My Battlestar Ajax (WIP)

[Oriontide]

I built the second Moebius Battlestar kit that I got, and I was going to just paint it and slap on the Galactica name, until I decided to have some fun with it:

http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac78/Alfie45/Battlestar%20Ajax/ajax1.jpg


I took sheet styrene--the thinnest that I had--and starting covering the ribs, so to speak:


http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac78/Alfie45/Battlestar%20Ajax/ajax2.jpg


I just started this project this past week. So it will be a while before it will be finished. I plan to cover the whole Battlestar. We'll see how it goes.


This will be the Battlestar Ajax, which fought in the First Cylon War some forty years before the events of nuBSG. It's the ship my Viper pilot, Maggie "Magpie" Lindsey--from this dio--hails from:


http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac78/Alfie45/Viper%20splashdown/05.jpg


I'll post updates when I get them done.

 

[Nobby]

Nice work.
Let's see if we can get them pics up for you:

 

[Oriontide]

Thanks. I thought my pictures might have been too big to place here. I'll keep this in mind for next time.

 

[Darph Bobo]

Very cool (and rare!) This is a subject we need to see more of, fully armored battlestars! Keep the pics coming!

 

[Oriontide]

Thanks, Darph!

Managed to get some more work done. The port side of the "alligator head" is completely covered:

Now I've started on the starboard side:

 

[Oriontide]

Finally got the top of the "alligator head" covered. Still need to do the bottom, but I'm saving that for later.

Right now, I started covering the flight pods. I removed them from the ship for better access.

I originally planned to do this ship armoring as a side project, but it's turned into my main project right now, so I figure I'll just run with it.

 

[modellernz]

its an interesting idea .. i only just realized that the columbia in "razor" is fully armoured up .. will be interesting to see this little beast finished !!!

 

[Oriontide]

Thanks. Yeah, this is becoming a lot of fun for me to do.

It takes me about an hour to cut and scribe about two pieces, depending on how complex it is. If it's a more simple panel design, then I get about four done in the same amount of time.

 

[MooCriket]

Very nice to see this being tackled. I'm really enjoying your work!

 

[Oriontide]

Thanks very much! Some of the work I've seen on these boards have inspired me to try my hand at scratch-building entire ships and such, and this is sort of an entry-level gig for that. It helps me to get used to working with sheet styrene. I head back to the Scorpio shipyards later tonight.

 

[Oriontide]

I started moving back from the "gator head" by covering the "neck" section. This is a pretty tricky area. I'm going to have to cover it bit by bit.

I also started on the flight pods. Being smaller, it was a pretty quick job to cover the top section of both pods.

 

[Oriontide]

Although I stopped to build this:

http://www.therpf.com/f11/my-take-moebius-black-widow-139355/

I haven't forgotten my Battlestar Ajax project. I added more "armor" on the sides of the neck portion:

And I've also started working on the flight pods:

 

[opal1970]

Hey Oriontide,
that is a really nice project you have going. Looking good.

forgive me for my ignorance, I am far from an expert concerning the new BSG series... why does the Galactica have these "non-armored" places in the first place? kinda like the navy sending out a battleship with 1 out of 3 guns missing, isn't it? I know in the new series the Galactica is suposed to be a museum relic... so I doubt the building was stopped to get her out in the field... perhaps some of the panels were stripped to use on other ships over the years.

thanks for any enlightenment,
Jason

 

[Oriontide]

Hey Oriontide,
that is a really nice project you have going. Looking good.

forgive me for my ignorance, I am far from an expert concerning the new BSG series... why does the Galactica have these "non-armored" places in the first place? kinda like the navy sending out a battleship with 1 out of 3 guns missing, isn't it? I know in the new series the Galactica is suposed to be a museum relic... so I doubt the building was stopped to get her out in the field... perhaps some of the panels were stripped to use on other ships over the years.

thanks for any enlightenment,
Jason

Thanks, Jason.

In the new mini-series, just before the Cylon attack, the Galactia was being decommisioned from active duty so that it would become a floating museum to the first Cylon War, which it fought in forty years ago.

She was no longer considered to be a top line ship--that role was taken over by newer Battlestars like the Pegasus and the Valkrye. When the Cylons attacked in the mini-series, there was just no time to refit the Galactica in any way; she just took off as is.

As to how or why she had been stripped of her armor in the first place, that was never really explained. So your guess that the armor may have been used on other ships is as good as any. She was facing retirement at that point, so replacing her armor might have been seen as being too costly for her new role of just being a museum.

In the movie Razor, there are flashback scenes to the First Cylon War that show the same class battlestars as Galactia in action, but fully armored. That was where I got the idea for this model.

 

[opal1970]

Ahhh ok, yeah that makes sense and fits to what little I do know about the new Galactica. (started watching it but I just could not get used to Starbuck being a female).

Thanks for the information.

Jason

 

[Oriontide]

Re: My Battlestar Ajax DONE!

The Battlestar Ajax is finally finished:

I decided to give the ship its own insignia: a Greek warrior's helmet.

Side by side views of the Ajax with the Galactica:

Comments welcome.

 

[knightdriver2001]

NICE! :thumbsup

I hate to say it but that style of Battlestar looks much better with a skin on it. Never got the ribbed look.

Looks great!

 

[SmilingOtter]

I wasn't convinced by some of the WIP shots, but finished, she looks GREAT!. And yeah, fully armored looks a lot better IMO.

 

[CB2001]

I agree. This is pretty awesome.

 

[Oriontide]

Thanks very much, guys.

Yeah, there were moments when I was working on this when even I wasn't too sure of how it would look when finished. But once the paint went on, I was relieved.