ringa
Well-Known Member
For Christmas I received the Moebius Cylon Raider and the Moebius TOS Galactica, as well as the book Battlestar Galactica Vault.
Compared to the original Monogram kit, the TOS Galactica is far superior in proportions and detail. Not perfect, but this is the kit I wished Monogram released back in 1978. I love how smooth and seamless the Moebius kits go together. They all are engineered very well. This TOS kit is the same size as the old Monogram. Putting them side-by-side makes all the major flaws in the old kit stand out like a sore thumb (more so than usual). I love this new kit.
I started painting by covering it with a dark gray spray paint (Tamiya), then I airbrushed the entire model with the lightest gray Tamiya offers. I know the filming model looks practically white like a Star Destroyer, but when I see the Big G I want it to have a bit of a gray tint to it. The stripes; I decided that I would forego the red stripes on the decal sheet and just paint them on. Painting the stripes gives it a far better finish...flat, dark red with no sheen. The down side of doing it that way is that it takes hours and hours of masking tiny areas over and around small details. But the results look so much better than decals. The only decals on the model are the "GALACTICAs".
I was very impressed with how accurate the Cylon Raider seems to be. The reviews I read online were very favorable. The reproduced, kit bashed parts are all very well done, and some could easily be replaced with actual kit parts (most of them were molded to the main body, though done very well as to not take anything away from their details).
Because I plan to take this model into the studio, I had to make some interior alterations. I didn't even bother with the clear display stand that came with it. The model needed to have three mounting points. This was easy to accomplish. I merely fitted the lower body with a heavy brass tube that runs fore to aft. I had to take a dremel to the rather sizable fitting pins that would have gotten in the way of the brass tube. Then, using a two-part putty that becomes rock-solid when cured, I affixed the tube in place. The designers of this kit may have suspected people like me would want to convert it, so the pieces that go on each end are made so that they can act as plugs to the brass tube. I just had to epoxy plastic tubes on each part so they can fit more snug into the tube openings. With the front and back mounting points complete, I simply drilled a hole through the bottom of the hull that also went through the middle of the brass tube. It's a smaller hole than the ends, so it will accommodate my stand perfectly without weakening the tube.
With mounting points completed, I then finished construction of the kit. Then came the part I always look forward to... painting. The kit was molded in a very light gray. I used black to cover the whole thing first. Then a gray coat over the black. I did not glue the cockpit canopy so I could paint it separate from the rest, first black, then the gray details were masked off. The only decals that come with the kit are the Cylon logos for the wings, but they included in the instruction sheets patterns for the stripes that go on the top wings. I just cut them out, taped the positive cut outs to the model, used them as a guide for the masking tape to be placed around them, then I removed the paper cut outs and airbrushed the stencil with Tamiya Nato Black, which is a very dark gray, a step below black. I then took sandpaper to the hull and scuffed up the surface a bit here and there. After that I weathered it using a combination of dark and light grays to add streaks and impact spots. I then did the same to the bottom hull, adding the four stripes and weathering.
Compared to the original Monogram kit, the TOS Galactica is far superior in proportions and detail. Not perfect, but this is the kit I wished Monogram released back in 1978. I love how smooth and seamless the Moebius kits go together. They all are engineered very well. This TOS kit is the same size as the old Monogram. Putting them side-by-side makes all the major flaws in the old kit stand out like a sore thumb (more so than usual). I love this new kit.
I started painting by covering it with a dark gray spray paint (Tamiya), then I airbrushed the entire model with the lightest gray Tamiya offers. I know the filming model looks practically white like a Star Destroyer, but when I see the Big G I want it to have a bit of a gray tint to it. The stripes; I decided that I would forego the red stripes on the decal sheet and just paint them on. Painting the stripes gives it a far better finish...flat, dark red with no sheen. The down side of doing it that way is that it takes hours and hours of masking tiny areas over and around small details. But the results look so much better than decals. The only decals on the model are the "GALACTICAs".
I was very impressed with how accurate the Cylon Raider seems to be. The reviews I read online were very favorable. The reproduced, kit bashed parts are all very well done, and some could easily be replaced with actual kit parts (most of them were molded to the main body, though done very well as to not take anything away from their details).
Because I plan to take this model into the studio, I had to make some interior alterations. I didn't even bother with the clear display stand that came with it. The model needed to have three mounting points. This was easy to accomplish. I merely fitted the lower body with a heavy brass tube that runs fore to aft. I had to take a dremel to the rather sizable fitting pins that would have gotten in the way of the brass tube. Then, using a two-part putty that becomes rock-solid when cured, I affixed the tube in place. The designers of this kit may have suspected people like me would want to convert it, so the pieces that go on each end are made so that they can act as plugs to the brass tube. I just had to epoxy plastic tubes on each part so they can fit more snug into the tube openings. With the front and back mounting points complete, I simply drilled a hole through the bottom of the hull that also went through the middle of the brass tube. It's a smaller hole than the ends, so it will accommodate my stand perfectly without weakening the tube.
With mounting points completed, I then finished construction of the kit. Then came the part I always look forward to... painting. The kit was molded in a very light gray. I used black to cover the whole thing first. Then a gray coat over the black. I did not glue the cockpit canopy so I could paint it separate from the rest, first black, then the gray details were masked off. The only decals that come with the kit are the Cylon logos for the wings, but they included in the instruction sheets patterns for the stripes that go on the top wings. I just cut them out, taped the positive cut outs to the model, used them as a guide for the masking tape to be placed around them, then I removed the paper cut outs and airbrushed the stencil with Tamiya Nato Black, which is a very dark gray, a step below black. I then took sandpaper to the hull and scuffed up the surface a bit here and there. After that I weathered it using a combination of dark and light grays to add streaks and impact spots. I then did the same to the bottom hull, adding the four stripes and weathering.
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