Timeslip Creations Battlestar Galactica WIP

Case in point, I'm not active duty anymore. I'm rather the "Weekend warrior" now. I'm in Law Enforcement full time. So moving and shipping of the item isn't an issue with the studio scale. The issue would be the price tag and size of it though. Assming I could evenbegin to afford that monster, I wouldn't have anywhere else to put it (save for mounting it on the roof of me car. But that ould be too expensive to be just a hood ornament).

Of course, I don't know too many people who realy care for sci fi in general. But what few people I know that watch TNS, all say they like it. To each there own though. I'll definately say this about TNS- it didn't get cancelled after only 25 episodes. I would really have loved to see what happened as the fleet left the galaxy at the end of TOS; as well as knowing what happened to Cain and the Pegasus. But maybe it's best I didn't know. I might be too disappointed....

Well, I'll go for the Timeslip version o te Galactica once I can afford it. But as far as BSG goes, I've got the 30th Anniversary edition Colonial Viper awaiting to be built at some point. I'm really wanting to start that sometime late this year.

DesertRat wrote:

The $245 is a little steep for me, but looking on Ebay, the Monogram version tends to go for pretty steep too. In the past, I've seen them go for much more, but they tend to be few and far between. I'm keeping my eye on a couple that's there now, but I do like this version a little more.

While I don't know anything really about either kit, I'm starting to think that maybe the studio scale would be worth it! Besides, with no wife to have to dodge over the price tag, it maybe the way to go to me too. Never worked with resin before though....

Just so's ya know, the Studio Scale battlestar is roughly 6' long by ~ 2 1/2' to 3' wide.  If you go with kit costs alone, it'd prolly run you USD$8,000 (conservatively, as I understand it) and take several years to track down all of the kits - that's figuring that you have a list of all the kits you'd need.  You'd need at least another couple hundred - if not $1,000 - in materials just to build the naked hull, as you need a metal armature for the interior.  Then add in cost of lighting materials, etc...  Then you've got to have a place to work on it and/or store it. 

Let's not consider the "price" you'd pay of moving it, since you're military and have to have the gov't contracted gorilla's pack it and ship it!  Having had the Packin' and Crackin' folks move me three times now, I can tell you that you'd be better off either collecting pieces/parts now or just waiting 'til you're separated/retired - or at least in a more stable location. 

'Course, you could always pick up the "sets" that Jim Key of Custom Repliacs is producing for the SS battlestar builders and save yourself a lot of time and likely a couple grand in funds. 

I gotta say that the red stripe over the launch tubes makes perfect sense to me too. I'd actually thought that was the point of them in the first place. Of course during the course of the series, I don't recall ever seeing any clear cut shots of the outside of the launch tubes to be sure. But if you have those other red bands around the landing bays as well, then it would seem consistent (I think).

Obviously, my thinking as well.  I'm just looking at it from a practical "warning stripe" perspective.  The bulk of those red stripes on the hull of Galactica seem to be in locations where you might have weapons, vents or Viper launch tubes.  If they're decorative, they don't make much sense to me, thus I've always sort of considered them to have been placed where they are on the studio model for aesthetic reasons.  Not knocking those who built and painted the studio model, tho, just that they make more sense to me where I've got them on my model.

And I know this is an idiotic question, but I really haven't taken the time to watch the new series at all. How close is TNS to TOS? I'd seen pictures of the new Vipers, Galactica, Cylons, etc and just seem too different. Guess I tend to be a bit of a purist.

Well, story-wise, things are a lot different, while also remaining somewhat the same.  The main story plotpoint is the same - the Colonials are fleeing a devastating attack on The Colonies by the Cylons in which their civilization is all but wiped out.  There's only one Colonial Fleet warship which  survived and her name is Galactica.  The main characters are mostly intact, but one or two are dropped, a couple added and all of the characters now have first and last names.  A few of the story elements have even crossed over from TOS to TNS.

There's a lot more angst, tho.  The stories tend to be a lot darker, more gritty. 

But everyone else seems to like the new series better

Well, not everyone, if I may correct you somewhat.  A lot of the more "hardcore purists" really hate TNS and bash it every chance that they get.  I happen to like both tho, seeing the strengths and weaknesses of them both.  I have to admit to liking TNS a bit better, however, mostly due to better hardware shots, less lighthearted story lines and overall better acting.  That's my personal opinion, tho.  I wish we could have gotten the DeSanto/Singer version, as from all accounts it would have been a good mix of both TOS and TNS - laser canon's, slightly more believable sci-fi elements (get rid of their use of interchanging star system, universe, galaxy, etc... and add in the same sort of Jump Drive technology instead of saying the ships move at "near light speed") and grittier stories are the three main things that would have made me much happier had we gotten that instead of the RDM version.

As with all things, tho - YMMV.

The $245 is a little steep for me, but looking on Ebay, the Monogram version tends to go for pretty steep too. In the past, I've seen them go for much more, but they tend to be few and far between. I'm keeping my eye on a couple that's there now, but I do like this version a little more. While I don't know anything really about either kit, I'm starting to think that maybe the studio scale would be worth it! Besides, with no wife to have to dodge over the price tag, it maybe the way to go to me too. Never worked with resin before though....

I gotta say that the red stripe over the launch tubes makes perfect sense to me too. I'd actually thought that was the point of them in the first place. Of course during the course of the series, I don't recall ever seeing any clear cut shots of the outside of the launch tubes to be sure. But if you have those other red bands around the landing bays as well, then it would seem consistent (I think).

And I know this is an idiotic question, but I really haven't taken the time to watch the new series at all. How close is TNS to TOS? I'd seen pictures of the new Vipers, Galactica, Cylons, etc and just seem too different. Guess I tend to be a bit of a purist. But everyone else seems to like the new series better

DesertRat wrote:

Definately very cool!

Thanks.

Always loved the original Galactica! Possibly the greatest full sized starship ever created for sci fi.

Frak yeah it is!  I just wish I had the disposable income and the space to do her justice and start work on a studio scale version.  Wife'd prolly kill me, tho. 

Is this the resin version i saw offered on Starship Modeller? Just curious...

Yessir it is.  I picked it up directly from Timeslip Creations about a year ago when they first came out.  It's a bit pricey at USD$245, plus shipping, but it was a Must Have for me, so I jumped on it when it became available.

George has a TNS BSG Galactica coming out sometime relatively soon, as well. 

BTW, ARVEY Model Products has a TOS Battlestar Accurizing Kit that's now available for shipping.  The kit is intended to take the old highly innacurate, but still a decent enough representation of the TOS Colonial battlestar released by Revell-Monogram and make it much more accurate.  You can purchase the complete set, or scroll down a bit and you'll see different subsets you can purchase.  MIB kits are averaging around USD$57.66 on eBay over the last couple of months - I've been tracking them - and builtup kits are going for around USD$37.  If you can find a builtup kit for around $40 and then purchase the full set, you'd pay out $160, plus whatever shipping costs come out to.  Or if you get a builtup and just the "Head" and "Landing Bay" sets for $80 (plus shipping), you'd still come in out at around $120, plus shipping - a total of perhaps $150-ish, depending on where from and where to.  You'd have to work on the R-M kit a bit, but we're modelers, right? 

Regardless, this kit from Timeslip is highly accurate and BEAUTIFULLY detailed. I highly recommend it.

I'll have some more pics late this afternoon or at some point tomorrow.

Definately very cool! Always loved the original Galactica! Possibly the greatest full sized starship ever created for sci fi.

Is this the resin version i saw offered on Starship Modeller? Just curious...

Did more work over this last weekend, specifically Saturday and Sunday evenings. I had some small searchlights from a Tamiya (I think it was) 1/700 scale set that I was putting on the upper aft section - there are two items up there on the studio model which appear to be some sort of dish antenna, possibly. I figured these were good substitutes for those since I don't have any tiny dish antenna. I had three which were a large-ish size and five which were smaller. Between my meat hooks and tweezers, I kept "flinging" parts all over my room - one of the fellas at Resin Illuminati calls it the "Tweezer Launch"!  Wasted the better part of an hour with parts flying, me stopping for five to ten minutes to look for the part and then finally managed to not lose the last couple of searchlights. I added a couple of other small parts in two spots, as well.

That was all around 1am-ish. Temps outside were below freezing - right about 24F - so I decided not to shoot the last coat of primer on her. The garage is obviously warmer than outside, but still was only about 40F, I think. I shot the last coat of primer on her Sunday morning and hit her w/the first base coat w/in about thirty minutes of the primer fully curing.

Anyhow, a few more pics. First one is prior to the base coat being applied. The later pics show it w/the base coat. I used Tamiya AS-2, IJN Light Gray. It's a bit darker than I'd have preferred, but it's too late now.

First Pic - Pre-base coat, showing two of the additional parts. On the upper neck I had added one of the extra guns for the 1/3700 Berzerk that I was able to purchase from Fantastic Plastic. I've since removed that and replaced it w/a 1/700 wet-navy part - I think it was a gun sighting turret or something along those lines from the US Navy, WWII Era. I also added a casting from the upcoming ARVEY Model Products Battlestar Accurizing Kit, mastered by Marko Osterholtz. I added that part to the same area it would normally go, as the kit part in that section was a bit... bland... for my tastes. I mean no insult to Scott Spicer who mastered this awesome kit, but I just thought that the part I had on-hand looked better, adding a bit more depth for my own tastes.

Second Pic - Shows the base coat applied and the first bits of a dark wash I've applied. Yes, it's before masking and painting the areas w/the Insignia Red for the stripes. I wanted to see how it would look w/the wash and think it looks a lot better as the base color sort of "dulls down" the detail. The wash makes it snap out, IMNSHO. You can also see the part on the upper back neck that I added. I know on the studio model it's some sort of Russian ZSU part, IIRC. Or at least, it looks like the quad-mounted gun turret from a ZSU. I'm still looking at the possibility of adding some sort of gun barrels using sewing pin parts, clipped to the length that I need. This part also has dish antenna on the top.

Third Pic - Is a slightly better lit shot, w/a bit more of an angle, after some more wash was added. I plan to mask off the areas on the starboard side and paint them a bit later tonight. I've got three screaming girls here in the house along w/my two sons, so I'm very likely to get pretty distracted while trying to finish this. Once I've got the stripes painted on it and I'm happy w/the rest of it, I plan to add the decals. After that will come another black wash, then some light weathering w/dark grays, I think - and of course, the dullcote seal.

She'll be Galactica, I've decided. If I follow thru on my plan to purchase a second TOS Battlestar kit, I think I'll add some guns to her in a couple of different spots and name her Pegasus. I like to think that Commander Cain managed to pull the Pegasus out at the last second, jumping to light speed. She limped back to The Colonies, sent some teams in to the remains of the shipyards and other Fleet ships, found some scrap materials and even some un-used guns, missiles and other munitions and re-armed.

I started painting the red stripes on The Big G Monday. One change I decided to make, tho - I chose to use the elongated strips above each set of launch tubes for the red stripes on the Flight Pods instead of going with the actual, accurate stripes. It just makes sense to me that those stripes might be there as a set of warning stripes for those launch tubes.

 :shrug:  Makes sense to me, anyhow.

BTW, the pic makes them look much brighter than they look IRL.

I had to put some fresh base coat paint down, tho, as I got a little over-zealous w/the use of a toothpick in removing excess paint in two areas. The first was along the top of the most forward stripe on the flight pod. The other was in trying to remove some excess black wash that had sort of pooled up in two spots. Both of these over-applications caused the base coat to come up, with one of them come up all the way to the primer. The other was only what appeared to be one layer of paint, as I'd put to coat on her, both as thin as I could get using spraybombs.

The other ship in the pic is a kitbash I did using an old R-M battlestar kit. I call it the Hades-class destroyer. Not built as a traditional destroyer in the same sense of how we utilize the term for wet-navy use, but meant to indicate that it's designed as an anti-basestar ship with huge-honkin' guns in the front. More pics later, tho, as I'll create a separate thread just for her.

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