TOS Galactica SS Eagle kitbash RTF ship

Joseph C. Brown

The budget required to attempt a serious studio scale build is simply beyond my means. I do have a habit of watching Ebay for sales of boxes of built up models, often broken, or in parts. Over the course of time, I have run across some amazing bargains by doing this. It’s fun, even though it often entails much time from me to fix someone’s glue bombs. For this particular build, the crucial portions of an AMT Space: 1999 Eagle Transporter virtually fell into my hands, so I determined to give it a try.

I had just seen a clear image of this ship appeared – thank you, Odist! Making a print out of that image, enlarged to match the known size of my Eagle Transporter pod was next.

I wanted variations on the word Eagle, since the really recognizable bits of this starship were from an Eagle model kit. A quick Google later, I discovered Eagle in Italian is Aquila. With that detail squared away, gathering up suitable parts from various parts boxes followed.

Starting at the nose, I needed the tip of a Matra missile pod from a 1/24 scale Airfix Harrier. Rob in Scotland graciously responded to a posting of mine about this part, and donated one he wasn’t using thank you! Next in line, unidentified parts which I faked from some dental brush travel containers. Then we start with the Eagle parts, namely, the forward and aft grid work connecting sections. These were glued together and then attached to the next unidentified section. It was simulated from sheet styrene, and that was attached to the Eagle pod. Three of the top portions from the Eagle landing pod were then attached to the roof of the pod.

The back section of the Aquila should be made from two side by side sections of Hasegawa’s 1/72 Leopold Railgun, which I don’t have. I therefore used 1mm acrylic sheet to construct that part, and then added detailing strips which have oval detailing holes punched. Yes, the holes were individually punched, yes, I am obviously nuts. The Railgun kit has an ammunition box and one each needs to be placed on the side aft ends of the structure. Mobieus’s Chariot had some parts that looked good, and with additions of sheet acrylic and styrene detailing appear to be very close to the right size.

Plastruct styrene sheet, 0.40 thick makes up the platform the entire collection rests on, and panel lines were scribed before any parts were glued down. Sections were cut to allow for the correct height spacing of the Eagle kit parts along the center of the styrene sheet. Epoxy putty, placed in the underside of an old aircraft drop tank became a substitute for the Monogram B-29 A-bomb part, and two pieces made for the port and starboard sides.

That’s where I am at for the moment – I’ll post more when I get more done!

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Treadwell

Neat! Love the obscure models.

Joseph C. Brown

Thanks!

Some more quick shots:

- primer'd

- Space Cat doesn't like the taste...

-2/3 of the greeblies on

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Treadwell

Not sure you have the right hump there on the side, and I think you need to get a bigger scale for most of the greeblies on the side of the tube.

I kinda like that some of the parts were not only from an Eagle kit, but an actual BUILD of an Eagle kit. Some 8 year old in 1976 had no idea...

steveo

Looks awesome!

Joseph C. Brown

Thanks gang!

Not sure which hump you mean - there are potentially different several ones there!

As for the sides of the tubes, yes the ones that are on there now are too small. I was working with what I could excavate from the model storage facility (basement) and I'll have to scratchbuild those greeblies.

Treadwell

The one with the primer sanded off the front. The one in your source pic has a flatter profile (shrug).

Coming together nicely!

Joseph C. Brown

Correct, the profile doesn't match the original atomic bomb part. I used the interior of a jet fighter drop tank half as a hard-shell mold for epoxy putty as the closest price-effective part recreation match that I can manage.

Here's the latest primer coat pics - I am pleased enough with the overall build to get a start on the paint coats next. My wife pointed out that there were several gaps in various places that would really benefit from filler putty...

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Devin

The hump in question in the photo looks like it could be half of the Little Boy atomic bomb from the Monogram B-29 kit. That's just a guess, I'm not sure what size the part is you need, but that's what immediately came to my mind.

SSR

This is certainly an odd-ball member of the rag-tag fleet - interesting choice !

The bump does indeed look like one of the A-Bombs from the Monogram B-29 kit. The angled hump on the back of the ship looks an awful lot like part of the Hasegawa Leopold chassis. If so, your scratchbuild portion may be a bit high.

Also, if it is the leopold, the boxes on either side are from that kit as well.

Looks great - certainly a project few (if any) have tackled !

Joseph C. Brown

Thanks for the comments!

The Leopold section is as accurate as I can scratchbuild it - however, if you look at the red-circled area, you should see were a bulkhead was added between the Eagle Pod parts and the Leopold. I attempted to match that the best I could! Potentially, me calling this a studio scale build is a bit presumptuous, in that I can only match the Eagle Transporter parts and the Matra Pod nose.

Final detailing and painting this weekend - I should have it ready to display at the Knoxville IPMS Model Show next weekend (3/26) and at Wonderfest.

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SSR

I'm sure it will be a welcome addition to the show - enjoy !

BTW - I can't help but notice a few more parts in the B&W picture you attached highlighting the bulkhead.

The nose appears to be a rocketpod cap from the 1/24th Harrier.
There is a strip along the side that seems to be from a Nitto or ESCI 1/72nd SdKfz 250.

Sometimes it's just hard to stop kitspotting.

Did I mention the Wostok nozzle on the front...

Joseph C. Brown

The attached pic has the parts id's that I'm reasonably sure of, with LOTS of help on kit identities!

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Joseph C. Brown

...and, done! In time for Wonderfest too, and placed down from the awesome studio-scale display. Those models were works of art! Mine, well, not exactly.

However, it did get finished and displayed, and for my first studio-scale attempt, I'm not too unhappy. Now I just need to learn how to paint...

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moffeaton

I liked it!! Wanted to meet ya... time just flew by

Joseph C. Brown

That is greatly appreciated!

I saw you in passing several times -- and either you or I at different times were way too busy to stop. Maybe at WF 2012!