2025 Arisia Paper Modeling Workshop

The Trek Shuttle Returns

Well, after a long (long) hiatus, the opportunity to do a paper modeling workshop that is not just for kids has returned for this Arisia. Unfortunately, the panel length is going to be tight and getting a simple model that would be buildable in the allotted time is tricky. Various designs were tried out, which will make for good subsequent posts. The trick is finding something more interesting than a cube (say Borg starship) and yet still not super complicated. In the end I settled for looking at one of the oldest models out on the internet for inspiration. This led me to a kit published by the late Ulrich Prahn back in the 90s. The files are still available from a site maintained by Oliver Götz .

The Type 15 Shuttle - El-Baz

The Type 15 shuttle which was introduced in Star Trek - The Next Generation was meant to be a small 1 to 2 person shuttlecraft. It allowed individual crew members to do simple trips beyond the range of the ship's transporters. In a way it was really just a "pod" with interplanetary capacity. This is of course familiar to anyone who is a fan.

The featured shuttles carried various names and allowed the show to memorialize other participants in the advancement of science beyond Galileo and Columbus (even fictional ones perhaps in naming one "Pike"). Shuttle 5 - El-Baz is a reference to Farouk El-Baz, a NASA geologist who worked on lunar geology and moon landing site selection during the Apollo program. 

The Type 15 shuttle was designed to exist as a full sized prop for the show. As a result the design is fairly simple. More than just a box, its angled wall design and low engine mountings recall a sort of miniature version of the original series shuttle craft Galileo. The flat sides also work well for cardstock much like the original did for wood panels.

The Workshop Kit

While I originally wanted to scratch something up, it is easier just to work with Ulrich Prahn's kit, but some modifications were made to make it a faster build. The kit was scaled up as much as possible, while still limiting it to a two page kit. Some parts were also modified to allow for easier assembly. The most extensive change was coloring it in. Presumably, the kit was originally worked up before color printing was easily available so the original is only available as a black and white print (actually the originals were themselves ported to "gif" formats from postscript). 

The kit was also originally developed before the myriad of show references could easily be found. As a result it isn't exactly accurate to the miniatures used on the show. Then again, the show's full sized prop could vary quite a bit. The separate engines were never physically attached to the prop just dropped next to the fuselage more or less in the same area.

For a limited time, I'm going to have the workshop files linked here. I hope to work up my own version soon based on drawings from the original prop and photos of the shooting miniature. I have also added some detail parts that can enhance the look of this model. These details are left as an add on, since there really isn't enough time to work on it at the workshop. Given that you may want to try a more careful and less frantic build, the files are available below for download.

• The Kit
• Extra Details (if added, skip step 1 on the instruction sheet and do that at the end since these extra parts really pertain to those detail parts. You will need a hobby knife for these)
• Instructions

General Instructions

Pretty much the standard for cardstock models. I've detailed stuff on the original workshop post back from 2011. With regard to the detailed parts, these were designed to fit this modified workshop kit and not the original. These parts pages are only temporary, and new parts pages will be uploaded when available.

Last Words...

If participation in the workshop has sparked your interest - GREAT. Paper modeling is a great way to approach the fandom without much more investment than resources you may have already, namely glue, scissors, and a color printer. Of course, there are lot of technicalities like the kind of paper and cardstock you deal with, specialty tools like hobby knives or tweezers, and special techniques in construction and assembly. For that I would suggest you visit my subject page off this blog which has links to other article pages on paper modeling and try out Ulrich Prahn's other kits linked here and above. While the El-Baz is the simplest, the others are also not bad beginner kits. Moreover, you can practice kit modification since if you want them in color you will need to modify them with some photo/drawing software such as Gimp, Krita, or Photoshop which is fun in an of itself.

Modelin' Monday: My First Paper Trek

Well, its more or less ready for posting. As mentioned earlier, this was a project for a paper model that could be built in under an hour for an Arisia crafting workshop. I got some suggestions from the Starship Modeler Forum's paper section and caveats to limit myself to just simple geometric shapes. This is probably true, but at the same time I would like something more interesting than a simple geometric object like a pyramid or cube (although I do appreciate and plan to use the Borg cube, kindly offered by Marco Scheloske). There were these cool modular paper models that were somewhat simple, but on closer examination, may take a while for some of the more sophisticated iterations. I still hope to work them into the workshop (the website is long gone but survives at the web archive, although there is hope that it will return). I was also reminded of some of the simpler, beginner kits at the Lower Hudson Valley e-gift shop, as well as some gaming models.
Returning to the main topic though, I created this simplified version of a Star Trek - The Motion Picture era shuttle (see previous entry) that is slightly more sophisticated than a box. It benefits from being simple, so instructions are not critical. The parts fit on one page, and there was room for a few more details. I'm currently working on a second page for anyone who wants to elaborate on the details a bit more. Hopefully soon I'll also have a slightly more curvy version that follows the lines of the ship implied by Probert more closely, albeit within reason for paper, meaning that it doesn't need to be folded 4 or 5 times just to round a corner.

           

                       

This last image linked to jpg of model - PhotoBucket links have been removed

It's about 370Kb and for now located here. There really wasn't any room for instructions. As a result, you should probably use the following info. The tabs are listed alphabetically on the body in the order to be glued (letter on tab and near edge that it should match). Not mentioned specifically on the page is the scoring of the folds which makes assembly of the body way easier. On the nose, there is a valley fold that goes from the notch behind the "b" tabs (the green arrow) to the nose fold. Also valley fold the tab that connects the upper nose to the top back piece. All other tabs are mountain folds. Also, score for the mountain fold on the lower part of the rear bulkhead (from the notch in the tab straight across to the other notch). The dock doors are perhaps best glued to a thicker piece of card and cut just shallow of the teeth and then pushed through from the inside to the end of the tunnel tube. The thing can be slapped together in about an hour with some care, and some assembly pipelining such as building the docking tunnel while waiting for the fuselage to get more or less dry. The pictured model used standard card stock.
    Again, this is just a simple "slap in an hour" version with extra bits that can be glued on later such as the anti-grav doo-dads, EM propulsion thingies and GNDN tankage. Share and Enjoy.

Modeling Monday: Andrew Probert's Old New Shuttle

When Star Trek the Motion Picture was released, Andrew Probert was kept on to redesign the exteriors of the vehicles and environs for the movie "Enterprise" based on the initial designs for the abortive "Phase II" TV project. Of course, all Trek heads pretty much know this already. One of the distinctive ships in the movie was the Vulcan Shuttle that Spock travels on to intercept the Enterprise on its emergency mission. At the time, Probert stated that he also wanted to use this shuttle module design as the basis for a new shuttle design for the Enterprise, albeit in a somewhat more compact form. He included this design in his proposed matte views of the hangar deck and are included in "Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise" which still sits in my bookcase (The book also has a profile of this shuttle). In the end, the producers left the shuttle bay empty in the final matte painting and so this design is not considered canon, in fact considering the dearth of other references, it practically doesn't exist at all (There's a reference to it as an "SW7 class" shuttle, why...beats me).
Enter Arisia 2011, where I've been accepted to talk about sci-fi modeling and run a paper modeling workshop and the problem is how to make a model in 50 minutes. After setting up the proposal on the forum at starship modeler, I get some caveats about glue drying and folding and that it may be hard. Then I remember the Probert ST-TMP shuttle and think - it's really just a box right. So now I've embarked on kitting the shuttle. It's been an interesting process being the first time I've used modeling software (Blender) to do this as opposed to just trigonometry.
The end result has been a shuttle on one page that builds in under an hour. Now just to finalize the details. Maybe somebody can use it to recreate the scene in Andrew Probert's painting.
(Needless to say since this post the model was indeed finished - it's the next post Modelin' Monday: My First Paper Trek)