ByYourCommand.net

His eminence, our Imperious Leader, has tasked his newly operational Centurion, Cylon-Knight, to once and for all end the human threat. As such, I am to reverse engineer a Battlestar.

Once we fully understand alien human technology, we will devastate the last Battlestar of Man, the Galactica, with a facsimile built in its own image!

Soon the Cylon Battlestar, Annihilation, will blow the Galactica out of the stars - once and for all!
By Your Command

And so here is my build concept:

• Low/no budget build
• Studio Scale to overall 1978 Galactica published sizes: 76” long, 30 3/4" wide, 11 1/2" tall
• 99% based on a WONDERFUL drawing done by Jim Stevenson - a.k.a. “137th Gebirg” (with his permission) that is perfectly to scale with the published sizes (SWEET!).
  Advanced Cylon technology allows his low resolution image to be measured to studio scale. (I am using some other build photos on the web as reference also for parts that are obscured in Jim's drawing - but that's a secret we won't tell the Imperious Leader about, K? Super.)
• NOT 1:1 accurate in surface details.
  I will detail my ship the same as the guys at Apogee did! “Oh this looks cool here.” No plan, just random found parts and bits. After spending *ahem* “this much” money on my Cylon Centurion costume build for the last 4 years! this Battlestar rule #1 is that I can not succumb to the 1:1 bug again. It's a fun fan project NOT intended to rival the super Battlestar builds of others with MUCH precision and perfection. (Remember - I'm just a clunky 1978 Cylon with big hockey glove hands!)
• Phase 1: Typing Paper study. Cheap, no mess. Rough in the shapes and sizes of various parts. Get an idea of the SCALE of the ship.
• Phase 2: Cardboard shakedown. Streamline paper parts to a sturdy prototype and finalize panel shapes and sizes.
• Phase 3: Plastic. Cardboard shakedown translated to sheet plastic with a 2” PVC back bone (in place of a metal one). Details added, paint, name! Cylon Perfection.
• Phase 4: The Annihilation annihilates the Galactica (of course)

So, Phase 1 is winding down... I have gotten to the engine section and found the LARGE parts are too weak. And the small parts are too hard to get to fit with all the flex going on. So I thought now would be a good time to share my build....


THE start.


2 hours to build the front of the flight pod. I know the bottom should not be flat... but after a few 4 letter words, I picked FLAT.

I plan on adding the angle bits later.


Rest of the pod. And I realized the back was totally dumb.
Measure twice, cut once - not the other way... oops.


Fixed. (Trenches to be added later)


Progress. Cylons are gonna get you Galactica!


Dang. The arms. That was a mind trip to get them right.
(Or as close as I wanted to bother with.)


Hey! LEFTY!
My arms were altered to fit the angle of the top of the flight pod. A Cylon improvement over lowly Human design (that's my story).


Dramatic angle. *oooohhhh*


Paper phase winding down, having too many issues at this point working with just typing paper and masking tape (plus a few cardboard ribs inside the bigger boxes)


That's it for now... next update when I have enough to report.

Thanks for making your build official now!

ROCK ON!!!

Impressive

Awesome goodness my Cylon brother...

Thank you guys!!! I'll most more up as soon as I have done it

P.S. The Colonies are going to be pwnd

Great idea and awesome work. Looks great and love the name.

^ Thanks Dale!

Small update:
Here are some of photos of the center body being done in cardboard.


Cardboard... cardboard... cardboard!!!


A panel built up and the cardboard folds reinforced so they DON'T fold.


Phase 2 has begun, Imperious Leader. By your command.


Side going up.


Interior supports to make sure everything stays where I put it.


Closing up the section.
As Jared pointed out to me... "Battlestars are GRRRRRRRRRRRRRREAT!" (Tony the Tiger) *eye roll*

I hope to get more done this weekend... stay tuned.

Love the Cardboard... ahem... Battlestar!

Keep it up!

I think you need to go back to the grocery store, and buy more cereal and start over. You need to scale it up a bit since your Viper looks about twice as big as it should be. Just kidding man. AWESOME work.

Thanks GoldCylon!
Yeah, the Joy Ride Viper was for Red Eye to better judge the size, he has the same toy. The US Dollar was for the American Cylons to judge size.

I did more work today on the project - got a lot done on the new flight pod design.

Here we go.....
I've improved it, adding the "V" on the bottom and the trenches on each side. (UGH more work )


Better. Stronger!
More internal ribs and stronger skin. Sweet.


One side done. 6 more panels to do on the other side, then the middle will be done.

You should assign to Colonial service... great work!

Impressive work on this, and you seem to be doing an excellent job providing for internal support so this thing doesn't collapse under its own weight. I've always been fascinated by what one can do with paper.

And I'm quite flattered that you used my schematic for this - word of warning, the main body on the dorsal/ventral views is a tad too narrow. It should be a bit wider to be completely accurate. Just never got around to updating it - I tried once and all the greebles and other details I put into it were too tightly interwoven to do it correctly. Maybe one day, when my daughter has graduated high school...

Thank you Red Eye and 137th!

Yes, 137th, there are some WILD paper craft items on the web I've recently found... I know my Galactica paper/cardboard studies will help for the real build. So far the paper was a great help to make the improved cardobard pod. Internal support is proving very tricky *UGH*. Not only to keep the bits from collapsing under their own weight - but to support each other. I still have to account for the major "back bone" of the ship - I plan on using PVC. All that has to fit - plus pick points for the mounting system, internal items like fans and lights, etc. - WOW. To me, that is just too hard to picture in my mind without the parts to see how it all goes together. So I'm lovin the paper/cardboard "tests."

Oh, yes, your schematic is WICKED AWESOME. I've used it to spec out everything and so far everything always adds up. SWEET! I also give you full credit too. I dare say that when it finally gets done it won't be "too off" from the total hard core builds out there - now I do get a bit Cylon lazy and round up and down to an even quarter inch, or sixteenth, etc. Or decide "1/4" looks good" if I can't figure out / see an item on the schematic ... I'm not going down to 1/32nd's or mm's... that's just not FUN. LOL

I have a small update for now:

New front, improved! I still need to figure out the insides for supports and such. I was getting tired.


New back. I need to work on all the insides and openings on this... I WAS tried at this point. *ha*


Phase 2 next to Phase 1. Not too bad for a 1978 Cylon.

At least you've got an almost completed pod for your little cardboard Vipers to launch from. *Pew* *Pew* *Pew*

Great work again!

Kicking butt, and taking no prisoners. Keep up the great work.