This was originally going to be another Single Entry for the Starship Modeler BSG contest. However, me being the slow builder/finisher that I am, I just never quite made it. I thought it was ready, but got to looking at the attached pics and decided that I wasn't about to enter it as it looks in these pics. She needs too much cleaning up. :(
I based this design off of the fan-produced Cheetah-class light cruiser. I just don't like the idea of a class of ship named "Cheetah" in TOS BSG, so decided to call it the Hades-class, giving a better idea of the role to which I'd assigned the design. My version of the ship is meant to portray a destroyer - but not in the traditional Wet Navy Terminology that we know. Instead, this is mean to designate the ship as devoted to one purpose - destroying Cylon Basestars.
The basics: the kitbash is a merging of the "gator head" and main engine section of a Revell-Monogram battlestar kit that I picked up somewhere. I added the Timeslip Creations Battlestar Detailing Set side pieces, as well as the nose piece. I cut off the kit bridge, made it a bit larger with the use of sheet styrene and then re-worked the mounting point so that it no longer angled down as it originally did.
During the construction phase, I decided to add some guns to the hull. I always thought that this large ships should have more visible weaponry adorning their hulls, as seeing the laser beams come from "nowhere" in the long shots just sorta bugged me. I can understand the small AAA/Anti-Starfighter guns not being as visible, but the anti-basestar guns?
During this phase, I also decided to add some big-ole honkin' guns. I toyed around w/the idea of scratchbuilding something or even adding some 1/700 scale warship main guns, but eventually decided on something different. The guns I chose are from Ravenstar Studios.
My rationale is that these guns are along the lines of the Pulsar canons that the Basestars have. They don't have a high cycle rate, only firing once every five or so seconds. That would mean that these ships would have best work in conjunction with other destroyers and/or as a fleet action w/battlestars and other support ships in the mix. So, these are Big Ole Honkin' Guns, but they aren't BFG's!
The smaller guns adoring the hull are a mix from two sources. The rounded and funky rectangular/angled guns are from some small, 1/2500-ish scale StarBlazer's kits I picked up from various places, most from eBay and Federation Models. The rounded guns are meant to be anti-ship/missile defenses, while the larger guns are purely anti-ship. The small, square guns are some I picked up from BamBam Productions as a lot on eBay, made for his 1/9600 scale TNS Pegasus kit. I figure them for heavier anti-starship guns.
I also added two different sizes of missile hatches to the hull. There are some small hatches which are meant to deliver anti-starfighter missiles. The larger hatches are anti-ship nukes. The thinking is that, if necessarily, one of these ships could close with a basestar under flank speed, let loose w/her canons and anti-ship missiles while doing a fairly decent job of keeping any Raiders at bay with her anti-starfighter weapons.
There are also some odd-ball greebly parts in various areas. These come from a variety of sources from my spares box. I just sort of put stuff where I felt it looked best.
I'll get to the painting at some point tomorrow.
