Original 11' Star Trek Enterprise Model Being Restored Again

NormalVisual (565491) writes The original 11-foot U.S.S. Enterprise studio model from the original series has gone back into the shop again. The Smithsonian owns the model and has had it on display in a gift shop at the National Air and Space Museum for the last 13 years, but will be placed on display in the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall in 2016, to coincide with the museum's 40th anniversary. In the meantime, the model will be undergoing its fourth restoration to address a number of issues. The last restoration in 1991 was performed by Ed Miarecki, a professional modelmaker well known for his work in "Star Trek: The Next Generation", as well as films such as "Event Horizon". This previous restoration had Trek fans up in arms owing to the paint job, which many feel doesn't represent the way the model looked originally. Hopefully this next restoration will bring her back to her former glory.

Comments

Saw it at the Smithsonian a few years ago

[dpilot]

We took the family to DC for a vacation, and of course one of the things I had to see was Smithsonian Air and Space. I didn't know that the original Enterprise model was there, and was surprised to see it on the lower floor.

The next surprise was that the model was never finished. One side had all of the lights, striping, and everything. The other side had a little striping, and was otherwise pretty much blank. I remembered reading that in one of those books, and how all shots were of the finished side, or mirrored in post-processing.

Re:Saw it at the Smithsonian a few years ago

[NormalVisual]

I saw it there around 1980, probably before the first restoration.

The restorations took place in 1974, 1980, and 1991. I agree that the pre-1991 treatment the model got wasn't that good. As I remember they just hung it from the ceiling and mostly ignored it afterwards. The model had some major structural issues when Ed got hold of it, mostly because the model was designed to be mounted on a stand and couldn't deal well with the stresses from being suspended from above.