Hrm. You're right, it does look like a rifle. Dang.
This is the CSS Iris from an alternate history short story I wrote where North and South were still at war in the 23rd century. This craft is equipped with a near-FTL drive (non-warp), and twin impulse drives for inner-system travel. It uses high-resolution radar, periscopes and visual referencing. The Iris is in the 'Light Cruiser' class. This ship is built to 1/350 scale. I am planning to do a destroyer and battleship to scale with this one. The destroyer would run about 10" and the battleship will be approx. 2.5'.
Here are some more projects:
http://public.fotki.com/thunderbearr/bsg_haephestus/
From Battlestar Galactica, this is the foundry/salvage ship, Haephestus.
http://public.fotki.com/thunderbearr/misc_space_craft/
Miscellaneous projects, including the 1/350 Viper, New Cylon, and Millenium Falcon with a quarter to show scale.
Enjoy.