By David Hyde

If the Battlestar is the heart and soul of the Colonial fleet, then the Caprican Heavy Cruiser is it's strong right arm.

Not long after the start of the War with the Cylon Empire, heavy hitting warships were in demand. Battlestars were the bane of the Cylon armada but they couldnt be everywhere at once. Each Colony had been charged at some point during the war with the task of upgrading the fleet. Perhaps the best of these "pocket Battlestars"was put into production only 300 yahrens before the Cylons treachery at Presidents Peace conference.Though roughly 1/4 the mass of a Battlestar Ships of this class carried nearly 1/3 the firepower and could carry 50 Viper fighters as well as a variety of assualt landing/boarding craft.

Of the 280 Cruisers built only 57 had ever been lost to enemy attack. The co-ordinated efforts of the Cylons and Baltars sleeper agents reduced the vast bulk of the Colonial fleet to ruins, however, in the hours and days following the devastation of the colonies.

One of the few surviving warships of the Fleet is the Colonial Heavy Cruiser Polara. With damaged Stardrive she was unable to answer the broadband Exodus call from the Galactica. Following a few clues and decyphered Cylon combat transmissions the commander and crew of the Polara detirmined the Fleet's destination and along with two surviving Picean patrol cruisers now follow the Galactica's trail [though they are about 18 months behind them and have no current means of repairing thier Fleetcom].

The Model

This ship was scratchbuilt in the tradition of the origional Battlestar Galactica models. A plexi and styrene hull was built and covered in various greebledge and widgets far too numerous to mention. The Polara is 30"long and built to scale with the Galatica filming models. It only makes sense to me that a fleet that held off an enemy as vast as the Cylon Empire for 1000 years [ yahrens, whatever] had to have more than just 12 ships no matter how big and powerfull they might be.

The story was part of a roleplaying game some friends and I started awhile back. The model never quite got finished till now though.

Image: Top/front view

Image: Underneath the bow

Image: Another overhead perspective

Image: Top/rear view

Image: Detailing atop the bow section

Image: Closer look at the portside "wing"