Dedication
These pages are dedicated to William McCullars, without who's inspiration and advice the "Model Builders Reference Vault" would never have been published on the internet. Thanks William!
Follow the link below to find William's excellent pages about the ships of Star Trek and the various Irwin Allen TV series.
U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701
Web site by: Phil Broad
Stills of the Original 11 foot Miniature
The Smithsonian Display of the 11 Foot Miniature
Stills of the 4 Foot Miniature
NEW! "Star Trek Phase II" Enterprise Drawings by Matt Jefferies
Computer Renderings by Phil Broad
NEW! Interior Sets
The Enterprise Filming Miniatures
Web site by: Phil
Broad
The original Star Trek Enterprise would be built as four miniatures over the life of the series. The first two models would be the 4 & 11 foot long miniatures which would later be joined by a built up version of the AMT model kit (used to represent other Starships which had been damaged) and a tiny version measuring only a few inches. The Enterprise would go through so many changes in detail and markings that it is extremely difficult to chart each variant, some possibly never being seen in the show at all. The workhorse version of the ship is the 11 foot long model which was used for 90 percent of the effects work and therefore rightly claims to be the "true" Enterprise. Because Art Director Matt Jefferies has had a long standing relationship with the world of aviation he would turn to his friend Volmer Jensen to build the big model. Mr. Jensen operated a nearby workshop in the LA area and is famous for having designed one of the earliest and most popular home built aircraft, the "Seabee". The big model is primarily made of wood, with the saucer section made of vacuum formed plastic and the aft portions of the engine pods (starting behind the pylons) being made of sheet metal. The lower hull (engineering) is a hollow wooden body which has been turned on lathe and the pylons are solid wood pieces which fit into slots in that body. The forward portion of the engine pods are also turned wooden shapes which originally featured solid hemispherical domes at the front. As the show progressed, these were replaced by translucent plastic domes with a spinning light effect behind to help animate a model which had been deemed "too static" looking. Working window and navigation lights were also added later on in the series.
Also from the original Star Trek
series: The Klingon Battle Cruiser,
the Shuttlecraft Galileo
and the S.S. Botany Bay.