# TOS turbolift layout



## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

I have spent the last couple of hours on Google trying to find a diagram of the TOS turbolift that shows the layout of the walls. Even though the turbolift is roughly circular, the walls appear to be a series of flat surfaces. Does anyone know of a "top down" shot of the turbolift or a blueprint that shows how the walls are laid out?


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## Richard Baker (Aug 8, 2006)

There is a good set of deck by deck plans of the TOS Enterprise- it shows the saucer turbolifts in concentric rings with radial and vertical connections. A top down would be dependent on which deck you are looking at- it changes per level some.

EDIT- the plans were of NCC-1700 Constitution with the note each ship did have some unique changes during construction.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

Thanks, but I'm not looking for the layout of the paths the turbolift took, but of the car itself. I'd like to build a replica of one as a diorama for a figure.


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## Paulbo (Sep 16, 2004)

There are always the Mike McMaster blueprints: http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/uss-enterprise-bridge.php


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

So far those are about the best I have found. Was hoping someone else knew of something a bit more detailed than that.

I appreciate the responses! :thumbsup:


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## Paulbo (Sep 16, 2004)

The turbolift's not that detailed. The McMaster plans provide top and side views - should be more than adequate to build a replica.


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## kenlee (Feb 11, 2010)

Fozzie said:


> I have spent the last couple of hours on Google trying to find a diagram of the TOS turbolift that shows the layout of the walls. Even though the turbolift is roughly circular, the walls appear to be a series of flat surfaces. Does anyone know of a "top down" shot of the turbolift or a blueprint that shows how the walls are laid out?


I seem to remember a shot from above in the turbolift from the episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before" that may help.
My bad, the shot was from above but outside the turbolift, but you can see in that shot that the walls are a series of flat panels about 1 1/2 to 2 ft. wide and not curved.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

kenlee said:


> I seem to remember a shot from above in the turbolift from the episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before" that may help.
> My bad, the shot was from above but outside the turbolift, but you can see in that shot that the walls are a series of flat panels about 1 1/2 to 2 ft. wide and not curved.


That's what I think I see, too. The McMaster blueprints show the walls being slightly curved, but they don't look curved to me.


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## kenlee (Feb 11, 2010)

Fozzie said:


> That's what I think I see, too. The McMaster blueprints show the walls being slightly curved, but they don't look curved to me.


The realities of budget constraints and building materials available when the sets were built would indicate flat panels over curved panels, easier to build.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

Putting aside the curved walls vs. flat walls discussion for a minute, just how big would this diorama end up being if built around the 7" Art Asylum TOS figures? Bigger than I thought!

Using the McMaster bridge blueprints and screen captures as a guide, I came up with the following:










The cutting mat is 12" x 12" and the wall behind Kirk is 8.5" tall. The doorway is 4" wide. (The camera angle makes the door opening appear taller than it is in relationship to Kirk. The actual gap between the top of his head and the top of the door is about .75".) The alcove is around 10.5" wide at its widest point.










The width of the alcove is wide enough that the doors could be made to slide out to either side and still be hidden behind the alcove walls.

The interior diameter of the turbolift car is 8.25" at its widest point.










How much of the interior of the car could you see through the door? More than I expected.










And here's a screencap for reference. When I recreated this with the 7" figure everything looked in proportion.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

Getting back to the angled walls now...

I added red lines to the drawing to show where I think I'd have to put the walls to match what was seen onscreen. The shallow angles on the back walls look pretty correct to me. The two nearest the door are a bit steeper but we never really saw those walls in any shots, so they certainly could be at more of an angle and we'd never know it.

Thoughts?


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## kenlee (Feb 11, 2010)

Fozzie said:


> Getting back to the angled walls now...
> 
> I added red lines to the drawing to show where I think I'd have to put the walls to match what was seen onscreen. The shallow angles on the back walls look pretty correct to me. The two nearest the door are a bit steeper but we never really saw those walls in any shots, so they certainly could be at more of an angle and we'd never know it.
> 
> Thoughts?


That makes sense to me, looks right.


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## Trek Ace (Jul 8, 2001)

The wall sections of the turbolift sets were curved. They were made of Masonite with wood strips on either side. The inset vertical portions that contained the motion panels with the directional lighting effects were flat.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

Trek Ace said:


> The wall sections of the turbolift sets were curved. They were made of Masonite with wood strips on either side. The inset vertical portions that contained the motion panels with the directional lighting effects were flat.


Hmmm. The bend in the individual panels would be rather shallow...they could appear to be flat on screen.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

I found this shot which seems to confirm that the panels are curved. Thanks, everyone!

Now on to the next step...


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

The quick mock-up using cardstock continues...


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## Ductapeforever (Mar 6, 2008)

A 1.3 second search of the miracle that is Google turned up these images.
The interior walls are indeed a mixture of curved and flat panels.


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

If one assumes that the walls of the turbolift are 'wild' (as they had to be, given the various shots in the show) then slight curves are not an impossible construction issue. 

OTOH that Matt Jefferies was a clever fellow, the curve might be clever use of paint!

But it sure LOOKS curved and like all things, ya gotta choose, do you build it as like a TV stage set with 1960s craft and material limitations, or build what you see (and think you see  ) on-screen, or build what it WOULD be if it were a real thing?

No matter what I can't wait to see what you come up with! I was always sad that Art Asylum/DST let the failure of the 'Enterprise' figures/bridge parts toys lead them to the idea that 'classic' Enterprise bridge parts would fail to sell. That's not ipso facto as every Star Trek has its own challenges when it comes to perception and interest.


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## Captain April (May 1, 2004)

Especially since TOS appears to always sell, at top price, too.

When was the last time you saw a TOS item on clearance?


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

Captain April said:


> Especially since TOS appears to always sell, at top price, too.
> 
> When was the last time you saw a TOS item on clearance?


Well, I did get my Communicator and Science Tricorder on redticket at Toys R Us, but it took a LONG time to get to even the 25% off level and I don't think I ever saw them hit 50% off. Pretty much the DST Classic Trek stuff got caught up in the JJTrek flushing. Man, they must have gotten a horrible return allowance on the JJTrek toys, they STILL have stuff on the clearance endcaps!

I'm still upset that the Medical Tricorder got shifted to a store exclusive and never got a wide release. 

Blah blah blah toys.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Ductapeforever said:


> A 1.3 second search of the miracle that is Google turned up these images.
> The interior walls are indeed a mixture of curved and flat panels.


Nice!, But the first 2 are not from the show.

I found this:



From the blueprints it looks like 6 curved sections, 3 flat's at 90,180,270 deg, and 2 transitions at 135 and 225 deg.

FWIW I also found some photo's I have posted over the years on other peoples web sites! of course I was not given credit.


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## Captain April (May 1, 2004)

Y'know, you could almost take that hashed circle surrounding the bridge as the diameter of the bridge dome on the ship....


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## charonjr (Mar 27, 2000)

I think that's what it's supposed to be. Anyone have figures on the size of the Bridge itself? Could it be as large as 30 feet?


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

It also could specify a clear area for the production crew to remove bridge sections for filming.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

^Quiet, you.


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## Captain April (May 1, 2004)

Best info I have says that the bridge was, indeed, thirty feet across. I assume this figure refers to the interior space.


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

Captain April said:


> Best info I have says that the bridge was, indeed, thirty feet across. I assume this figure refers to the interior space.


I'm looking out the window at my back fence and it's 30 feet across whcih looks about right.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

After doing a complete buildup of the alcove in cardstock, I then set to work to re-creating it in styrene. I have built the walls, the floor, and the grid work ceiling. Most of this was done in .030 styrene.

In the photo below, only the ceiling piece is glued together. The rest is simply held in place with masking tape. (The turbolift door is simply a red envelope which I place there for effect.)

I love the shadows being cast by the ceiling...they look VERY similar to the shadows I have seen cast in many of the screengraps of the alcove.


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## jheilman (Aug 30, 2001)

Very nice. Did you hand-cut that screen, or was that something pre-cut? Or is it a real mesh screen?


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## Paulbo (Sep 16, 2004)

jheilman said:


> Very nice. Did you hand-cut that screen, or was that something pre-cut? Or is it a real mesh screen?


Fozzie posted in another thread that he cut the pattern on a Silouette (sp?) machine.

It looks really good! This result really makes me want that machine.


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## Captain April (May 1, 2004)

I would've just tracked down some mesh, but then I'm too broke for all them fancy doodad thingamajigs, and I'm lazy.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

Paulbo said:


> Fozzie posted in another thread that he cut the pattern on a Silouette (sp?) machine.
> 
> It looks really good! This result really makes me want that machine.


I have cut nearly everything for this project on the SC. The screen, the walls, the base, even the lens for the red alert light. Most of it was .030 styrene which is really "score & snap" and not cuting, but the screen was done in .010 styrene.

Because there were so many circles (over 900) to be cut, I did not have the SC "cut twice" which is usually what I do to get it to cut all the way through .010 styrene. I was a bit worried about over taxing the machine as it took quite a while to cut all those holes! As a result, after cutting, I used a dowel rod to poke out every single "punch". The results were still quite good, however. That sheet was sandwiched between two framing pieces making a strong, sturdy piece.

The strength of this machine is precision cuts, plain and simple. The fact that it doesn't cut all the way through has turned out not to be a big problem. It scores well enough that I have not had any real problems snapping the pieces out of the larger sheets. I am still using the original blade so it is lasting better than I expected considering I am using it on styrene. (I did switch to a fresh blade for the screen, but I'm not sure I needed to.)

To create the ribbed lens of the red alert light, I used an acetone sheet into which I scribed horizontal lines in one pass, then made another pass with the SC to cut the rectangle out of the sheet. It worked perfectly. I'll have to post a picture of that later.

Another, less obvious, advantage of the SC is that I was able to draw up all the pieces, cut them into cardstock, and build up a complete mockup before ever touching a single piece of styrene. This allowed me to modify pieces as needed before cutting the final piece in plastic. As a result, every piece of plastic I cut was correct the first time.


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## jheilman (Aug 30, 2001)

Nice, thanx for the info.


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## CLBrown (Sep 8, 2010)

Just a quick "correction"... acetone is a liquid... basically, think "nail polish remover" (with that awesome smell we've all likely gotten to "enjoy" at some point or another).

I suspect you mean you used an "acetate" sheet, not an "acetone" one.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

CLBrown said:


> Just a quick "correction"... acetone is a liquid... basically, think "nail polish remover" (with that awesome smell we've all likely gotten to "enjoy" at some point or another).
> 
> I suspect you mean you used an "acetate" sheet, not an "acetone" one.


You are absolutely correct. Thank you.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

A couple of pics to show this week's process.

First off, I puttied, sanded, and primed the alcove screen so that it is ready to paint. I also glued the walls to the alcove base and worked on those seams as well.

After that, I built an in-scale turbolift control. I'd post a picture of that but it is currently encased in rubber as I'm going to cast 6 of them for the turbolift (did they really need that many of them?).

After that, I designed the turbolift parts in Silhouette Studio and created the pieces in .030 styrene. The shots below show a few of the pieces hastily taped together. (The front lip of the turbolift top will NOT sit on top of the screen like that, btw.)


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

I painted the alcove this weekend, but minutes after snapping this photo decided I wasn't happy with it. It will need to be re-done. (The red alert "box" is still a work in progress, btw.)


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

*Finished! (Well, almost...)*

I am calling an end to "phase 1" of my bridge turbolift alcove project. It is substantially complete (see photos below). I say "phase 1" because while it is displayable as is, I have further plans...

I have decided to put the turbolift on hold for the moment because I think I am going to try and build Uhura's comm station instead and hook it onto the alcove. I started working on the plans for that project last weekend.

This first shot is to give you a sense of the size of the piece. It was built at 1:10 scale to match Art Asylum's TOS figures. 










And here's a picture from the series for reference.










A better look at the finished piece. If the comm station project pans out, then I will build the top piece out and install lighting above the screen and add a light behind the red alert box. I have left the back of the model open so that I can get in there if necessary. The turbolift doors are held on by magnets so that when I get back to the turbolift project they can be easily replaced by open doors (or something on a track).










The afore-mentioned Art Asylum figures. A 1:10 scale ruler that I got at WonderFest turned out to be a big help in getting this sized correctly. 










I don't have this lit from above in these photos, but when it is, the screen creates the same light/shadow effect in the alcove that was seen on the show.










I love how the plaque came out! I used my Silhoutte Cameo die cutter to scribe the words into a 2" wide piece of .030 plastic. Some white primer and a coat of gold paint and _voila!_










If you think this was a weird subject to tackle, it was chosen intentionally. I wanted to hone my skills a bit before tackling a bridge station. After this, however, I feel a lot more confident in my ability to pull that off. 

So...what do you guys think?


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## Joe Brown (Nov 16, 1999)

That is really awesome, sir! :thumbsup:


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## Captain April (May 1, 2004)

I love how they made Kirk shorter than Spock. You usually don't see that kind of detail taken into account with action figures.

As for the turbolift alcove, I think you've definitely nailed it. Bodes well for the rest of the bridge.


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

That, sir, is magnificent! If that were offered as a 'build a bridge' toy by AA/DST I would buy the hell out of it.

You know, there's plenty of 'standardized' parts to all the bridge stations, like the comm units, some of the control panel layouts... I can see the Cameo being useful for those 'overlays' that are part of the control layouts. 

Nicely done! My Star Trek figures are very jealous!


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## Bernard Guignar (Sep 9, 2006)

Great work Looking forward to seeing your work on Uhura's Station
:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## starmanmm (Mar 19, 2000)

Very nice piece of modeling you have done here. :thumbsup:


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

Thank you all for your kind words. I started cutting styrene for a same-scale bridge station last night.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

VERY nice!


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