by Klaus Schäftner

In the year 1978 after the first Star Wars shockwave there was following another incredible thing: Battlestar Galactica.

When John Dykstra finished his work on Star Wars episode IV he had an idea about "Star Wars - like" for the TV. With his new "Dykstraflex-Camera", a computer controlled motion picture camera system, created for the effects in Star Wars, Dykstra had the illusion to produce his own "Star Wars".

With the conceptual designer Ralph McQuarrie he created a story around a mankind deep in space, forced by a cyborg race called CYLONS.

But what was the most amazing thing in BATTLESTAR GALACTICA?

Of course the famous VIPER when they launched in the tubes from the giant Battlestar GALACTICA to fight the CYLONS. That was such an incredible full speed dynamic scene - I think I watched it hundred of times, again and again...

30 years later I was lucky to catch a studio Viper kit on eBay.

For the base of the finished Viper I thought about a launch rail... same as seen in the movies, and when I searched for reference photos in the Internet I found some nice pictures of the original launch tube model.

In the fast speed movie sequence you cannot see everything, and when I took a look on the photos I wondered about the poor detailing.

So after I thought about more details to make my own version of a launch tube for my studio scale Viper. And the result is my tribute to the original 70ths Battlestar Galactica.

I planned to make this diorama in a length of 2 Feet (66cm). The basic shapes of the railway and the tube I made from wooden parts and styrene. A lot of yards from styrene strips are from evergreen, styrene pipes I bought in a craft store. The details are taken from old sci-fi and battle tank kits and some other stuff.

For launching the Viper on the railway trough the tube it was necessary to create a mechanical slider. In the movie scene you can't see it exactly and some photos shows only the front of it.

I knew I had seen one thing like this from a resin kit by Monsters in Motion... or anywhere... and one scratchbuilt on a model kit show.

At last I did my own thing and I built the basic mold from wood and styrene, using some details from older kits.

Image: Side view

Image: Top view, closeup

Image: Angle

Image: Prepare to launch....

Image: Top view

Image: Strip Alert

Image: Overall

Image: Sled

Image: Background

Image: First step

Image: In Progress