Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale

Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - Printable Version

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Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - olcabour - 01-14-2014

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.

[Image: TankerSide.jpg]

This resin kit comes from Larson Design (http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=26062). 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.

IMG_2449

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).

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - Red III - 01-14-2014

Looking forward to following this build!

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - JAWS - 01-15-2014

This will be another interesting build.
I take it you are going to supplement as many scratched parts with smaller scale original parts as possible.
That would give this model the pop it loses with scratched parts.
BRING IT!

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - Wombat - 01-15-2014

If this turns out like the other builds you've posted here it'll be another incredible looking piece when you are done. You seem to go that extra mile with your builds so this looks like it will be another very informative thread to follow as you go. I like that you are looking for and using donor kit's that will work for this scale to replace some of teh kit parts. Should look pretty sharp when done.

Have fun!!

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - olcabour - 01-16-2014

Thanks.
I finally kept the kit's resin part of the Leopold Gun, but had to modify a lot of details on head and engine modules.

OK, go !

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 Smile

)

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

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - olcabour - 01-18-2014

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

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - dbhs - 01-18-2014

Very nice work. The tanker is one we don't see often enough. Can't wait to see what other mods you do.

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - olcabour - 01-21-2014

Thanks dbhs

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.

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - olcabour - 01-22-2014

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.

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - Wombat - 01-22-2014

Shaping up as another informative thread. Nice work!

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - olcabour - 02-21-2014

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.

As I was waiting for the missing parts of the bays, I was stuck on this assembly, and made a little break!

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - darkimmitator - 02-21-2014

Excellent attention to details !!!

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - Cylon-Knight - 02-24-2014

A+ work!
When done this ship could grace any museum.

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - olcabour - 02-25-2014

Thanks sirs Smile

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.

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - Wombat - 02-25-2014

Seems like you've had a few issues with things but a really good job getting it to where you're at with it now.

It's gonna look sweet with some paint splashed on it.

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - olcabour - 03-01-2014

(02-25-2014, 04:09 PM)Wombat Wrote: Seems like you've had a few issues with things but a really good job getting it to where you're at with it now.

It's gonna look sweet with some paint splashed on it.

Thanks a lot Wombat. The painting is starting on it.

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 !)

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - Red III - 03-01-2014

Looks fantastic!

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - darkimmitator - 03-01-2014

Really enjoying this build . great work and keep it coming !!!

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - olcabour - 03-04-2014

Thanks a lot sirs

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - JAWS - 03-05-2014

Well that work you did paid off nicely.
Excellent job.

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - olcabour - 03-07-2014

Thanks Jason.

The painting stage continues on this bad guys.

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.

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - darkimmitator - 03-07-2014

Really digging these updates . outstanding work on a build that has the appearance of the studio scale model with all the added details and depth of weathered color you have applied to this kit .Well done sir !

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - dbhs - 03-08-2014

Looks great. the paint job really has a nice a feel to it like the original.

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - olcabour - 03-08-2014

Thank you very much for your nice comments darkimmitator and dbhs
There are much appreciated Smile

---

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 .

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - darkimmitator - 03-08-2014

Excellent work . Just the right amount of weathering to give this build the look of huge scale !!

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - Cylon-Knight - 03-09-2014

*bows down*

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - olcabour - 03-09-2014

Thanks a lot sirs

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - olcabour - 03-09-2014

The diorama will depict a scene from the beginning of the pilot TV movie, when a patrol of Viper (Apollo and his brother) discovered the fleet of Cylon tanker and squadrons Cylon Raider hide in ambush behind a nebula, ready to attack the colonial fleet of Battlestars at the peace conference. This meeting will be a tragic outcome for Apollo's brother.

The dio is built with 2 wood boards and reinforcements. that will be covered with a plastic sheet, glued with double-sided tape.
The nebula will be made with kapok (the anoraks inner material), backlit with 2 cold white leds (thus slightly blue).
I intend to stand the kapok with fiber optic.

The electric socket location is drilled to insert the connector in strength.

With an circuit test, I realize that the kapok finally filters more the light than I thought.
As the dio was not ready, the lighting tests are done on a black chair.
In person, this is far less bright than on the picture (due to the sensitivity of the camera) .

Therefore, I change the approach and replace LEDs with a LED spotlight.

The wooden frame is hollowed in the center to allow the spotlight to be inserted from the back.

The plastic sheet is set in place with double-sided tape.

It is then spray-painted : black paint and primer

The stars are made with turquoise and white gouaches. This needs hard bristle brush on the edge of the jar, above the surface to cover.
The first brushing produce drops that create the stars, and progressively as one brush, there is less paint, and it ends in nebulae, until there is no more paint in the brush.

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - olcabour - 03-09-2014

For the Viper and Raider, I tried a 3D printing, but my order was canceled by Sculpteo (a Shapeway's like shop) as being to thin !
I then tried an easy way with a tiny papercraft models, but the result did not convince me, so I did go with scratchs, to duplicate with resin.

In scale blueprints, generated to scale by Sculpteo, have been very helpful here.

The viper is really easy to do, following modules of the papercraft model, so based rods, and square section evergreen strip quickly shaped.

For the Raider : it was also finally fairly easy, following the scaled blueprint. I used spare grooved parts for the cockpit, and clamp strip for the engines housings.

Here is my tiny squadron, ready for molding. Here my tiny squadron, ready for molding.

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - darkimmitator - 03-09-2014

Man , this just keeps getting better and better with every update . Love the tiny raider and viper . The harmless mist doesn't look so harmless as well. Very COOL !!!!!!!!

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - JAWS - 03-10-2014

Wow massive progress!
I simply live what you've done & achieved.
The Tanker looks sweet.
The paint makes it look bigger than it is.
The diorama will great

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - olcabour - 03-15-2014

Thanks a lot guys.

To reproduce these fighters, I made a 2-parts mold.
The walls are made of lego.
Chimneys are from a model kit tree ... and the 2 viper!

and here is a fresh whole squadron.

After a good cleaning and preparation session, they are painting.

The squadron drying after a black wash.

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - JAWS - 03-15-2014

WOW they are KOOOOL!!!!
Great job mate, really great work.
love em!

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - olcabour - 03-15-2014

Thanks jason.

Curiously, my tiny Vipers are exactly the same size as the ones Randy Cooper is offering for the 1/2 SS Salzo Galactica (this beauty is really near my workbench Wink

). He completly missed the scale there (~1/700 vs ~1/2000).

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - olcabour - 03-16-2014

Optic fiber bows are set in the diorama to hold the kapok upper layer.

To diffuse the light, there is a first layer kapok on the ground.

The second layer lied on the bows.

The result is not as good as I was expecting, not quite nebulous.
The Kapok is destructured by streching it.

Some holes are created to enhance the nebulous appearance.

The result is more nebulous in person than it looks on the shots.

Finally, the bows are removed as not used finally. Only one is kept the vertical hole.

Vipers and raiders are set in the background, also with optic fibers.
To make them stand out and for the diorama to look less static, engines streaks are colored.

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - darkimmitator - 03-16-2014

What a great looking dio .Love the scaled fighters and the backlit nebula !!

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - shadowknight - 03-16-2014

Really good job on this. I love the little Vipers and Raiders.

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - Cylon-Knight - 03-17-2014

Ready to attack the colonies... Great work. Smile

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - dbhs - 03-17-2014

Wow. Awesome work.

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - LastBattlestar - 03-17-2014

Oh man, that is an awesome project in all respects, congratulations!

I was hoping that the tanker kit may have been in scale with the studio scale Battlestar, but your Vipers are twice the size. But they and the Raiders are very cool indeed! They are however very close in scale to a studio scale Colonial Movers..... Smile

Mike

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - olcabour - 03-24-2014

Thanks a lot guys

(03-17-2014, 05:16 PM)LastBattlestar Wrote: Oh man, that is an awesome project in all respects, congratulations!

I was hoping that the tanker kit may have been in scale with the studio scale Battlestar, but your Vipers are twice the size. But they and the Raiders are very cool indeed! They are however very close in scale to a studio scale Colonial Movers.....

Mike

Thanks Mike.

As I precised on the rpf discussion of the 37" Galactica, these tiny fighters are in the 1/700~1/730th range, and forfuity are exactly the same size as Randy's one !
So mine's and Randy's viper are way out of scale for the 37", which one is said to be 1/2000th.
That also means that the SS Galactica is near 1/1000th, so these tiny vipers are "only" 50% out of scale to go with it.
Despite this difference, hidden in the hangar, I think they should do the trick.

A Colonial mover to go with these vipers... that is a really cool idea. Thanks for that.:
(....I will also need a TOS shuttle in scale Rolleyes

)

Before thinking of that, the 37" is now really near my workbench Smile

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - JAWS - 03-24-2014

That came out fantastic!
Would look great in a shadow box.

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - Wombat - 03-24-2014

SPECTACULAR!!

Thats gotta be up there with the coolest things i've seen done. Everything looks just perfect!

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - olcabour - 03-26-2014

Thanks a lot mates.

I don't have a shadow box, but did other pictures of the finished dio.
It's not easy to shoot it, the camera has trouble to focus.
They are shot at different times of the day, which also plays in the final rendering.
The nebula is also more "nebulous" in person.

Few others before making engines streaks

RE: Cylon Tanker - 1/2 studio scale - olcabour - 03-26-2014

(03-24-2014, 07:42 AM)olcabour Wrote: Thanks a lot guys

(03-17-2014, 05:16 PM)LastBattlestar Wrote: Oh man, that is an awesome project in all respects, congratulations!

I was hoping that the tanker kit may have been in scale with the studio scale Battlestar, but your Vipers are twice the size. But they and the Raiders are very cool indeed! They are however very close in scale to a studio scale Colonial Movers.....

Mike

Thanks Mike.

As I precised on the rpf discussion of the 37" Galactica, these tiny fighters are in the 1/700~1/730th range, and forfuity are exactly the same size as Randy's one !
So mine's and Randy's viper are way out of scale for the 37", which one is said to be 1/2000th.
That also means that the SS Galactica is near 1/1000th, so these tiny vipers are "only" 50% out of scale to go with it.
Despite this difference, hidden in the hangar, I think they should do the trick.

A Colonial mover to go with these vipers... that is a really cool idea. Thanks for that.:
(....I will also need a TOS shuttle in scale )

Mike,
After taking a look at mistereaton replicas (http://www.mystery10.com/project/colonial-movers/), my viper are finally too tiny to go with the SS colonial mover.