# The Clear Enterprise D - a failure?



## Bay7 (Nov 8, 1999)

Was the release of the clear 1701-D a deemed a failure by PL?

On paper it seems like a great idea although i though it odd that when it was released there wasn't a massive in-rush of lit models appearing on the boards.

I bought one but it sits in a box somewhere.

I know clear is difficult to manufacture - i think the PL 1/1000 kits would be good in clear but I suppose the great experiment is over?

Steve


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## robiwon (Oct 20, 2006)

I thought the same thing. I know clear plastic is more brittle, maybe too many people were breaking them?


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## Sparky (Feb 21, 2004)

I was a bit disappointed when Round 2 re-released the 1701E that it wasn't in clear like the 1701D. That made me think that Round 2 might be done with clear releases.


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

I wonder if people expected some retooling to correct whatever flaws are in the kit (I have to assume they're plentiful, as seems to be the opinion of some for ALL the old AMT kits.  ), or if they thought they HAD to light the kit because it was clear, or maybe, maybe, all those windows to mask was just too daunting a task. 

I dunno. I still vote for an all new tool 1701-D in 1/1000 scale. Ain't I a stinker?


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## SUNGOD (Jan 20, 2006)

There should be more releases in clear plastic.


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## Bay7 (Nov 8, 1999)

Perhaps they could do some limited editions?

The smaller 1/2500's could do with being clear, I have a crazy notion that if say, the 1701 was clear, you could insert 1 or 2 SMD LED's, paint the ship silver and enough light would bounce around inside the ship to light whatever you needed.

Steve


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

SUNGOD said:


> There should be more releases in clear plastic.


*pfft* Glow in the Dark plastic. 1/350 Enterprise in GID. Completely insane and impractical, but it would be a beautiful thing.


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## Trek Ace (Jul 8, 2001)

Since the shelves of hobby shops and online inventories seem to be virtually devoid of them, I would imagine that they sold well. So. it makes sense that Round 2 would repop the "_D_" in clear again.

I would hope that both the _C_ and the _E_ would warrant clear-cast releases. I still have a spare _Yamaguchi_ in clear that I haven't built yet. I should build it as the _Enterprise-C_.


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## Hunk A Junk (Jan 28, 2013)

I'd still like one, but they're nowhere to be found at a reasonable price. If anyone knows...


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## btbrush (Sep 20, 2010)

Trek Ace said:


> Since the shelves of hobby shops and online inventories seem to be virtually devoid of them, I would imagine that they sold well. So. it makes sense that Round 2 would repop the "_D_" in clear again.
> 
> I would hope that both the _C_ and the _E_ would warrant clear-cast releases. I still have a spare _Yamaguchi_ in clear that I haven't built yet. I should build it as the _Enterprise-C_.


Funny you mentioned that. When I designed the "C" while at ERTL, I had just about finished the design when I got an email from Mike Okuda at Paramount saying the photos he had sent were actually the Yamaguchi and it differed from the "C" here, here, and here. So I figured out how to correct it and we put the changes in the instruction sheet. 
Clear plastic is more expensive than grey and is difficult at best to see and mask detail. I told them it was a bad idea.


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## ClubTepes (Jul 31, 2002)

SUNGOD said:


> There should be more releases in clear plastic.


I agree.

I don't consider the clear 'D' a failure at all.

Years and years ago, I and a few others championed the then powers that be at AMT/Ertl, about releasing of the TNG era ships in clear plastic.

The reason being, are all the oblong shaped windows.
Drilling all of them out is insane.

AMT/Ertl answered that call in the form of the USS Yamaguchi.

I felt that naming the kit something other than the Enterprise 'C' was a mistake from a marketing standpoint - as Grandma, looking for a gift for little Johnny might pass up this subject, and pick up anything else called 'Enterprise'.
However, I'm sure that didn't adversely affect sales that much.

I was very happy when Jamie from Round2 did a clear release of the 'D'.
Yes, the kit has some pretty major flaws. 
And IF sales of this release were weak, it MAY have been to the fact that no corrections were made to the tooling.
But I do feel that releasing it in clear likely boosted sales a bit.

Clear styrene is indeed brittle and one has to be careful working with it.

However, clear ABS is less brittle, and that plastic was used in the release of the clear DS-9.

I would love to see further kits released in clear (ABS).
The 'E' for sure.


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## charonjr (Mar 27, 2000)

Is there anything other than super glue to join ABS? Also, I thought the Enterprise C kit engines weren't correct at the Bussard domes? It seemed as though they were too square somehow.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Clear kits, IMHO, are one of the dumbest ideas ever. The stuff is difficult to work with, expensive to produce, and, if you aren't going to put lights in the kit, a total waste.

ABS can be glued with a lot of the better solvent type glues. Plastruct makes an ABS glue as well as styrene glues. Tamiya has a dedicated ABS glue as well


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## charonjr (Mar 27, 2000)

I've been holding off on DS9, because I used to use cyanoacrylate on models back in the '80s. Ten years later, the seems on my TOS Enterprise had completely split! Apparently from simple expansion/contraction of the plastic from temperature changes through the years. Superglue does not like torgue.


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## Hunk A Junk (Jan 28, 2013)

The appeal of a clear kit is ease of lighting. That's especially true on kits like the E-D and DS9 that feature a couple hundred tiny windows to light. But it isn't a perfect solution -- you still have to mask all those windows (on the E-D) or scrape away paint in order to get the light to shine through. After seeing the way Bandai has engineered its kits to have paint sub-assemblies as separate pieces, however, (like on the R2-D2 kit) it seems like a better solution is to make the hull with the windows crisply cut out. How many of us with the Revel Voyager kit, for example, have spent hours and hours drilling out windows in order to light it? Hopefully as molding technology improves (and Bandai is showing us what can be done right now) we'll get better engineered kits that allow us to light without using an entirely clear hull.


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## ClubTepes (Jul 31, 2002)

djnick66 said:


> Clear kits, IMHO, are one of the dumbest ideas ever. The stuff is difficult to work with, expensive to produce, and, if you aren't going to put lights in the kit, a total waste.
> 
> ABS can be glued with a lot of the better solvent type glues. Plastruct makes an ABS glue as well as styrene glues. Tamiya has a dedicated ABS glue as well


Obviously, thats your opinion and your entitled to it.

And, as I've pointed out, clear ABS is less brittle than clear Styrene.
Added expense? Please elaborate....... accurately.
A tooling meant for something like a canopy, does need to be polished to a higher degree than a regular part.
However, since ABS is a softer plastic than styrene, it can be shot into any existing tool without damaging it. It just won't be optically clear.

At what point does it become the modelers responsibility to be able to work with the materials provided?

If your going to completely paint the subject, then original material doesn't matter. It could be day-glow pink.

I CAN, see the logic behind shooting a kit in 'color accurate' plastic, to help out less experienced modelers create a reasonable kit.

And in the reverse, shooting a kit in clear, can help out the more experienced modelers create an even more realistic result.

Unfortunately, there really isn't a great middle ground on this issue when the windows aren't molded as separate pieces.


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## jgoldsack (Apr 26, 2004)

Well I had this long response written, and accidentally hit my back button.. and lost it.

so my TL;DR : I think the clear D was a huge success, just look at how hard it is to find. I had no issues with assembly or brittleness, and would have bought more if I could have.

For Trek models with lots of tiny windows (looking at you C,D,E), clear is the way to go.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...11241416.1073741855.1470098566&type=3&theater

hard to get it that nice without clear.


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## RossW (Jan 12, 2000)

> Well I had this long response written, and accidentally hit my back button.. and lost it.
> 
> so my TL;DR : I think the clear D was a huge success, just look at how hard it is to find. I had no issues with assembly or brittleness, and would have bought more if I could have.
> 
> ...


Beautiful work! The windows are just right.


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## Landru (May 25, 2009)

Well we did get the clear DS9. An interesting idea but somewhat impractical as the windows can be created with a pin vise and canopy glue easily. Masking the thing would be hard and scratching out windows is just as easy as drilling them in the first place.


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## Sparky (Feb 21, 2004)

If creating each window is simply drilling a single hole and filling with canopy glue, then drilling is fine. For rectangular or oval shaped windows, I would much rather deal with masking or scratching. Would love to have a set of aftermarket window masks for a clear kits like the 1701D.


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## Landru (May 25, 2009)

Sparky said:


> If creating each window is simply drilling a single hole and filling with canopy glue, then drilling is fine. For rectangular or oval shaped windows, I would much rather deal with masking or scratching. Would love to have a set of aftermarket window masks for a clear kits like the 1701D.


Agreed.


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## MLCrisis32 (Oct 11, 2011)

Landru said:


> Well we did get the clear DS9. An interesting idea but somewhat impractical as the windows can be created with a pin vise and canopy glue easily. Masking the thing would be hard and scratching out windows is just as easy as drilling them in the first place.


I agree but the ENT-D are long, rectangular windows so you have to drill 3 holes + chop up the rest for every hole. It's tedious which is why the clear D was a cool idea.


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## Trek Ace (Jul 8, 2001)

The original six-foot studio model of the D was cast in clear (or, at least, translucent) material. The windows were masked on both the inside and out with tape that was die-cut specifically to fit. The hull pieces were then light-blocked with opaque paint inside and out, followed by the removal of the inside window masks. The model was then assembled and finished on the exterior, with the final step being the removal of the outer window masks.

This was all well-documented in various magazine articles published at the time, and it served as a great guide for many of us who built the clear kits. I would hope that any further reissues of the kit would be in clear, along with a hopeful 1/1000 scale kit in the future.


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## SteveR (Aug 7, 2005)

You know, it wouldn't even have to be water clear, would it?


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## Trek Ace (Jul 8, 2001)

It could be shot with translucent ABS, like the Pegasus 1953 Martian War Machine. That would save having to sand/frost/dullcote or otherwise diffuse the interior, and be much stronger and more durable than the overly-brittle clear styrene.


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## SteveR (Aug 7, 2005)

... and with die-cut masks, easy peasy! (tweezy)


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