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A-1 Vulture



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by Jeff 'Sci-Fi Smoker' Pryor

Scale: Not stated

When we last left Moonbase Alpha, Commander John Koenig, through his usual mishaps, blunders, and sheer nonsense, had defeated the known as the Dorcons, the most powerful race in the known universe. Salvaging what's left of the aliens' awesome 70's technology, Koenig enlists the help of his chief pilot, Alan, and his head of security, Tony, in designing a new Alphan fighter to ensure that Alpha would have an equal chance against all enemies yet to come. Combining this alien tech with the parts of hundreds of crashed Eagles dotting the moon's surface, this daring trio, in the tradition of naming ships after birds, creates a prototype fighter they christen the A-1 Vulture.

Production begins on this new fighter and hopes are high among the Alphans that they will get a chance to show off it's capabilities during the upcoming 3rd season. Yet hope soon turns to sorrow as they learn that the reality TV camera crew that have been recording their every move during the first 2 seasons decides that enough is enough, cancel the show, and decide to depart from the moon and set off to find Earth or a suitable planet to settle down on. Stealing the last remaining working Eagle, the camera crew heads off for deep space as John Koenig, Helena Russell, Maya and all the gang watch helplessly from the windows of Main Mission. Alan Carter wants to go after them with the new Vulture and blast them into pieces but is dissuaded by Commander Koenig.

Suddenly, the moon encounters a time vortex in space, imagine that! Koenig, remorseful that his old pal from the 1st season, Professor Victor Bergman, isn't there to give him some useless metaphysical insight into the nature of this new phenomenon, orders his surviving castmembers, er, Alphans to hide in the catacombs, preaching that doomsday is at hand. Shaking in their bellbottoms, everyone jumps into the travel tubes and heads down into the moon's depths.

Moonbase Alpha is rocked and rolled as it enters this vortex, and Helena Russell starts to hear voices as a green spotlight pierces the catacombs and stalks the Alphans. Using their useless stun guns, Alan and Tony kill the spotlight and head back up to the surface with Koenig to retrieve the disco ball left in Medical Center. While up there, they realize that the vortex storm is over and the moon is settling into the orbit of a small earthlike planet. Computer spits out a gas pump receipt from the wall that Alan grabs and reads. It is a Time Card that explains the vortex has thrown Moonbase Alpha back in time to a galaxy far, far away. Curious, Koenig activates the intercom and sends a friendship message to the planet below and, surprisingly, there is a response! Koenig learns that the planet is named Dantooine, and it's inhabitants are a small band of freedom fighters calling themselves the 'Rebel Alliance.' Eager to establish relations, Koenig orders Alan and Tony to jump in an A-I Vulture and head down to the surface.

Once convinced that these aliens are friendly, Koenig orders the evacuation of the base and everyone gathers up their betamax tapes, teen magazines with Shaun Cassidy, and stuff and settles down on the planet.

Alan shows off the Vulture to the rebels and they are amazed at it's versatility and performance. In need of a new fighter to head attacks against the growing Empire, the rebel leaders demand that Koenig hand over the Vulture or be thrown into the pit of Sarlacc on Tatooine. Not knowing who Sarlacc is, but afraid of the name alone, Koenig hands over the fighter. Thus the rebels use it as a prototype for a new design of a one-man fighter/bomber that they name BTL-A4 Y-Wing Starfighter.

Soon after, the rebels leave Dantooine for Yavin 4, leaving the Alphans defenseless against an , invading horde of Stormtroopers.

The Model

I was inspired to do this project while building my SMT Y-Wing. One day I was just sitting there and had a thought (I know, that doesn't happen to me often): What would a Y-Wing look like on Space: 1999? So with that in mind (not much room in that gray matter to begin with), I took the command module from the crappy Imai kit and just added it to a body I built from odds and ends in my spares box. The engines are just stryene tubing with Podracer spikes in the front and 2 engines bells from the AMT Eagle kit in the rear with parts of the AMT 1/48 X-Wing inside the burner cans. A couple of more Podracer parts for the doors located on the sides, and the rest is just a mish-mash of cut up parts and styrene bits. Since this is just a very recently completed prototype ship in my backstory, I just primed it with Duplicolor Sandable Primer because the Alphans didn't have time to paint up before the Rebels took it.

Image: Port side

Image: Rear view

Image: Front view




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This page was last updated 22 May 2003