By Steve McKinnon

Scale: None stated

The battleship Behemoth was constructed inthe hopes of decisively ending the Earth/Gresk War of the early 21st Century. Taking a cue from warship design of the mid-20th Century sea-going battleships, the 1161' (354 m) long warship possesses a trio of magna-pulse guns (one on each "wing" and one in the bow) as well as 12 laser turrets, twin nuclear torpedo tubes, a rear-facing hangar bay for attack craft, and a crew of 1200.

The Model:

The Behemoth is a merging of the 18" AMT/Ertl USS Excelsior kit and a foot-long Japanese import model of the USS Missouri, with warplane wings and other odds and ends thrown in.

For over a year I'd had the main hull from the Excelsior kit sitting on my "unfinished business" box because I couldn't decide what kind of ship I wanted to make from it, or even what to put on the top side. Then the Starship Modeler Battlewagons contest was announced, and I knew I'd found the category I was looking for. I've always liked the battleship design of the Yamato from Starblazers, and decide on that kind of multi-layered superstructure with a lot of guns.

I built the towers, bridge, side guns and stacks from the Japanese battleship Missouri kit, for the most part as they should be. These fit perfectly on the top of the Excelsior secondary hull, but backwards since it had been cut off a couple inches past the navigational deflector for use in a different project.

I wanted a rough, detailed surface for the top and bottom of the ship, so I added several rectangular "hatches" made from the small numbered tabs on plastic model parts trees. I had the idea of two of the main guns projecting off from the sides, and used some spare warplane wings inserted into the aft hull to mount them.

I didn't want the Behemoth to have a smooth, even paint job from a finish so I painted it once by hand, allowing whatever streaks or rough spots to remain to give a worn look to the hull. Yellow was used for the glow of a trio of warp engines at the stern. I finished the ship with black and white dots applied with a toothpick to simulate windows, and a rear hangar door above the engines made from Enterprise-D decals. Dry transfer decals list the Behemoth as B40.

Image: Flyby

Image: Head-on view

Image: Underneath