Why Cassiopeia?























A good while back, I had gotten tired of the lack of new, original Trek
material on the bookshelves.  I figured that all possible stories about Kirk,
Spock, and McCoy had been told. Let's face it: after forty years and
hundreds of books, what could possibly be left?

I decided to write the New Definitive Trek Novel. I read and re-read The
Making of Star Trek, trying to get back in that late Sixties/early Seventies
frame of mind... way back before... well, let's not go there. I wanted to go
back to basics. The ship was, of course, USS Cassiopeia, NCC-1984. She's
a TOS-era Miranda class.  Got all the major characters worked out. It works.

A man's got to have props while he's combatting writer's block.

Back in the early '90s, I got a bunch of TOS props at a very very good deal.
However, the Phaser (which I later found out was a recast of the 23rd
Century Pistol!) had been painted with a thin coat of gray primer and it was
starting to wear thin. The green resin was showing through, making it look
like a blushing Vulcan.

So, I finally decided that my prized possession needed repainting. After a lot
of surfing, and feeling like I was the only person in the world interested in
Props, I discovered the world of Prop Forums.

My brain went into overload with the proliferate influx of information. I found
out the right color, of course, but I didn't stop there. I ended up building my
own 23C (see below).

One day I got a PM from Stingray. He asked me if I could put some metal
parts on his AA Phaser. I had seen some of the work that a guy code-named
IAmKirok had done so. I said I'd give it a try. Three months later,
USSCassiopeia AA #1 was born. (A note about IAmKirok: He's a master. As
a modeller, I'm not fit to carry his sanding-blocks. He's also the guy that
makes the resin BW/Middie fins we sell here.)

People on the boards wanted to know how I was doing it, so I started posting
pics and writing an impromptu tutorial. Then people started wanting me to
mod their AAs.........

The novel was stillborn but Cassie is alive and well.

Now, some of my friends and family are adding their time and resources...
my wife chains me in the prop workshop every evening (She not only
supports my morals, but she does the bookkeeping and sanding as well!),
and we (Yes, we're really a WE!) are doing what we love.

So now you know why I get so excited when you guys get some use out of
the Tutorial - it's how we got started in this biz to begin with!
The first prop I ever built - a 23rd Century Pistol. I'm
never going to do THAT again!
A Kitbashed Polar Lights TOS Enterprise in 1/1000th
scale. JTGraphics supplied the decals.