The USS T'Pir, NCC-1710, was the intermediary ship design between the TOS era and the Motion Picture era. There are so many design differences that I thought Starfleet would experiment with ideas before implimenting them in mass production.

She was named after a Vulcan scientist who wrote a thesis on the possibility of time travel. He was quickly removed from the Vulcan Science Academy for thinking something so illogical. 50 years later another Vulcan, using T'Pir's theories, was able to return a starship to the present after it accidently travelled back in time. With proof that his theory was correct, T'Pir was heralded by the Vulcans as being a intrepid scientist. He was given a Chair at the Vulcan Science Academy, and all of the honors that came with the posting.

The model was built primarily as the 1/2500 TOS Enterprise. I filled in the deflector area to make it look like the updated version. I also added some Evergreen sheet for the pylons and blended it with the original pylons. The shuttlebay is the one from the Ent-A cut and blended in. At the base of the dorsal I added Evergreen tube for the Toredo Launchers. I used tube because I still wanted to go with the rather rounded shapes as the TOS ships have, but still have it as a new location for them. The black rectangle at the aft base of the dorsal is the torpedo exhaust. The deflector shield grids are drawn in with a .05 mechanical pencil. I thought that since it's a intermediary between two designs, I didn't use as many lines as the uprated design. Basically, I drew in every other line. That includes the secondary hull. I also added thrusters at the back of the nacelles and removed the globes at the back end. I also painted the inner area blue to show the hybrid between the two engine designs.

I painted her with Testors Acrylic Light Gray. I figured that Starfleet would still use a thermocoat protective paint. Thus no hull panels. I also painted the Engineering Section with Humbrol Duck Egg Blue (even though it's a light green). I painted the dorsal and along the pylons the same green. The details are JTGraphics 1/2500 Ent-A decals. I used the hull number of 1710 because it hasn't been used (in canon ST).

Image: Saucer

Image: Port engineering

Image: New pylons

Image: New engines

Image: Ventral Port

Image: Forward saucer

Image: Ventral

Image: Aft

Image: Fire Phasers!

Image: The rescue