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Description
This is an old Ertl/ATM Star Trek model kit my Dad gave me back in 1996 as a Christmas present during the first (and last) divorce Christmas. To this day he is the only person to actually get me the things I really wanted as presents. It sat on my dresser finished for years after my buddy, Brad, and I slammed it together in one night.

Holy hell did I get high as a kite on those paint fumes.

Anyways, as it was my first really serious kit, many flaws caused the original assembly to crack and crash to the ground. I would put it back together as nacelles fell off or separations tore its hull apart. I know somewhere along the line the display base fell somewhere in my room. Next time I'm at the trailer I'll hunt it down so I can properly display it. Eventually I hung up the cruiser, where it stayed until I moved to my Grampa's to assist in his home care. Somewhere in that moment I opted to bring it out there in the terrible shape it was deciding I would rebuild it.

Needless to say it was after I finished Split Skull that I started on this project. The first part of the project involved using my cellphone to keep the paint as close to the original Brad and I placed on it in an aerosol/enamel induced high. Then came the disassembly of the old glue and parts.
I remember working on it the night before Grampa died, head still swimming from all the Newcastle's I slammed the night before trying to find a way to deal with the spacing issues in the nacelle to hull connection points. After that night, I didn't touch it for months. Some reason, I didn't want to touch it or any kit for a long time. January would come and I'd work on the Seraphim, Ball, Gaplant, Zaku III... But no time to touch this beast. I just didn't feel right at the time.

Two years rolled by and I finally started to touch the kit again. During the S-Gundam work and finally during my other project /Prototype rebuild, I put the finishing work in the filling, cussing, painting, swearing, and all around emotional rollercoaster that was the rebuild of this ship. I think I spent many days and nights just staring at it and thinking. This kit found its way to me during some of the greatest moments of loss in my life only to be retouched after an even greater sorrow to being finished now that I feel my greatest level of peace ever.

Yeah. So, on a less personal note, this kit was a pain in the ass and reminds me why I hate Ertl/AMT kits so damn much. Gaps are everywhere from the piss-poor engineering. Had to fill parts that had no way of ever coming together like the images I had told me they should. It's a beautiful kit in the end and accuracy of paint is probably next to nonexistent, but who cares? I signed Brad's and my names with the original build year on the inside of the hull. Figured something of our original work should be somewhere on it.

Description
This is an old Ertl/ATM Star Trek model kit my Dad gave me back in 1996 as a Christmas present during the first (and last) divorce Christmas. To this day he is the only person to actually get me the things I really wanted as presents. It sat on my dresser finished for years after my buddy, Brad, and I slammed it together in one night.

Holy hell did I get high as a kite on those paint fumes.

Anyways, as it was my first really serious kit, many flaws caused the original assembly to crack and crash to the ground. I would put it back together as nacelles fell off or separations tore its hull apart. I know somewhere along the line the display base fell somewhere in my room. Next time I'm at the trailer I'll hunt it down so I can properly display it. Eventually I hung up the cruiser, where it stayed until I moved to my Grampa's to assist in his home care. Somewhere in that moment I opted to bring it out there in the terrible shape it was deciding I would rebuild it.

Needless to say it was after I finished Split Skull that I started on this project. The first part of the project involved using my cellphone to keep the paint as close to the original Brad and I placed on it in an aerosol/enamel induced high. Then came the disassembly of the old glue and parts.
I remember working on it the night before Grampa died, head still swimming from all the Newcastle's I slammed the night before trying to find a way to deal with the spacing issues in the nacelle to hull connection points. After that night, I didn't touch it for months. Some reason, I didn't want to touch it or any kit for a long time. January would come and I'd work on the Seraphim, Ball, Gaplant, Zaku III... But no time to touch this beast. I just didn't feel right at the time.

Two years rolled by and I finally started to touch the kit again. During the S-Gundam work and finally during my other project /Prototype rebuild, I put the finishing work in the filling, cussing, painting, swearing, and all around emotional rollercoaster that was the rebuild of this ship. I think I spent many days and nights just staring at it and thinking. This kit found its way to me during some of the greatest moments of loss in my life only to be retouched after an even greater sorrow to being finished now that I feel my greatest level of peace ever.

Yeah. So, on a less personal note, this kit was a pain in the ass and reminds me why I hate Ertl/AMT kits so damn much. Gaps are everywhere from the piss-poor engineering. Had to fill parts that had no way of ever coming together like the images I had told me they should. It's a beautiful kit in the end and accuracy of paint is probably next to nonexistent, but who cares? I signed Brad's and my names with the original build year on the inside of the hull. Figured something of our original work should be somewhere on it.