Every one knows the TOS Enterprise, but we only saw it for three of it's five year mission. Every one knows the Motion Picture Enterprise. But what about those 2 or 2 1/2 years between "The Turnabout Intruder" and the Enterprise going in to be refit?

Well, this is my vision of those Lost Years. Slight upgrades, just to keep her up to speed with the inovations being developed.

Of course I started with the Polar Lights 1/1000 scale Enterprise (what a wonderful little kit this is). It was assembled with the same techniques as my production version Enterprise, with the following exceptions: The standard deflector dish was left off, and a round and concaved piece of styrene was glued over the center rings of the deflector mount. This was then sanded to match contour, puttied, and then sanded again to finish. This became the new, upgraded deflector that is eventually upgraded again for the refit. I also added to the bottom of the connecting dorsal a new photon torpedo bay made from some small aluminum tubing, styrene tubing and sanding to fit the contour of the neck.

The only other thing that was done differently was to use JT Graphics Kitbashers Decal Sheet. THIS is a GREAT sheet! It has pennant markings, lettering and numbering fonts that fall exactly inbetween the TOS era and the MP era.

The numbers and letters for the Enterprise on this sheet were used as well as the yellow "New" pennant logos. (there are also white ones as well as the standard TOS pennants) I also used tiny little docking door decals that have the ship name and the "UNITED FEDERATION of PLANETS" on them. These were placed on either side of the primary hull rim.

The Kitbashers Sheet also has "Glowing" blue grids for the inside of the nacelle. I used the smooth inside nacelles in the kit and used one set of these for the upgrade to the engines. The sheet also has "Glowing" decals for the new deflector. So one of these was used for it. The rest of the decals came from the kit for the windows and such.

I think it really turned out neat the new upgrades go really well with the old established line of the classic Enterprise.

Image: Right/rear view

Image: Port side

Image: Underneath

Image: Upgraded deflector

Image: New markings