Orlando Guiang’s Battlestar Galactica Rebuild
Battlestar Revisited
Not long ago I was cleaning out some of my shelves and came across my old Galacitca model. Not sure what prompted me but I had the urge to tear it apart and start over. What resulted is a complete makeover of the ship and I’d like to share this rebuild with you.
As we all know the Galactica model produced by Monogram sorely lacked detail and was laced with all kinds of inaccuracies. My rebuild consisted of adding detail to the sides with the use of a kit sold by Federation Models along with other modifications to the landing bays. A decal sheet was also purchased to replace the original markings.
Landing Bay Modifications
The major modifications here included adding further details to the launch tubes and sides of the landing bays. The model originally came with accordion-type sections that were supposed to represent the launch tubes. I first separated the sections and added a strip of styrene plastic along the back of them to give some depth. Holes were then drilled with a Dremel and a 1/16” bit to represent the launch tubes. Another strip of styrene plastic was glued onto the outer top edges of the launch tubes in order to make them look a little shorter.
Finally the bays were wired with LEDs and placed behind small pictures of the landing bay mural seen in the original model. I reproduced these by actually taking pictures (with a Canon 60mm macro lens) of the mural from the internet, reducing them to the appropriate size and adjusting the colors with Photoshop. They were then printed on photo paper and glued onto a thin piece of styrene plastic. Hot glue was then used to secure them in place. I have to say they lit up quite nicely. I should add that the decal sheet came with this mural but I thought they were too small. The pictures you see in this write up is with the decals but I eventually replaced them with the ones I created.
The detailing kit also comes with the landing bay nose caps that were missing in Monogram kit. These added a very nice touch. Since I was going to all this trouble, I also cut out the triangular section along the front nose of each landing bay such as those seen on the studio miniature. This area was then sealed from the inside with a small piece of styrene plastic that was painted black.
Side Detailing
The detailing kit took some work to add. I had to completely take off the old detailing, sand the sides thoroughly and then cut the panels so that they could fit into place. I decided to not use the paneling provided for the struts because I thought it was way too much and it just didn’t look right. So I cut out my own panels from thin styrene plastic and added details using odds and ends from a kit I found at a local hobby store. In order to better blend the side paneling I added thin strips of styrene rods along the upper edge of the hull. The final modification was to the center strut that I separated from the inferior center section.
In conclusion
Overall I think this modified the kit pretty well. It’s not an exact replica but it’s definitely better than before. Maybe some day, a more accurate kit will be made but for now, this isn’t bad.
Orlando Guiang
