by Ian A. O'Neill

The idea for this came as I was at work wondering how I could incorporate the banana I was eating into an entry for the Yellow Contest. The curve struck me as oddly familiar. I then realized I was looking at a half crescent of a Cylon Raider! I then flipped the banana over and over to see how the whole crescent would look. I decided it just might look convincing enough to create a model that would be recognizable, if not ridiculous.

After a little thought, I decided against using actual bananas as I am not too experienced working in the fruit medium. It would also probably set a bad example for my children who are constantly told to not play with their food. I settled on fake fruit found at the local craft store. I tried to explain to my wife why I was slipping a set of fake bananas into the shopping basket, but the description was beyond words. Unfortunately, the set I got did not contain a pair of bananas that would form a convincing crescent to get the silhouette recognition I was after, so I then had to explain to my wife why I needed a second set of fake bananas.

Once a suitable crescent pair was located, joining them was pretty straight forward. The bananas have pegs that mount them into the part where they join. I removed the peg from one leaving a hole. The peg of the second then mounted right into the other, and fortunately made the correct shape with very little bending. I had read somewhere that these were made from styrene, so I used standard Testors plastic cement to join them. The center fuselage was made from a remaining banana, cut to lie flush with the others while resting on a table. I then removed semicircle notch to allow for mounting it onto the crescent pair. Again, plastic cement joins the bananas.

For display, it was obvious to use a banana holder as a mount for the Raider at rest. Painting was minimal as there was none. The cutaway part of the fuselage is left styrene white, but does not show in any viewing angle of the model when displayed or “flown”.

Image: Top view

Image: Rear

Image: Left

Image: In flight

Image: DRADIS contact, in the kitchen!