WonderFest

The Art of Miniature Starships Filmmaking lives in the details. On screen, a starship is not just a prop; it is a character, a vessel for narrative, and a triumph of practical industrial design. At Wonderfest, modelmakers gather to show how these onscreen illusions can be meticulously recreated in the physical world. Star Trek has always relied heavily on miniature effects to establish its grand sense of scale. Among the most challenging designs to capture are the smaller support vessels—the shuttles and runabouts that carry characters on their personal journeys. Modern 3D printing and classic painting techniques now allow modelers to achieve a level of fidelity that rivals, and sometimes surpasses, the original filming models used on television sets in the 1990s. Building the Massive Deep Space Nine Runabout Modelmaker Lou Dalmaso brought a stunning 1/32 scale Runabout to the convention floor, a model originally designed for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This massive vehicle represents a specialized "camper" style of spacecraft, designed for extended science and tactical missions. Dalmaso built his masterpiece using a highly detailed 3D-printed resin kit from Cozmic Scale Models. Because the original television designers never established exactly how the main entry hatch opened on screen, Dalmaso consulted legendary Star Trek designer Rick Sternbach to propose a custom solution. Dalmaso sliced the door open manually, engineering a hybrid sliding-ramp mechanism that Sternbach himself approved as canon-worthy. Inside, Dalmaso populated the miniature with custom figures, creating ten distinct micro-narratives—from a secret ops briefing to a humorous moment of a scientist poking an unknown object. Recreating Voyager's Sleek Speedboat Shuttle Taking a different aesthetic approach, Augie Gonzalez presented the Type 9 shuttlecraft, affectionately dubbed the "speedboat" of Star Trek: Voyager. This ship echoes the streamlined, curved aesthetics of its parent starship. To elevate his build, Gonzalez focused on advanced paint modulation and dramatic staging. Instead of scribing panel lines, which risked uneven edges on the complex hull contours, Gonzalez masked and airbrushed subtle gradients using a slightly darkened mix of ivory and white-gray. Gonzalez placed his shuttle in a dramatic pre-mission diorama. He opened the rear hatch, anchoring it with miniature magnets to facilitate safe travel. By populating the scene with highly expressive, custom-printed figures—including characters like Chakotay, B'Elanna Torres, and Seven of Nine—he successfully built depth that guides the viewer's eye from the busy foreground action directly into the illuminated cockpit. Why Miniature Storytelling Matters These physical builds do more than show off technical proficiency. They preserve a legacy of hands-on physical production design. By combining high-resolution 3D printing with hand-painted micro-details, artists like Dalmaso and Gonzalez keep the spirit of classic modelmaking alive. They prove that behind-the-scenes artistry is an ongoing dialogue between the original creators and the passionate makers who study their work.