the tool been permanently altered to transform the Excelsior kit into the Enterprise B? It became a case of model kit archeology- determining a hypothesis, investigating the clues, waiting for the vault to be opened to find out the truth…
I could see the differences between the ships but I had never cracked open a copy of the kit. In fact, at the time, all we had was the Excelsior. Jim had copies of the kits so I had him send down some pics of them. We found that many of the sprues looked the same and probably were identical but something stood out right away. The belly of secondary hull of the B had been split into two halves while the Excelsior had been one solid piece. I could see why. The flares added onto the hull would have caused a draft issue. If the original hull tool had just been modified, the injected part would never have come out of the tool.
I investigated our tool list, which is our only real documentation, and it is spotty and unclear at best. To boot, I have never gotten a clear explanation of the info included one the list. If the tool had been recorded, it shows the corresponding numbers. Most tools, which have been transferred from the US to China, have had the tool numbers documented. Most kits that have never been repopped and are still in storage in the US have no tool numbers and the tool would need to be physically searched for. The list showed two tools were required to make the Excelsior and three tools were required to make the Enterprise B. The two Excelsior tools were the same number as two tools need for the B.
The strange thing about the list is that many of the kits are listed more than once. I never noticed why until I really concentrated on this conundrum. There is one column labeled Cat # which showed a year in it like 1998. My determination is that this is the year a kit appeared in a catalog. Both the B and the Excelsior would have been shown in the catalog for several consecutive years. The Excelsior came out one year before the B but both kits looked to be available in every year the B was produced. With the volume of kits produced during that time, I doubt that the company at the time would have produced enough inventory to last for four years, then permanently alter the tool to create the B.
We landed a copy of the B and compared it to the Excelsior firsthand. There are definite shared parts as well as completely unique parts. The detail of the top saucer is much more crisp on the later Enterprise B than the Excelsior and although some injection points are close, they don’t match exactly. The troublesome part is that some sprues with many common parts have had one part switched out. That’s where it gets dicey. My theory is that the saucer top, the belly of the secondary hull, the base and the other sprue of parts for the B are all on one tool. This would leave the saucer top intact as the Excelsior but I think some of the other smaller parts may have been switched out. If these were done as tool inserts, we shouldn’t have a problem. In any case, if we find that the Excelsior parts have been lost, have a lot of existing tooling for the kit gets us a long way. Retooling the missing parts should be affordable to do at some point.
So where do we stand right now? We are having the Enterprise B/ Excelsior and Reliant tooling moved to our factory to have test shots done. This is really the only way to know what we really have.
Have we decided which kit to bring out? Right now, it looks to be the Reliant just because it is easier to move ahead with not knowing what the status of the other tool is. We do have some ideas for the Reliant which I think Star Trek model kit fans will like but we won’t be making a final announcement until we receive costs back and we are sure we can carry our plans through.
As for the Excelsior/ Enterprise B, I’ll keep you posted. One way or another, one kit or the other will be back out again some day.
Star Trek Model Kit: Giving Away an Enterprise
I posted before iHobby that if people would sign up in that thread and show up at 1:00 on Sunday of the show, I’d have a drawing for a test shot of our latest Star Trek model kit, the 1:1000 Enterprise Refit. Well, people came and went and I was wondering who would stop back on time. It would have been great odds as we only had a few sign up but no one did.
I decided I still wanted to give one away to let someone who is a die hard modeler have a crack at it and let me and everyone else know if it is as good a kit as I perceive it to be. Heck, I’m way too busy to actually glue, seam fill, paint and decal a kit. I’m lucky if I get to do the glue and decal parts. I’m hungry to do it but I’m just pinched. But hey, anyway, I wanted someone who could do a good job with it and I knew one where die-hard sci-fi modelers congregate, on Starship Modelers boards. I’ve seen lots of people post there and I’m familiar with some of their work from what I’ve seen at Wonderfest. I didn’t want to play favorites though so I offered up a drawing again. I figured we could even take the hit on the shipping so I offered it up. We had an outstanding response.
This is how I actually conducted the drawing. I basically printed out the entire thread. I then cut out everyone’s little avatar and threw out the ones who posted but said they didn’t want to be in the drawing. I also tossed all of the duplicates so everyone got one entry only. I folded each little piece up and put them in a kit box to toss them around a bit. I picked one out and it was Rogue9 of Tennessee. Congrats to him.
I sent out the kit the following Monday and he’s been posting his progress in the “On the Bench” of the SM message boards. I’ve got the prototype decals on their way here so they should get to him next week hopefully so he can finish his build. The kit he received was 99.5% of what the final one will be. Only a couple little adjustments were made before giving the final approval on the kit. Now, it is only a matter of time before everyone else gets a crack at it themselves.
Star Trek Model Kit: Boldly Going…
Have you heard that we are developing a new Star trek model kit of the TOS Enterprise in 1:350 scale? We assigned the job of putting together the plans for the ship to Gary Kerr. I hope to interview Gary at some point to give you some of his background. Although he isn’t really a modeler in the sense of one who builds them. Though, he makes the yearly trip to Wonderfest. I got to meet him there last year. Bob had already started a dialog with him about the project. Gary has been around the Trek universe in a way many of us could only dream of. He has actually gained access to review and document the actual filming models used for the Star trek TV shows and movies including the 11’ model of the TOS ship.
Gary has already dipped a toe into the model making pool. Actually more like jumped into the deep end and swam like Michael Phelps when he joined forces with one of our friendly competitors to help them plan a highly detailed kit of another iconic sci-fi subject. (sorry can’t advertise for them here)
So about a month ago or so (or was it longer…) we received an email from him saying he was nearly done with the plans and would start emailing them over. The first batch was 26 sheets. They detailed the nacelles… That’s right, 26 pages covered just the nacelles. He continued to send batches over the next couple of days until we had the entire ship documented. Let me tell you, Gary is thorough and particular. There are very well spelled out details in his plans that, in all honesty, I don’t think you will pick up on in the model even at 1:350 scale. I can’t wait to get started. Since receiving the plans, we have gotten approval from the guys up stairs to get costs, etc to start the mock up. That was great news to hear. It will all happen one step at a time. It’s almost time to reserve the space in the dry dock…
Star Trek Model Kits: Interviews and Artwork with Trek Visionaries
Bob and I really value the input of the behind the scenes designers and craftsmen that had their hands in the creation of some of the best sci-fi out there. We’ve taken the initiative to contact people here and there that we feel would give some good insight into the subjects we are releasing as model kits. We think it is a good way to really give more content to our website to keep people check back once in awhile.
Bob recently interviewed Ryan Church, the designer behind the new movie Enterprise. We’ve also contracted him to do a box cover illustration for the kit when it gets released. Regardless of which side of the fence you fall on in the great debate over the ship, I think the interview does a good job of showing what went into the design and Ryan’s approved concept sketch seemed to capture more of what fans thought was missing.
It was my honor recently to interview Andrew Probert. It was kind of difficult for me because I can get star struck at times. I had to buck up and come up with some good questions and not sound like a newb. I’ve been exposed to Star trek my whole life. I knew the characters and the ships but not the names behind the effects and I knew a lot of the readers would probably be more “in the know” than I was. I did a little research by reading a couple other interviews with him and decided to focus on subjects we have coming out. I felt that approach might gain some new insight that modelers would find helpful as they sit down to capture some of the magic of the filming models. Andrew was very gracious and answered everything I threw at him. The interview can be found in the “articles” section of our website. I hope everyone enjoys it. Feel free to comment here to discuss it.
A little while after the interview, we came to the realization that the artist we had planned for our new box cover (me) seemed way too busy to get the art done in time. I had really been looking forward to painting the ship but I saw no gap in my schedule to do it in. While researching the green-cast strongbacks for our new 1/1000 Enterprise Refit, we were shown a section of an image by Andrew. It struck me that the image was a great angle of the ship and as usual was an awesome rendering. We would just need the ship itself, as the licensor requires us to use a certain background anyway. I offered up the idea to Bob that if I couldn’t find the time, maybe we should see if we could gain the rights to use that as our box art. I’ll tell you that at the time, I was BUSY (heck I’m still just as busy or more so) but I would have made the time (slept less) to paint the ship for the box. Opportunities like that only come along once in several life times. At the time though, I just figured if I couldn’t paint it, having a Probert illustration is actually better for everyone as more people know him than me obviously and I would still get my beauty rest. So we contacted Andrew and we agreed on terms to use the Refit image as seen in his print, “Past Reflections” (which is available on his website).
And the crowd went wild while I shed a tear as my opportunity to paint my favorite Enterprise for commercial use passed me by.
