The Moebius Loop

Classic Battlestar Galactica Edition

Nearly a decade ago (Gosh! Has it been that long?!) I was hired by Moebius Models under Frank Winspur to do some build-ups for the classic Battlestar Galactica license that they had acquired. They were to release three kits from the classic series first, and then would go on to do some kits from the (completely wretched IMO) re-imagined series. These kits were to be all newly tooled models, not re-pops of old ones as had been done before.

The Galactica itself was to be a far more accurate and detailed kit than the original Monogram version released in 1978. It is the same length as the vintage kit (17” long) but far better in all respects. The following two photos I shot of the “out-of-the-box” build I did for them were used for the box art, rendered by Bob Plant:

I built a second model from the same batch of test shots they sent me as well, and I lit it up using LEDs. I also built in some “battle damage” using flickering LEDs to simulate fire replicating scenes from the show including the damaged landing bay from the episode “Fire In Space”. Here is the second model:

Next up here is the Cylon Raider. This one is my absolute hands-down favourite of all the kits that Moebius has ever produced. The main reason why is that this model is “studio scale” and very accurate. This means it’s the same size as the filming miniatures used in the actual production of the show. When they needed the build, the kit was not yet fully tooled, so I had to fix and finish a resin mock-up that they had used as the master pattern for the kit. The factory had scanned this model to produce the tooling but they had damaged it in the process. Moebius asked me to restore the mockup and paint it up for use in publicity. Here are three of the pictures of the model I shot that they used for the box art.

After the kit was released, I obtained a few of them and built one for myself, but this time I also added a machined aluminum armature for multiple-point stand mounting (top, bottom, front and rear) and also added LED lighting that mimics the way the studio models were also lit. This is as close as you can get to a replica of the actual filming miniatures. I really love the design of this ship. One of my all-time favourites!

Note: The "weathering” of the studio miniatures I deliberately avoided replicating as it was really crude and uninteresting. The studio models had black wide airbrushed streaks running over the whole model which I really did not like (but did not show up on camera), so I used a more nuanced approach of “carded” paneling which to me looks a lot more like what was seen on screen (boy, am I gonna catch flak from some people on THAT comment! LOL!).

The last in this series of kits is the Viper. I have to admit I was a little disappointed in this kit for two reasons. One, unlike the Raider above, it was not done to studio scale (approximately 15” long) but made just under a foot long, the same size as the old Monogram kit. Yes, it is more accurate than the vintage 1978 kit and much better detailed but is based, not solely on the studio miniature which would have been preferable in my opinion, but a combination of the miniature and full-scale prop that the actors walked around. Both Raider and Viper were sold as being 1/32 scale, but here’s the problem with that, for all you pedants out there (here’s a bit of a rant for those interested. If not, just skip down ‘til you see the next photo):

As in the original Star Wars, all the fighter ship miniatures were built to a standard of 1/24th scale. At the time, that was considered the smallest scale for craft of that size that could be made to look reasonably realistic. Any smaller and required detail would get lost. Keeping them all at a constant scale allowed for easier choreography between ships that interacted with each other on the motion control stage when photographed. The problem is, the “fan base” insisted that the cockpit set of the Raider as seen on screen could not fit into the model as portrayed.

Well, the problem with that is a lack of understanding of how films are made and the “cheats” that are necessary. As an example: Have you seen the James Bond film “Goldfinger”? Goldfinger’s jet, a Lockheed Jetstar (a REAL aircraft and not fictitious), was portrayed in the film as having a fuselage interior the size of a large airliner as far as its fuselage diameter is concerned. It’s nearly twice the size of what the actual interior of a Jetstar cabin really is. This is done to accommodate action and cameras and lighting equipment and so on that would be almost impossible to work with if the interior sets were built to the exact proportions of the real aircraft. In a real Jetstar cabin, you can’t walk through it without bending over. But it was portrayed in the film as almost as spacious as a ballroom.

Therefore, in the case of the Raider, since we are building a replica of the model as portrayed on screen, the relative scales should remain in context with the models actually built to represent the exteriors of the craft, not the interiors (which were not provided in the kit anyway). The same argument happens between fans of the Space 1999 Eagle too (Brian Johnson himself, the designer of the Eagle, thought that the sets were far too oversized in relation to the craft he designed which was to be much more compact). Thus the Raider kit is actually 1/24th scale and the Viper is done in 1/32 scale.

Anyway, here’s the Viper as built from test shots of the kit. One was built with landing gear, the other built “in flight” mounted on the kit-supplied stand.

Don’t get me too wrong here. ALL the Moebius kits are a vast improvement over the previous releases of those subjects. I just wish the Viper had more closely resembled the miniatures filmed for the show in both size (1/24th at 15” long) and features. I also wish the Galactica had been substantially larger too. I am also sad that they never did a Cylon Base Star as well. If you want that one, you need to get the Monogram kit and modify it heavily to make it more proportionally accurate to the shooting model.

Anyway, the disappointments didn’t stop me from building some lit-up versions for myself. I added engine and cockpit lights as well as the lights on the nose landing gear which looks great IMO.

I hope you enjoyed this article. I have some more Moebius Galactica kits to show you later, but they are from the wretched “re-imagined” Galactica series which I absolutely hated in every respect. But, if you disagree with me and like the ships, you can rest assured that Moebius did do an excellent job on the kits that they released concerning that unwatchable series, clearly shot in downtown Vancouver complete with Nokia product placement and apparently lensed by an epileptic chimpanzee. Ugh.