Okay folks, here it is... The Enterprise D
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmbhnqBaI apologize for the blur monster. This was a very public place, and faces couldn't always be avoided. For kindness of privacy, I've blurred faces that could be easily identified; seeing this is the internet and a Star Trek topic, who knows how far it'll travel.
Somethings to notice that the Christie's Auction pictures don't show well.
1. There is a lot more gloss. I have videos (which will remain private sorry, but here's a link to a youtube video someone else did:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MZh21_c7aM) that show this in better detail. Its very similar to the Enterprise Refit in how they pop out and disappear. The problem is, they seem truly random. The upper engineering hull from all the angles I remember, have video of, and have pictures, doesn't seem to have many (if any) gloss panels. Where as the saucer seemed to keep it mostly consistent with the lightest blue panels, engineering hull seemed to mix it up a little, and the warp nacelles seemed to have it mostly on the base color.
2. The neck. A true nightmare part for all us builders, and seeing it in person makes it only worse. The AMT neck shape is horrific. The auction pictures didn't seem to quite capture this, but I have several pictures that do. The neck seems a bit more shallow on the slop and rounding more at the base to the engineering hull. the side-walls meeting to the back of the neck are also sharper. It's almost as if the neck flares out as you move aft and then it meets the back slope. It creates a very sharp looking edge.
3. Scale. I'm hoping the pictures I have decided to share show this. This ship is huge. As modelers, at 1/1400 scale, we certainly have our jobs cut out for us, but at this scale the nacelle alone was longer than from my finger tips to my elbow, and just as wide and thick.
4. Grid-lines. The ones on the saucer are almost not noticeable, even at 6ft. At the scales we have available now in kits, well let's say I'm starting to rethink them. The neck and engineering section have deeper and wider ones though.
I have some pictures of DS9 and Excelsior along with a few 1's and 2's of some other props I'll upload as I get time. Don't except much from DS9, it was in the darkest area, and being so large and surrounded by glass, I couldn't get close enough shots of the core of the model. As for Excelsior, I think I've got enough shots to provide us with a good addition to the few pictures out there now.
Hope you all enjoy this contribution to the modeling community.