by Brent Byerly

During the run of the current series much speculation has been made about how the show would end. One interesting idea that I read online was that Adama and crew may actually be cylons themselves. The thirteenth colony (Earth) may be where humanity created a "first generation" cylon and then a revolt occurred. These cylons went out into the stars and colonized twelve of them. Then through the passage of time, history was distorted and they began to think of themselves as human. They in turn created cylons for themselves and history being forgotten was repeated with tragic results. This would explain that "this has happened before, and will happen again" theme that is mentioned from time to time. Even though the last episode shows a decimated Earth and probably negates this idea I liked the concept and began to craft a scenario of my own. I thought it would be fantastic if when Galactica finally arrives on Earth, her crew discovers a world that has recovered from the original revolt and now thrives not only culturally but technologically as well. This means that Earths defenses would detect the BSG and the "rag tag" fleet (as well as cylon base ships) and send their own fleet to intercept. That is where my ship comes in.

My Story

One of the ships in Earths distinguished fleet is the Starcutter Diligence (named after the real Coast Guard cutter based in the port of Wilmington, North Carolina). She is smaller than a battlestar but just as formidable and heavily armed. She also has a small compliment of fighters (harrier type vipers) that can take off vertically (negating the need for launch tubes) from a hangar situated underneath. On that fateful day she was the first ship to intercept and welcome the unidentified arriving fleet that was being led by the massive and somehow familiar Galactica.

The Model

I had an idea in mind for the design but as with any project I tweaked it along the way. I did try to incorporate design hints from ships seen on the show such as the "mouth like" (yes, to me Galactica looks like it has a mouth) front and the extra large engines. I also made an insignia for the top just as all battlestars would have. The Diligence's insignia has the sun, Earth, and moon as well as the constellations of Orion and the big dipper. Her scratchbuilt construction is from solid wood (white pine). The engines are two toothpaste tube caps. She is greebled with armor plating made from saltine cracker box cardboard, cut to fit, painted first and then applied with the same Elmer's wood glue holding the rest of the ship together. Most of the gun turrets are made with the same material as the greeblies with the exception of a few with toothpick barrels. All paint (acrylics) was hand brushed on. She is roughly 7" long, 3" wide and 2" tall. This model was great fun to build and I'm happy with the way it turned out. She's a nice addition to my own little fleet.

Image: Port side

Image: Starboard

Image: Top/left view

Image: Top/right

Image: Left/front

Image: Mirrored

Image: Top/rear