Meanwhile, in the world of fan tech...



Though there's a devoted hardcore contingent of Trek tech fans out there, it sometimes seems like the last few years have been less than fulfilling for them. Pocket hasn't been able to make the numbers add up right to produce affordable tech publications, and the golden age of fan tech seemed to be behind us, as well. But now Eric Kristiansen is planning new and revised editions of his Jackill's guides. (That's one of the originals above; I don't yet have a copy of the first of the new editions. Check this space in a month or so.)



And I discovered that I missed a book a couple years ago. This is a somewhat updated collection of three pamphlets first published in the 1970s (and reportedly often counterfeited since), now in the form of a trade paperback. It's a guide for model builders who want their classic Star Trek models to look as authentic as possible. I was crap at building models as a teenager, not having the patience to let the glue dry properly, or the paint, or the decals. Sometimes I didn't even bother reading the instructions closely, with dire results. Obviously I needed this book. It' s no longer the only source on the subject (see Spaceships at the Final Frontier: Building Star Trek Models), but it's detailed, focused, and may also bring back a heck of a lot of nostalgia for anyone who was a fan back in the 1970s and tried building those old AMT kits.