A Moebius Battlestar Galactica...sorta.

[Eagle-1]

okayyyy I'm confused (not hard I know), I keep expecting this to be an egg-Galactica but it's not is it, it's an actual model of the studio model? Great detail upgrades, that gun battery looks excellent.

Rumors. That's what that right there is. Egg sumthin or other? The last thing you'll more than likely ever to hear come outta my mouth, probably, much less post the likes of such on something like an open forum would be somethin' to do with, what was it you said... egg model... type thing? Something shaped like an egg? From me??? A totally serious guy??? Somebody told you lies and I don't even know how to spell egg, much less type it.



(Thank you for the compliment.)

I watch Galactica as a kid and am currently watching it through again on Amazon. I did watch the remake, but gave up after a few series because I came to the conclusion that none of the characters were particularly likable and I didn't actually give a shit whether they survived or not - I also thought the special effects on the old version were better.

Same here for the shows. Loved the old didn't like the new much at all. I'll be damned if I was gonna get involved with one of them folks, give 'em my heart and soul, put all my faith in 'em and find out they was a stinkin' Cylon. With the old one, even on our black and white TV, you could smell them Cylons comin' even through a commercial break!

I don't know who come up with that stoopid idea for them to look like us.

Rob.

[Eagle-1]

Ok y'all, with this next bit of whittlin' I hit my first snag. I moved back toward the back where I was headin' when I backed up on them guns and continued to work at the rear of this mid section of the kit. I'll post the stock version and what I did, but this is where the problem came in.

Here's where I thought I was shootin' for:



Here's stock out the box again:



Here's what I was able to did with it:







Now, that seemed to have come out alright to me, but there was something about the studio model (which I'm trying to copy, right), that was slightly different it seems over the years since the show, so I had to stop and start doin' some scratchin' around.

As usual, the original Galactica, more than likely, got shipped around and things got changed, modified, restored and just plain fell off the model. It was also used at least once for a movie back in the years after the series ended. They flew it backwards in the film to try and make it look like a different ship, but anyone who ever saw the Galactica... I mean... come on?

Well, digging through things, I came to the conclusion that what the Galactica looks like in most of those restoration pictures I had been using were not what was there when it was in the series. A couple reference photos showed glimpses, but what sealed it was a good old fashioned screen grab from the opening sequence of the show itself.

THIS is what was on-screen:
Screen caps:



Now, I do have a couple reference pictures to back that up, but this publicity photo should do since I can't readily find others at the moment. Of course.



Now, that meant that what I showed earlier had to be scraped off, thrown on the floor, stomped, rolled around under my foot and when I stopped crying and was able to clear the tears outta my eyes, I re-did it this way:



I'm more satisfied with that and I'm fairly certain that's more close to what should be there.

Rob.

[Stuart]

More excellent stuff!

With you on the whole 'they look like us' storyline on the new series, that was a seriously lame idea.

[Eagle-1]

Shoulda specified maybe? They looked like y'all. If they looked like me, it wouldn't a been no hidin' 'em. THERE'S ONE! THERE'S ANOTHER ONE.

Show's over in an hour. If they got 40 minutes of "B" roll that is.

Rob.

[Stikpusher]

Ok y'all, with this next bit of whittlin' I hit my first snag. I moved back toward the back where I was headin' when I backed up on them guns and continued to work at the rear of this mid section of the kit. I'll post the stock version and what I did, but this is where the problem came in.

Here's where I thought I was shootin' for:



Rob.

Let’s see how, the outboard turrets come from a Sdkfz 231/232, the smaller upper hulls are Sdkfz 250’s… and in between those looks like possibly the underside plate of a Kübelwagel…

[Eagle-1]

Ok, you ain't too bad at this huh? Before you go too far, ID the right stuff!

Here's another publicity photo and a couple of what I have as a VERY good replica that I have been using as fact with the parts still intact for the show.

Publicity shot of the real deal:


Replica:




Alright, NOW go! In fact, if you can figure out what that is in front of that Bismarck turret, PALEEEASE say it.



The one just behind this Morser Karl piece.



Rob.

[Eagle-1]

At this point in this build, the engine section seemed to be a section that would need more work than the rest was needing to improve the overall more accurate appearance and I was dreading it a little and actually went back to the head and started a little more work there before I tackled the engine section.

Before I did though, I had started a couple detail pieces for the engine, which kinda showed me I would need a great deal of work on it and paused to return to the head.

On the studio model, there are a couple pieces that were rarely seen in builds, not even some replicas of the full size ones and certainly not any builds of kits this small. Again, I think they are parts that stand out on the studio model and wanted some on this one, so I had to put on the scratch building hat once more.

They are these here:



What those turned out to be were an engine from this TAMIYA kit:





It always helps, of course, to see or even have the kits or pieces that were used on a studio model if you'll need to replicate parts.

Here's what I was able to do. Maybe not perfect, but they certainly look the part and after I cleaned 'em up some, they are ready to go where they belong.



Now, when I mentioned (especially for those who aren't familiar with this kit's size), this should help?



And here they are in place (temporarily) where they'll go.




Along with these Ferrari pieces, there are some AIRFIX Saturn V engine bells that needed some improvement, so while I had all these magnifiers still strapped to my head and mounted on the desk, I made a few of those too.







I'll add all this later on down the line.

Rob.

[Stikpusher]

The circled parts have me stumped... I can't say that those have been on any kit that I've built before... the turrets aft of those look like German battleship turrets...

[Eagle-1]

Ok, do what I do and it'll help.

Go get all your stashed kits, pour them out in the bed of your truck (or living room floor if it's raining or snowing), lay down and start crawling over them with a magnifying glass.

BINGO!

You'll find out you need to buy more kits to spread around.

It's a win win.

Rob.

[Eagle-1]

At this point in this build, the engine section seemed to be a section that would need more work than the rest was needing to improve the overall more accurate appearance and I was dreading it a little and actually went back to the head and started a little more work there before I tackled the engine section.

Before I did though, I had started a couple detail pieces for the engine, which kinda showed me I would need a great deal of work on it and paused to return to the head.

Scratch that. Hold it. I take that back. Since this is all a repost, I'll continue with what I did to the engine section. It keeps the flow going, for anyone who may be interested in any of this.

The next few steps got a little deep and took a bit of time.

As I said, this engine section, compared to the studio model, lacked any depth of detail and just didn't make much of a show. I know it's a model kit and there are limitations to what they can mold, but to do this any justice, I did this first:

Again, next to an un-modded kit part:


Here's where I'm trying to go:


I shaved the entire detail off and filled the hole with Bondo auto filler to give me a new flat surface. To help with some of what I needed to replace all that with on this part, I vac-formed some random shapes to use. I may not have mentioned it in the beginning, but I do plan to re-use just as much of the original model that I can, but back here, there won't be a great deal re-used. The detail just wasn't there.



Here's some of the kit reference I used to scratch much of these replacement parts"

Tamiya John Player Special:




Hasegawa Leopold:




Hasegawa Morser Karl:



And a couple others.

I started putting things back and to keep the reading down, I'll just post the pictures as it went along. Anything anyone would like explained, just say the word!



























At the time I had this mostly together, I had made all those tank tread along each side from scratch. On the studio model, they are TAMIYA 1/25th Centurion tank tracks. I found a suitable donor kit during this time (or way closer anyway) and replaced all the tread with more proper Centurion tracks. Also, that tank deck right in the center of this section are the other set of grills I mentioned in an earlier post and I'll be making those better too.

Rob.