I am completely impressed with what I have been viewing of off the shelf kits being built by professional modelers around the world. Such is this one by famed artist E. James Small! The Revell Raider is not only fantastic…. but it IS considered one of the ‘studio scale’ sizes since Apogee used one of the kits in the filming of the show back in 1979. this is a beautiful build!
Here is what Jim has to say of this build…
This model of the Cylon Raider was built from the older release of the Monogram kit, not the newer release with corrected parts. I have a few of the older kits but only one of the newer kits so I am saving that one.
I added quite a few modifications to this model, including full lighting using super bright LED’s with two switches and a self-contained battery pack. The cockpit window is held down with magnets, allowing access to the batteries and switches.
I also put a full four-point (front, rear, top, bottom) mounting armature inside made from solid aluminum rod and threaded so it could be mounted to a cymbal stand (fairly cheap to buy and perfect for mounting models on!!!) for photographing, exactly the way the original FX models were done. I deliberately took a couple of shots with the model stand visible so you can see how it’s mounted. The chrome plated stand was covered in black velvet to make it invisible for the other “beauty” shots.
Other mods include thinning of the wing edges, scratch built engine nozzle details, the detailing on the sides just behind the cockpit window, the little “Swiss cheese” bits on the insides of the wing trenches up front as well as, of course, kit bashed hatches to cover the armature mounting points.
Some of you may question the lights under the wings… Not seen often during the show, so I put them on a separate switch so the other lights could be turned on without them, but yes, those lights ARE THERE on a couple of the original VFX miniatures, and can be seen during the sequence where the Raiders are attacking Caprica as they fly overhead if you watch carefully or freeze frame your DVD in the right spots.
The model’s paint job is an interpretation of mine, not exactly matching the original models. Why? Well frankly, the originals were really very crudely painted and had great black airbrushed streaks over the whole thing. This effect got washed out with the harsh lighting on screen but looks awful in real life. The darkened panels also look overdone and because I wanted my model to look good in person I toned these gaudy original features down to make the Raider more pleasing to the eye when on display.
EjIMBo.
For Excellence In Model Building,
visit Small Art Works online at:
www.smallartworks.ca
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