Why build Star Trek models instead of...?

[MSgtUSAFRet]

While I am out here in discussion land, I was also wondering about the "why" of building Star Trek models instead of "Star Wars" or "Galaxy Quest" (although I have been allowed to build one here! ) or "BSG"?

What influenced you to pick this particular genre to explore and realize?

Was it because, as a young kid, you saw the ships on the screen and wanted a 3-D representation all your own?

Do you like the designs of this Universe over others? If so, why? The design elements more easily lend themselves to kit-bashing and making your own class of ship?

I know this is Allscale TREK and most of the ships here are Trek in nature, but I am looking for the "Why" of why you build Star Trek.

Looking forward to your answers!

Steve

[el gato]

I have a crapload of models from other movies and shows (SW, BSG, Macross, Dougram, Dunbine, Yamato, real aircraft, real space). I don't post about the other builds here because this is a Trek forum.

[Kremin]

Initially Price, availability style.

Back in the day you could get a Refit, Reliant or K'tinga for about £10 so if you wanted to get one to kitbash into anything you liked it was easy and cheap

BSG had a rubbish Battlestar nice viper and raider and a very good Cylon basestar not much scope for doing stuff and the movies were only only available on VHS, it took years for the '78 series to be shown properly over here

Star Wars was good when it first came out there were some great diorama pieces, the falcon was a fun kit for a kid, they spoiled it a bit when they did the very small kits in a 4 pack for return of the Jedi and also suffered from movies only syndrome (1 Movie every 3 years) and having a very extensive figure and accessories sets to draw away from kits

Star Trek was on TV a lot of my life and the Movies were available then TNG came out and they had Kits of reasonable size and price to carry on.

Almost constant exposure of Trek followed with added kits and so on that lasted for many years, Possibly until The Phantom Menace and or NuBSG came out with associated kits

There does seem to be a vast spectrum of kits out there these days but cost is a major factor in what is bought. I wonder when I look at the 1:537 refit kit which hasn't been manufactured in many years, does any other scifi kit have the longevity or number of kits still untouched in people' collections?

[michelalano]

While I still can't explain why I love the iconic silhouette of the Enterprise in all its forms, I think I love building Star Trek models so much is mostly because I grew up in the heyday of having TNG on TV and TMP films coming out every few years in the 80's and 90s.

When compared to other genres like Star Wars (which I also love) I prefer building Star Trek models because I love the colors and scale of the ships. Personally I like to build my models "pristine" as if they were just launched from spacedock (i.e. without weathering or battle damage). I never had the urge to build the Millennium Falcon because it was just so dirty.

Now give me a finely painted Excelsior with a bright blue, teal and red paint job and you've got a space hotrod like no other.

[Tesral]

I'm a dyed in the DiLithum Trekkie. Anything Star Trek will catch my eye, and I love to model., So Star Trek models are a natural. The garage kits were an eye opener to me. I didn't know that more than styrene was available. Well, until I did.

My first Trek kitbash was making an AMT Enterprise (1/650) into a Salidin class destroyer. No putty, no paint, no nutten. For that it wasn't bad. Wasn't good either. Puzzeling the name from the extended decal sheet of the time.

[Hossfly72]

I always enjoyed the original series, and even the campiness of it. What really got me into the modeling aspect of Trek were the few novels that I've read. They showed me (mentally, at least) other ships that we never saw. The movies brought us more ships but I find my main area of interest is TOS era and just before and just after, but before the movies.
I also have tons of WWI and WWII airplanes, and some airliners in both 1/200 and 1/144 scales. But Trek offers that happy "what if" outlook on the adventures of Man.

[TonyG2]

I have a crapload of models from other movies and shows (SW, BSG, Macross, Dougram, Dunbine, Yamato, real aircraft, real space). I don't post about the other builds here because this is a Trek forum

Snap. And add to that a double crapload of Gundam, plus Babylon 5, Alien(s) and practically every other show and movie that has generated kits.

That being said there is something undefinable about classic Trek ships that I like. It may well be because Star Trek was the first big time SF show that I watched back in the late 60s early 70s. Others such as Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Land of the Giants, Invaders, UFO etc were good but they didn't regularly feature a 1000ft long starship with a large crew. So there was something unique about Star Trek having what was in essence a capital ship in space as opposed to a small lost saucer or sub orbital ferry etc.

The only ship that came close was the C-57D from Forbidden Planet.

By the time Star Wars came along, the Enterprise was firmly entrenched in my mind as being "right".

[jkb-1]

Basically to answer the question of how big this is, compared to that.

Star Trek was not interesting in that regard in the '70s. The three ships, and the three kits my brother had, were about of the same size. What was interesting was The Star Wars Sketchbook showing the gamut from TIE fighter to Rebel Blockade Runner, with an inset for the Star Destroyer. Trek caught up with the blueprint set for TMP. At that point I was just on paper, sketching the Vulcan shuttle parked over the Millennium Falcon, the 1999 Eagle, Skylab, anything I could find numbers for.

Then came TNG and the first of what is now called the Cadet series; three ships to scale with each other! Rising to double figures if kitbashed into the good-looking variations! Fine Molds and then Bandai have come out with 1/72 starfighters, but, again, they are all about of the same size, just the Round 2 kits range from 150 to 700 meters.

[SKO]

I love Star Wars and Trek in equal measure and yet I mostly have no interest in building Wars stuff. I am currently working on an X-Wing as a gift for a buddy of mine. To me Star Wars is a fantastic epic and frankly they never even comment on the tech. Other than Han grousing about the hyperdrive there's not really the kinda technobabble you see in trek. Fans have filled in the blanks and written design histories of INCOM fighters etc but that's really not the point of the universe. When you imagine being a Star Wars character you wanna use the force and wield a lightsaber.

In Star Trek the ship itself is a character and kind of key to the thing. There's a lot more emphasis on the science and tech even if a lot of it is gobbledygook. When I watched Trek I always gravitated towards the ship and the designs. Designing/building one just always struck me as the coolest thing ever. Even now as I put a model together I can't help but picture myself on the ASDB or at Utopia Planitia watching it be assembled.

[NCC1966]

Well I don't build only ST. Actually I don't even follow a theme. I select my models simply by the shape: if I like it I buy it no matter if it's a spaceship, a plane, a car, a motorcycle, a figure...

Mostly of the figures I do are sexy hot girls resin kits from e2046 based on manga/anime characters. The aficionados on those cartoons usually ask me if I watch it and get puzzled when I say no.