SciPubTech

SciPubTech was a Michigan based company that published highly detailed so called cut-away posters of vessels that have appeared in the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises. Headed by Martin X. Petz, the first publication was the cut-away poster of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) in 1991. The two artist responsible for the artwork were Chris Cushman and Matt Cushman. Chris Cushman was inspired by the cut-away poster David A. Kimble had done of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)-refit for "Mind's Eye Press" in 1986, based on his The Motion Picture Blueprints. As he recalled on his blog:

"In 1987 Star Trek The Next Generation had debuted on TV and the world of Star Trek was re-born and in my mind the thought of getting involved in Star Trek was possible. In 1990 providence/fait and the opportunity presented it self or should I say himself. While sitting in the lobby of the Cadillac Fleetwood Plant waiting for and engineering meeting I happen to overhear a gentleman introduce himself to the receptionist in a way as if she should know who he was. It was David Kimble himself. Not wanting to miss an opportunity to meet this famous illustrator I walked up and introduced myself. I told him I was an illustrator with GM and that I had really enjoyed his work including most of all the Enterprise Poster! He asked if he could stop by my office the next day as he was headed to the GM Tech Centre where I worked and asked if he could see some of my work! Some of my work! Wow I was very excited and I went home that day picking out a few choice pieces I had worked on as well I took a sketch of the Enterprise D from the Next Gen that I had drawn as I wanted to get his opinion.

"The next day David stopped by and looked at my portfolio, and asked me on the spot if I would be interested in doing freelance work for him. He explained all the details and the level of work he would be needing which was to a very high standard. I asked him what he thought of the Enterprise illustration I had started and he loved it, I pushed the conversation into the direction of a possible collaboration figuring he had the contacts at Paramount. He looked less than happy when I mentioned that explaining that he had not profited from the first poster very well and preferred not to work with them again.

"He sensed my disappointment and immediately offered up to put me in contact with someone at Paramount. I sent a letter and a copy of the illustration to the person he suggested who contacted me back stating they did not work with individuals but loved the work and suggested that I find a licensed Star Trek product company who might take my piece to the next level. Undaunted I sent letters to many of the companies on the list paramount provided me and within a few weeks I had gotten shot down with five or six responses. I was working freelance for a company called JDT Associates in Rochester Michigan and one day I shared my story and illustration with the owner. She immediately saw the value in the property and set out to become a licensee of Paramount. Within a year the project was on and I began to take the illustration to the next level. Paramount began to provide substantive input to my illustration with advanced galleys of a new book they were producing, the Next Gen Technical Manual. As well comments from Mike Okuda from the Star Trek art department started to flow in. To accommodate the level of detail the drawing was enlarged to 77 inches in length as this would allow me to draw the details of each deck."

Eventually this resulted in the company's first production, the Enterprise-D cut-away poster in. Though being considered non-canon, the fact that their products were officially licensed, caused the creative team to seek out as much feedback from the Star Trek production team as possible and were given thus, as Doug Drexler recalled on his blog in regard to the upcoming cut-away poster of the original USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), "The SciPub Tech cutaway came along first, but was run through the art department, where we gave extensive notes. Their original version had Main Engineering in the primary hull, and no big Engineering dept in the secondary hull. We asked them to change that. They were more than happy to.".

Several others would follow, as well as three from the Star Wars franchise, but after the release of the USS Voyager cut-away poster in 1999, no further publications were released, though one of the USS Defiant (2370) was announced.