It was at this time that the changes had been made to the bridge, the navigation dome, and forward sensor array. Mark Stetson says that because of these changes the model had to be re-painted and that Paul Olsen was hired back to supervise that. More lighting was also added.
Interestingly, I found another promo shot of the model taken around the time of this picture (as it’s missing the deflector dish array), this time used on the cover of some trivia book I keep in a basket for bathroom reading:
Few points of interest:
- Old bridge dome
- TOS-style sensor dome
- no deflector dish
- old-style torpedo launcher
- seemingly complete lighting and paint job
Someone should interview as many of the original model makers as they can and write a book. Maybe with a week-by-week breakdown of the history and construction of this model as I swear no two pictures before filming have the model in the same state.