Hi


This scene, from the original Battlestar Galactica series from 1978, took many years to take it's current shape. Since I saw the series on Dutch television, broadcasting it several years after it's release, I was captivated by the tale of the "rag tag fleet" on their desperate quest to find a new home, chased by the relentless Cylons, with the single surviving Battlestar, the Galactica, as only space carrier to provide protection. At the age of 12, this fascination for the series resulted in a first try at a Lego Colonial Viper, which can be found by clicking "up" and opening the folder named "ViperV1"

For the current array of Lego elements I had available, I still consider it a good attempt, also keeping in mind that the only reference at my disposal, was remembering how it looked on TV. No internet to search for screenshots or pics of movie props, no video recorder to pause a scene, and have a better look at shapes and details. And what mattered most, I had lots of fun playing with my "Viper" and it was never taken apart, unless trying to simulate battle damage from an encounter with the Cylons.

Making a large jump in time, when my love for Lego was awakened again, while being a married man by that time, better reference pictures were available, Lego CAD programs had been created, and the internet made it possible to get inspired by Lego builders from all over the planet, as well as enabling me to get parts that were not simply available in a local Lego store. When I got some grey, curved top slope parts, in a nice quantity, I realized these would make a much better Viper fuselage, with cleaner appearance, more like the "real" one. I learned to work with ML CAD and eventually came up with the design that can be found in the folder named "ViperV2" and for a while I was quite happy with this new version, being a massive step forward from the "V1"

But still some parts were not to my liking. The motors lacked detail, the nose wasn't tapered, so the characeristic shape of the original wasn't as accurately depicted as it should be, along with more things that still could be better. ML CaD was fired up again, test builds were made to see if certain ideas would be possible with real parts, and not just on the screen, step by step, most of the flaws of the V2 were solved. The final result isn't perfect, but I have a very good feel about it, and the parts were purchased to complete the build.

Since the quest for a decent Colonial Viper had now reached it's goal, the question arose what the next project could be. What could be done to enhance the Viper's appearance? The idea formed to try build a diorama around it, depicting a typical scene aboard the Galactica. ML CAD was fired up again, and much attempts later, the final design started to take shape.

The story behind this diorama is taken from one of the series' episodes. Starbuck is selected for what at first seems like a routine reconnaissance mission. He feels he has better things to do, involving gambling and beautiful women, so he feigns illness, to evade this assignment. Only to later hear that his best friend, Apollo, had now flown the mission, and ran into some serious trouble, even barely making it back home in one piece. Starbuck feels bad about this, and rushes to the launchbay area, to meet his best friend, and apologize. Meanwhile, Adama hears of Starbuck's behavior, dodging an assignment, and the danger that this behavior has put his son Apollo into. So he rushes to the launch area as well, to have a talk with Starbuck, arriving at the scene just moments after Starbuck did...


P.S. If you want to contact me about this MOC, or any of my other creations, please use this email:
 
hjve@hotmail.com