I had put together the first three-piece Enterprise kit (1701, 1701-A, 1701-D) before I had an airbrush, so I ended up hand-painting everything. The most time consuming of these three was Enterprise-D; with no detail at all on this model, I copied the "aztec" pattern from the larger 1/1400 model down to 1/2500 scale, transferred it with tape cut from the new smaller pattern, mixed paints, and hand painted the entire two-toned "aztec" pattern on the whole ship.

After I bought the second three-piece Enterprise kit (1701-B, 1701-C, 1701-E), I came across another box of the first three-piece Enterprises (1701, 1701-, 1701-D), so I decided to buy it as well. After obtaining an airbrush, the rather thick paint from hand painting my original Enterprise and Enterprise-A looked pretty crappy, so I decided that I would rebuild and repaint these models. My Enterprise-D still looked half decent, so I decided not to redo it; besides the work I did painting the "aztec" pattern was not a task I would care to repeat.

I built a large 56cm x 38cm (22" x 15") base using spare styrene, and glued the Starfleet shaped base from the second three-piece Enterprise (B, C and E) kit onto the center. After the models were assembled (but not yet painted), I placed them in a semi-circular position around my new base to determine the best placement and angle of each to make a nice display that would show the relative sizes of each Enterprise without crowding. I contemplated painting detail into the Starfleet emblem but decided that that might detract from the ships themselves, so I just left it black.

Like the Enterprise-D, I had to create some of my own masking details on the Enterprise-B. The blue-green trim had no reference markings, especially on the underside of the hull. Additionally, I also painted the (thin) stripes that encircle the primary hull (saucer) edge on Enterprise-A, Enterprise-B and Enterprise-C. Overall, the models themselves were easy to put together. The most time consuming task was masking for the paint jobs, especially for the Enterprise-D, Enterprise-C and Enterprise-E. The only other "daunting" task was to mark the location of each window on each ship. Using a fine-tipped black marker and a lot of care, I did end up with a few blotches, but I think that was inevitable given the small scale of the models.

Image: Another angle

Image: Top view: Early perspective

Image: Top view: "Yesterday's Enterprise" perspective

Image: Top view: Later perspective

Image: TOS: Starboard

Image: TOS: Starboard ventral

Image: TOS: Port aft

Image: Refit: Port ventral

Image: Refit: Starboard

Image: Refit: Starboard aft quarter from above

Image: Enterprise B: Starboard

Image: Enterprise B: Dorsal bow

Image: Enterprise B: Ventral stern

Image: Enterprise C: Forward port quarter low

Image: Enterprise C: Forward port quarter high

Image: Enterprise C: Stern

Image: Enterprise D: Bow on

Image: Enterprise D: Ventral bow

Image: Enterprise D: Ventral stern

Image: Enterprise E: Port from bow

Image: Enterprise E: Stern

Image: Enterprise E: Ventral

Image: Enterprise E: Ventral from aft