Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale

This is a bit exotic subject of a ship which, if I'm not mistaken, only appears very briefly in the pilot and in the Living Legend episodes of the classic serie Battlestar Galactica.These tankers carry squadrons of cylon raiders who annihilate the colonial fleet, allowing Cylon Basestars to destroy the colonies during this time.



This resin kit comes from Larson Design (Kit Alert!! 18 Inch Battlestar Galactica Cylon Tanker from Larson Designs). It consists of 93 parts, where 76 are for dressing the containers (doors and internal walls).
This allows to represent all bays opened, all closed or a mix of both.
I will go with an opened / closed mix following the studio model.

The internal walls were missing, and I started the assemblying while waiting for them.



At first view, this kit gives a good feeling at the opening of the bags.
However, there are bubbles, some fat details, but nothing dramatic at first.
Some parts look greasy, so cleaning in warm soapy water and brush would be the step.

Overall, it seems that the proportions are correct.
On the detail side, this is not accurate, but this seems enough near for this little known ship. I think I still will do some improvements on the engine module.














The long parts of the bays will require a good run to the belt sander to remove several millimeters of excess material in the thickness. And a bath in very hot water to straighten them.






The kit is in a half studio scale
Why?
Because we can recognize this part, it is the floor of the WW2 Leopold german rail gun.




Here the LarsonDesign kit part next to Dragon kit one in 1/144.




On the studio model, this is the 1/72 Hasegawa part that was used (it can be found on many other ships of the classic serie, and also on some SW ships (many of the same modelers worked on the 2 shows).

I saw this Cylon Tanker kit specified as being in 1/700 in a German forum (the only thing I understood there except photos), but I have no element to confirm this.


A little test with an old small mini metal model, from Comet Miniatures, to see if it could go in the bays, but it was too big. So I had to find another solution (scratch, 3D print ou papercraft model).

After a serious bath, the cleaning stage begins, starting with the head where there are underlying bubbles under the nose. I sand in the material and covered it with a plastic strip. It is much more faster than to proceed like this when there are no details than trying to fill the holes.

Bubbles:





the edge is sanded:



it is covered with evergreen strip:



and sanding to return to the original shape



Then filling of the other bubbles that remained with plastic rods (hedgehog method )




It lacked a little turret, it is redone. The guns are thin brass rods.

The engine block requires more work. There was indeed much more bubbles.










This empty area between the two engines is incorrect, and need to be covered.



Some poorly molded details were completed, and others, incorrect, needed to be redone.






On two small surfaces below each engine, the details are wrong and poorly casted, so I remove them, filled any remaining holes, and redid details with parts from the spare box and upgrade kits (wave / kotobukyia).

In pink, the areas to be corrected:





small household !



holes and gaps are filled,




Adding new details (by the way, the space between the two engines began to be covered)








The part that goes on the rear deck above the engine block does not suit me (ugly, too long), so I redid the front half in scratch using axles and suspension from 1/72th trucks and gun barrel, plastic strips...

Before










After

Looking good so far! Can't wait to see how this turns out.

Nice
I love the old battlestar galactica ships and the old tv show. Watched the show as a kid and i still remember the cylon tanker.
A nice build so far.
Good luck

Coming along very nicely! "By your command."

Thanks

The long parts of the bays were sanded on the belt sander.
As the sand belt arrives at its life end, I had to press a little strong and some areas will need some catch up.
And when I did not press it, the part had to stay longer and was warming and warping.
As these parts are still a little thick, I will sand them again after having change the belt.







Beforehand, they will redo a ride in hot water to straighten




There are a lot of small bubbles on the back and belly plates. They are rather difficult to see because of the color of the resin.




Although the angle of view on some sources may actually give this feeling, the two small protruding ears have nothing to do there and should be removed.

Before: area to remove in pink



After, still need some cleaning




The molding of the Leopold part is not very nice. I could have change it, but it is on the underside, not so viewable finally, so I'll keep it.
The kit Leopold 1/144 is also no longer available, and I have other uses in mind (because it can be found on other StarWars and Galactica ships, less anecdotal than this tanker).
So I re-hollowed the rows of holes, added some missing details and closed the sides (this is more accurate, and will prevent the part from bending).







It's not top notch, but I will stay as is on this one.

After getting back my hands on some sources (that I completly forget at the beginning of this wip), I started new modifications, mainly on the head. The thickness and length of the nose should be reviewed and the paneling is in fact incorrect.

I first corrected the length of the nose with another small plastic strip and then plastic cards for the thickness. The second plate is ground bevelled as the edge is thinner than the root of the nose.







This area (highlighted in pink) is too raised, so I sanded of an half in the thickness.





The shape is also incorrect, and I had to dig the area delimited in black.
I dig grooves in the resin using a plastic cutter, then I'll blow the remaining tabs with an x-acto blade. With the x-acto I finished digging the material, I then scraped with a dentist tool to give it a good flat surface.

The shape is drawn




The grooves are done




Small tabs are removed




I dig with the X-acto




I finish with a dentist scraper



It remained me to complete the two small steps on the sides (in pink) that have to join the chin.



It was when I was trying to complete the paneling on the cheeks that I realized they were incorrect.




Rather than trying to fill them, I covers everything with a 0.5 mm plastic sheet.

As I finished the preparing of a Galactica display stand for a Migennes Collector event here in France, I have now time to get back on this WIP thread.


While I let the cheeks drying quietly, I quickly filled the one on the top side with superglue. Be careful with this method, do not allow the glue to dry for several hours, 10 or 20 minutes max (it should be dry but still soft). After it will become too hard and takes 10 times longer to sand, with a good chance of damaging the rest of the part.
I then re-written new lines. Sorry, no photos, the result can be see below.

The paneling is then re-writte on the cheeks starting with vertical lines.

The horizontal lines follow fairly quickly, ensuring to remain at right angles to the vertical (while the eye tends to insidiously deviate from because of the shape of the room).

Raised panels are added (plastic card). The tiny panels are cut in a sheet of 0.2 mm rhodoïd (found in the stationery, not in model store).






By the way, on top, I removed the three small bones behind the turret, whic were not very well molded, and replaced them with shaped plastic card. The semi-spheres on the rear flat area are also replaced.





In the small trench in front of the rim, I inserted a thin vertical strip



Then I go on the underside, where references do not give a clear view of the paneling. So even if the kit seems slightly wrong, I decided to keep it, just completing it as best I could.
I also left the raised paneling, also incorrect, again adding small squares of 0.2 m rhodoid.




As a result, each side must complete the empty space.




Last operation on the head, left and right sides of the nose needed to be sanded bevel.
(pictures to come)


Back on the engines module, where I have a few details to complete, especially in the space between the body of the two engines, with plastic profiles. I may use this old 1/720 helicopter propeller for the last strip that will be added after the painting stage will be completed.






There are a lot of piping encircling the engine module, that I did with brass rods.

Looking good!! :thumbsup

The missing parts did arrived few weeks after the previous works on this model. And there was again a lot of cleaning and preparing to do as they were almost all bent (probably removed too early from the molds), covered of bubbles (as if it was raining) or excess material.






Since I will not all of them (a good third of the bays will be closed, I can choose the best parts in the lot).

So after a soapy bath to remove mold release product, they are unbent in hot water, then it take several evenings to fill the bubbles. The excess material is removed with a belt sander machine.




Before continue with these parts, I had to finish the assembly of the large central box. I hesitated if I was going to use 1 or 2 support rods.
I chose one because it looks best, but more complicated due to the length of the model. To be sure that the ship will stay straight, I used a fixed drill, embedded an aluminum tube, itself secured by wooden sticks and some nuts and bolts.
Wooden blocks are added in the bayes (that will be closed in the end), to strengthen the assembly and screw together the long parts.




Same thing at the ends to add material to plug rods and support the weight of the head and engine modules (as being full filled, they are quite heavy).





For the installation of the inner walls, I realized that I had finally removed too much material ! It was therefore necessary to add thickness with plastic cards. I used the new superglue 3 "universal", which has a slight delay in the curing, which allows the easy adjustment.
Many of those who were not visible were also glued to be able to support the cylindrical bay doors.






The rails in the bay are very thin, and several were damaged after all these manipulations. I have therefore removed (scraping, sanding) and replaced them with evergreen U-profiles.






The two large bays parts are finally glued togethern, using cyano and screws.




As they were not completely symmetrical , it was necessary to add one or two layers of plastic card at the end of the assembly.




The two upper and lower parts (roofs) are installed.
To make sure they stay straight, I added few layers of foam board (to avoid adding weight).
Incidentally, it will also allow me to give more matter to lay the cylindrical doors on it.
To align them, I also had to fill inner walls (as they have proved to lack some height to meet the ceiling) with plastic strips. It was necessary to go gradually and identified each parts and locations, as each one is adjusted spécifically.









Once glued, we can not see all the things added inside to arrive to a fair result.








The head and engine modules are finally bonded to the central body.







There are few small seams to fill here or there (putty, plastic card).




some tank track links are added on the edge of open bays to simulate locks (like on the original model).





Here dry tested, we see that the bells nozzles are almost touching each others, while there should be a gap of about 5mm.



I also noted that they were not centered correctly. All this is corrected (tagging correctly the length on each radius), and then sanding quietly (to not remove too much material !)





Not without difficulty, it's ready for the painting.

A coat of primer reveals some defects on the engine block surface.
In addition, I spray the primer too far , and it is not super smooth.
So I went for a overall sanding, then filling bubbles with plastic putty.







And a new coat of primer, and once dry, as is my habit on this type of building, I smeared the model of a very heavy black wash as a preshading (which makes voluntary non-uniform under painted surfaces) .









I then apply a first coat of Tamiya xf66 light gray (misnamed in my opinion, as it is anything but light !)

Great subject -- amazing work to improve the kit!

Absolutely, this is one I'm watching!

Thanks a lot for your nice comments

- - - Updated - - -

I applied differents colors on the bay doors :
Blue Grey
Tan / beige
off white
I had to make several attempts before finding the right shade so the préombrage has almost completely disappeared. So, I had to equalize the gray base color with another coat.







The interior of the open bays are matt white .






The red stripes on the top are prepared with an underlayer of white (spraid non-uniformly), followed by a red broken with few drops of yellow. In the airbrush cup, the color is reddish orange, but once applied, the eye sees it as a warm red.

To achieve red diamonds insignia in the bays, I planned initially to use a stencil I, and finally I xent with homemade decals .
It took a full afternoon to install them properly and regularly replace those who tried to come off as it dries. They were deliberately cutted off to give them a worn effect (still trying to stick to the original model).





The corners of the casements, various markings are applied by drawing in various boards .
Mini Cylon insignia are from the Revell Viper mk1 decals board (victory marks) in its latest edition.





Postshading and streaks are made in two colors: black and rust brown.








A layer of Klir/Future to protect everything. Then a slight dark gray juice is applied, that will be only very slightly wiping to keep streaks and the dark veil effect.








He then received a coat of matt varnish.





Then finally final assembly.
The photos are a bit dull, I will do more later on a dark background.




















I now need to build a small diorama where it will be the centerpiece .

holy frak!!!! how the frak did i miss this fraking build!!!! stunning work! congratz on this!

Very well done. I like the weathering especially.:thumbsup

Very nice. I have always liked the cylon tanker and have often wondered why there weren't more kits out there. Regarding the Cylon Raiders, I got some TOS raiders from Custom Replicas awhile back, that were really awsomely detailed and if I am not mistaken sized to fit the studio scale Galactica. I will get a picture/measurements up as soon as I get a chance. I don't think they have an offer anywhere on their website anywhere, best to just drop an email and ask if they have any.

Update: I might have to get back to you regarding pictures. I was just in my workroom and they weren't where they should have been and I do not have the slightest idea where they might be packed away.

metal wood said:

holy frak!!!! how the frak did i miss this fraking build!!!! stunning work! congratz on this!

Click to expand...

Lynx said:

Very well done. I like the weathering especially.:thumbsup

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opal1970 said:

Very nice. I have always liked the cylon tanker and have often wondered why there weren't more kits out there. Regarding the Cylon Raiders, I got some TOS raiders from Custom Replicas awhile back, that were really awsomely detailed and if I am not mistaken sized to fit the studio scale Galactica. I will get a picture/measurements up as soon as I get a chance. I don't think they have an offer anywhere on their website anywhere, best to just drop an email and ask if they have any.

Update: I might have to get back to you regarding pictures. I was just in my workroom and they weren't where they should have been and I do not have the slightest idea where they might be packed away.

Click to expand...

Thanks sirs.

opal1970, I saw only recently that CustomReplicas made raiders and vipers sets.
I finally went the classic way : scratch and molding (post to come very soon).