Karen: Today's buried treasure is a short-and-sweet one, just a little goodie I found that miraculously survived intact move after move: the Romulan warbird from the AMT 3-piece Star Trek model ship set from the mid 70s! My Enterprise and Klingon D-7 eventually were demolished, but the Romulan has hung in there. You can see it is rigged to hang from the ceiling, although currently it rests in drydock (on a shelf).
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| I believe this was the design of the box when I got mine. |
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| I didn't paint this model -the white plastic was perfect. |
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| Surprisingly, the decal has held up well for almost 40 years! |
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| Engage cloaking device! |
Karen: Star Trek models sure were a lot of fun! Kind of makes me want to go out and get the other two ships now...hmm, let's see what's on eBay....
15 comments:
That's pretty awesome, Karen.
By the way, what are those comic covers on the wall behind the bottom picture? Are those actual posters, or did you make them yourself?
It is certainly cool that you managed to keep that model intact all these years. Too bad about the other two, though.
I have to say, I prefer the look of the old Romulan Warbird to the newer bulky-looking ones that appeared in TNG.
And since dbutler commented on your posters, I have to say I like the one for the Howard the Duck movie... :P
Am I remembering right that the decals from that era of model-building had to be dipped in water to activate the adhesive on the back, and then OH SO CAREFULLY and gently applied to the piece? And that they ALWAYS wanted to fold on themselves, or bubble, or wrinkle, or etc?
I, for one, am applauding your steady hand and meticulous eye, Karen!
HB
I had the original Enterprise model. Probably got it around 1970. Had it on a stand in my room for much of my childhood. And HB, that sounds familiar about the decals.
I'm really getting to enjoy this new column, Karen, great memories..
This was one of the final AMT issues of the '70s, I was on the edge whether to buy it or not, but I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the ships were. This is going to sound odd, but I actually liked this scale more so than the larger original scale. Not sure why.
The Enterprise just seemed more like the ship depicted on the screen, perhaps it's because of the original flimsy nacelle construction of the larger model; the larger one always seemed to have the nacelles not quite stay parallel or straight due to the weight of the nacelles and how they connected to the secondary/engineering hull.
And as a funny note, my original klingon D7 (the large AMT model) came molded in black plastic. Not sure why, but it was always much cooler than the white or grey ones, so course I painted my small one flat black to match. I didn't bother with the decals.
I'm surprised your 'bird of prey' decal stayed so nice. I never thought much of the orignal romulan design, so I built it but didn't show it off much. I strongly preferred the later D7 design. I'm always itchin' to get another TOS D7.
I actually still have an original Enterprise and D7 still minty/cellowrapped/boxed in my basement. I was going to post 'em up on eBay for some vintage enthusiasts. but I may just open 'em up and build. My idea was to just buy all new ships because the new retro TOS stuff out now's pretty nice as well.
Speaking of decals, I highly recomment JBOT, this canadian firm for top-qual water based decals. FAR ABOVE the quality of the originals, they cover dozens of different scaled models, sci-fi, military, you name it. Plus loads of extra decals.
Huge difference from water-based stuff 30yrs ago and you'll notice the improvement right away.
Those decals were always a pain. And if you had them curl up on you, forget it. There went your model! I had extremely good luck with this one. I'm just impressed it's lasted so long, not cracked or chipped.
The USS Enterprise kit had decals for all 12 ships of the class so if you had the dough to spare you could create the fleet. I didn't though...
The posters behind the ship are all from various sources. The comic covers are from the Asgard Press calendars. And no, that's NOT Howard the Duck! Good grief. It's Alien, you knuckleheads...don't cha got any cultcha?
Wow, talk about yer horror/sci-fi mash-ups that you'd NEVER want to see. . . !
HB
I know, I kept looking and lookin', like, 'WHERE is the duck poster..???'
Anywho, as for the decal sheets having all the ships.., that's called 'ingenious marketing'..:
"Mom, I gotta collect all the ships..!! Billy down the street is..?!?"
Geez, guys, you know I'm joking about the Howard the Duck poster, don't you?!
For those of you who didn't get the joke, it's a reference to the similarity between the Alien poster and one of the posters for the Howard movie.
I would pay to see Howard pop out of John Hurt's chest and ask for his cigar to be lit. Or the sequel with a whole planet full of Howards. Just saying.
IKYN, Martinex, the first image that jumped into my head (and I wish I could ERASE IT UTTERLY) was of them getting John Hurt's helmet off, and there's an angry Howard completely wrapped around his head. Except the implications of that combined w/ how the alien was really attached was just. . . was just. . . ugh, SUCH an impossibly revolting, offensive image. WHY, sub-conscious. . . WHY??
This. . . is another one of those spontaneously-reproducing tangents, isn't it. . . ?
HB
Martinex1..., you REALLY maybe onto something.
HB, nice embellishment.
Dang Karen I'm amazed that your Romulan ship looks so good considering it's 40 years old! I got socks that last me just one week!
- Mike 'I got the Midas touch - in reverse' from Trinidad & Tobago.
Again, Martinex1 and HB...?
"Steve Gerber would be soooooo proud."
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