by Kenton Rusbridge

The convoy of refugee ships is relentlessly attacked every 33 minutes by the Cylons. The fleet must execute an FTL jump to escape the Cylons each time they appear. As a result, the fleet crews have been operating without sleep for days and must strain against fatigue to stay battle-ready and figure out how they are being tracked. The Cylons have just appeared and our heroes must beat a hasty withdrawal back to the Galatica.

Unarguably the two heroes from the coolest sci-fi since B5, this model is of “Starbuck” in her Mk II and “Apollo” in the last remaining MKVII patrolling the fleet, the only line of defence against the overwhelming Cylon threat.

This is a full scratch build (except the basic body of the pilots which were massively epoxy puttied to the right shape).

The first step was building balsa plugs for the bodies, engines, and MK7 canopy. The wings and tails were made from several layers of 1mm styrene while the body was vacuumed formed from 0.5mm styrene and internally supported with expanding polyuthrane foam. The canopies are made from “vivakâ” plastic (Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol thermoplastic) which was fairly nice to work with at 150°C and thermo formed for the MK7 and cut to shape for the frame of the MK2. The cockpits and MK7 engines were hand made from styrene while the MK2's engines were made from black plastic piping. The base is routed pine with the Galactica emblem made from two layers of styrene. The guns were made out of various plastic lollypop stalks.

The ships were both air brushed with Citadel paints and Futured, then weathered with chalk pastels, and lettered with dry decals.

I'm dying to see the second season, which hasn't aired here yet while some of you are watching season 3 ....

Image: Mk VII

Image: Mk VII engines

Image: Cockpit

Image: MK II

Image: Cockpit

Image: Rear view