Star Trek model kits The development of " Star Trek " model kits began shortly after began to air in . AMT acquired the license to produce plastic model kits based on the series and announced their plan to produce a kit of the . The model ' s resounding success at retail prompted AMT ' s development of a follow - up kit , resulting in the creation of the Klingon battle cruiser in . It was specifically designed for AMT by Matt Jefferies . The " D7 " design was soon featured in the third season of " Star Trek " by the show ' s producers . These two models were the only " Star Trek " models AMT released while " The Original Series " was still in production . The only other company , besides AMT / Aurora , that produced model kits while the series was in production , though only just barely , was the Japanese company KSN Midori , in the guise of two differently sized USS " Enterprise " kits , for the Japanese market only . Over the next decade , and after " The Original Series " had wrapped , AMT would expand upon the line to include the Romulan Bird - of - Prey , a Spock figure kit , and scaled versions of " Star Trek " props . Originally , AMT chose not to license the " Star Trek " name outside of the US . Aurora Plastics Corporation , another noted model kit company , leased AMT ' s molds and released the models outside of the US . The Spock figure kit originated from Aurora but a reciprocal leasing agreement gave AMT the exclusive rights to release the figure in the US . AMT bought the Spock figure ' s tooling from Aurora in . At the release of , AMT was owned by ( or rather its parent company Lesney Products & Co . Ltd . ) and began to expand its range to include the refit - " Enterprise " , the battle cruiser , and the long range shuttle . AMT continued to release kits based on the following its acquisition by the Ertl Company in . AMT / Ertl subsequently gained the licenses to produce model kits based on " " and " " . Revell - Monogram were able to outbid AMT / Ertl to license ships from " " . AMT / Ertl ' s original " Star Trek " line came to an end in . Following AMT / Ertl ' s merger with Racing Champions , the company tried to revive the " Star Trek " line with four re - releases in . The line ' s revival strongly improved after when the AMT division was acquired by Round 2 LLC and was given a new and unique AMT branding . Since the 1990s , many other companies including GEOmetric Design , Tsukuda Hobby , Polar Lights , and Bandai have been licensed to produce plastic " Star Trek " model kits . " Star Trek " model kits , both the official ones as well as the below - mentioned " garage " kits , have been covered extensively in a wide range of hobby magazines and book titles concerning themselves with the subject , and of which the British " Sci - Fi & Fantasy Models " publication has , until recently , especially warranted attention . " Garage " model kits . Over the years , from the 1990s onwards after had premiered , several " amateur " ( meaning not officially recognized ) , both unauthorized as well as unlicensed and often short - lived companies , dubbed " garage kit makers " by the model kit community , sprung up , producing " Star Trek " model kits . These " companies " often produced lesser - known canon or fan - designed non - canon classes of starships which were typically made out of glass reinforced plastic ( GRP ) , commonly referred to as " fiberglass " or " resin " ( somewhat incorrectly , as this term also refers to more modern composite plastic materials ) . Fiberglass " conversion kits " to improve or customize officially - released models have also been released , along with " aztec - ing " painting templates , and custom decals . Typically , the production run of items produced by these companies tended to be quite low , numbering in the few hundreds instead of the thousands as produced by the officially licensed model kit companies , thereby becoming relatively rare and quite expensive . This was due to two reasons . Firstly , as amateur companies , these garage companies could not afford the professionally high quality grade steel molds , as utilized by the professional model kit companies , from which the kit parts were cast . Instead lower grade molds were used , typically made out of cheaper material such as baked clay , plastic resin , gypsum or plaster , all of which susceptible to wear and tear far beyond of those used by the professional model kit manufactures , meaning these molds worn out faster by far . For these same ( economical ) reasons , garage kits tended to consist of far fewer parts , cast as solid pieces , meaning that the completed models were quite heavy compared to those having been constructed out of the injection molded plastic parts ( being vacuformed as opposed to those of the garage companies which were simply cast ) of the model kits from their officially licensed counterparts . The quality of garage kits using those molds near the end of their lifespan tended to diminish as cast parts exhibited an ever increasing amount of air bubbles and excess " flash " on the parts , due to widening apertures in the seams of worn out molds . Constructing garage kits therefore required a certain amount of experience on the part of the modeler . Secondly , aside from the practical reasons to keep production runs low , there was a legal one as well . As unauthorized companies , keeping production runs low was also a means to operate under the radar of the Paramount Marketing and Licensing Department ( presently CBS Consumer Products ) , thereby dodging copyright legalities . It appeared however , that the official franchise has , until recently , turned a blind eye to their activities , as no litigations against any of them were hitherto known to exist , publicly at least . No doubt this was due to the fact that many of them were relatively short - lived as well as the fact that virtually all of them initially produced " Star Trek " ships that were not produced or planned by any of the officially licensed model kit companies at the time , even if some of those ships were yet to be produced by them later on , usually at a different scale . In turn , garage companies themselves usually observed strict adherence of not producing ships that " were " produced by the official model kit companies ( though some of them did in later years , again at different scales ) and not showing any official imagery on or in their box - art or instruction sheets as well as not distributing their products directly but rather through official intermediaries . The initial lack of legal actions against them , has emboldened some of the still surviving garage companies , such as Starcraft Models , to employ professional , full - fledged websites , marketing their products . However , while former franchise owner Paramount Pictures had condoned the existence of these companies , new owner CBS Corporation appears to be of a different mindset and has recently started to crack down on these " interlopers " ; the Starcraft Models website for example went unexpectedly dark in late 2015 , and has not been up since . UK - based Warp Models ( one of the first ) , and US - based Federation Models , Nova Hobbies and Starcrafts ( the one currently known as " Starcraft Models " ) were among the best - known unlicensed garage kit makers . Warp Models in particular was noteworthy , as they only produced canon ships and where possible in - scale with those of the AMT product - line . For , John Eaves used a garage kit of the USS " Enterprise " - C to create gold model s of it which were used in the USS " Enterprise " - E ' s Observation Lounge . With the exception of Warp Models , most garage kit companies preferred to release their " Star Trek " products uniformly as 1 : 1400 scale model kits , a scale corresponding with that of AMT ' s 1988 " Enterprise " - D model kit , but otherwise rarely used by the official model kit companies as far as their " Star Trek " product lines were concerned . As a format , garage kit companies not only turned out to be popular for model kits , but for 1 : 3900 scale as well , those originating from FASA in particular , and several specialized gaming miniatures garage companies have also been concurrently in existence .