Jays B5 Station Build

Maverick65

Member
Greeting's All :wave:

After watching some B5 on video, I got the urge to build a B5 model. Was gonna build a ship but then decided to give Jay's Babylon 5 Station a go. Armed with only a couple of pics and a schematic I got busy cutting, folding and gluing.

B5 Instr.jpg

After a couple of hours I got parts A - G together, the end of the station. (Reminds me of a lightsaber at this point) :mrgreen:
B5-1.jpg B5-3.jpg

A little while later I rolled up parts H - L. Will attach to end later. Wonder how long the Station will end up being, only about a third of the way in and it's already almost a foot long. :eek:

B5-4.jpg B5-5.jpg B5-14.jpg

Let me know what you think, cause I'm still new to paper modeling. All comments and feedback most welcome.

Rick
 

Rhaven Blaack

!!!THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!!!
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So far, so good. Everything looks good.
You are right though, this thing lookslike it will be a MONSTER of a model.
I will following this thread.
 

Revell-Fan

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Wondeful! I have the plans, too, and always wondered how the model turns out.
 

Maverick65

Member
Middle Section and Stand

Thanks Guys, glad you like it.

Middle section done. Kinda looks like an Olympic torch at this point.
B5-7.jpg B5-12.jpg B5-15.jpg

At this point I realized I need some kind of display stand. Was first thinking about hanging the completed model but then decided on a base with uprights. A few ideas later and I decided on the following.

This is what I'm going to use for the top.
B5 stand png.jpg

Here are the sides. Decided to add part of the opening monologue from the 2nd season.
B5 side long png.jpg B5 side png.jpg
 

Maverick65

Member
Stand Cont

Was not going to add anything to the bottom but them decided to pay homage to Jay so I added his disclaimer to the bottom.
B5-25.5.jpg

For the uprights I decided to do it old school, I used a compass, pencil and ruler. Yes that's right I didn't use my computer for this part.
smile.gif
I'm not a fan of Photoshop, I do most of my work in Microsoft Paint. It might be an old program but that's what I'm used to. I do use Paint Shop Pro 8 for some things, I just find it quicker to use Paint.
B5-25 png.jpg B5-24 png.jpg

That's all for now, more to follow...:wave:
 

Maverick65

Member
Main Body Update

Here are a couple of pics of the last part of the main station body.

B5-17.jpg

B5-18.jpg

B5-19.jpg
The round section was the hardest part so far, had to restart a couple of times in order to get it to come out correctly.
mad.gif
smile.gif
There is nothing to connect it to so I will follow Jay's advice about adding a tube roll into the end to add support and use as glue tabs.
 

ThunderChild

Active Member
Never seen B5 until yesterday. Started watching, only on episode 2 now. Still needs to grow on me.
You're doing a great job with this model Maverick, can't wait to see more!
 

Rhaven Blaack

!!!THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!!!
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It looks like it is coming together quite nicely.
What you have so far looks good.
 

Maverick65

Member
Glad you like it guys. It's turning out better then I first thought it would. I got the solar panels finished and have been working on the top. It's been slow going due to some folding issues.

Slow and steady wins the race as the saying goes. Had to go slow so I wouldn't score the wrong lines. Fortunatly Jay altered the texture a little along the fold lines so once I figured that out it made things a lot eadier. Still didn't want to mess things up so been taking my time. Will post some pics tomorrow, well ok later today.

Forgot to say thanks Rhaven Blaack for uploading Jays models, now others can build the station (and his others) if they want.
 

Revell-Fan

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Never seen B5 until yesterday. Started watching, only on episode 2 now. Still needs to grow on me.
Never? Really? Oh, then you missed something.

Just imagine, it was in 1993 when two shows with the same premise were established. One was a spin-off of one of the most successful SF franchise, the other one was completely new: Star Trek: DS9 and Babylon 5. Whereas DS9 had more money it lacked the dynamics of the first Star Trek shows due to the limitations of the setting (space station instead of space ship). Soon after its start the show was seen as a "talk show with aliens". They had some interesting stories nonetheless (and I've NEVER doubted their high qualities) but it was not until the introduction of the Defiant which gave the show its drive (3rd season). When Worf came aboard the show became perfect (4th season). The rest is history.

Babylon was different. Different in every way. It was clever right from the beginning and established several highly complex story arcs which required watching EVERY episode in order to keep up with the depicted events (during the 3rd season I missed one episode; it took me about 7 weeks to figure out what happened in that ep.). You have to see B5 as a novel with the single episodes as chapters. Watch it and you won't be disappointed. B5 was created by Joseph Michael Straczynski (JMS) who wrote all but one episode; the only episode he didn't wrote was the one he directed ;-) (the last one). His way of story-telling inspired me to write a complete virtual 2nd season of Battlestar Galactica.

Technically B5 was very interesting, too. It was the first TV series to be shot entirely in wide-screen. It showcast CGI effects, sets and extensions on a large scale. If you look closely you'll notice that they tried to establish Newtonian physics in a space show for (I believe) the very first time and showed coloured stars (all stars seen before used to be white). Many of the artists went on to make the New BSG later.

B5 was supposed to span five years and should end with the destruction of the station. However, after season 2 B5 was sailing in troubled waters because the lead production company got bankrupt and it was not sure if there was another season at all. Then, all of a sudden, a new TV channel came to the rescue and ordered the next season. After season 3 the TV channel faced a massive financial crisis, too, which endangered the future two seasons. Having in mind that at least one season could be produced JMS took the remaining scripts, cut out every redundancy and so put the stuff of two seasons into one in order to complete his saga. The result was an action-packed season with brilliant character development and nail-biting tension. Shortly before season 4 was finished the financial problems were solved, again a new TV channel came in and secured the final fifth season. Lucky JMS then called back the last four or so condensed scripts and reduced the pace a bit. So he was able to complete his saga as intended, however, compared to the first four seasons the last season turned out a bit slow (due to the lacking material which was left after season 4; there are good character moments, though).

The series was followed by several really good TV films and a spin-off (B5: Crusade).

Watch out for the time travel episodes involving the other Babylon station; the concept is brilliant; JMS delivered a totally logical conclusion to an episode two seasons later! :wave:
 

ThunderChild

Active Member
Thanks RF, that was a really good description. :D
I've wanted to watch B5 ever since it first came out, unfortunately here in SA the broadcast service sucks. For example, a few years ago I accidentally came across another stunning show one Monday morning at 2AM (insomnia) that I had never even heard of: Firefly... (the rest as they say is history regarding that one, best series ever made)
B5 did air at some point but also at ridiculous times and just an episode here and there. Same with all the treks. Last month I went to visit my parents in Holland and finally got my hands on the entire B5 series including the movies. Tomorrow I'll continue my B5 education... :p
 
Maverick65,

I think your model is comming together very nicely and crisp.
Maybe I'm saying something blasphemous now but from what I have seen from Jaybat's models I personaly think they're a bit rough around the edges so to speek but when I look at your build then I stand completely corrected.

Cheers and all the best,
Elko
 

Maverick65

Member
Almost finished

Well here you go folks, I got the main body of the station finished. Also finished the solar panels and started the top portion.
B5-22.jpg B5-20.jpg

Here are some stand test fittings.
B5-26.jpg B5-27.jpg

Almost complete...:)

@Revell-Fan - Thanks RF, I couldn't have said it any better, the show had a way of pulling the audience in. I never missed an episode if I could help it. If I was at work I would take a break and watch it in the conference room. (lucky they had cable tv in there).

@ThunderChild - I'm glad you like it and keep watching the episodes, they only get better. Will say no more, don't want to ruin it for you.

@ShadowHawk141 - I understand what you are saying, I think he designed them this way on purpose. But after building this one I'm gonna build some of his others too. It is turning out better then I thought it would at first.
 

Revell-Fan

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Mav, your build looks beautiful! You had a good boss ;-) ! What is your favourite character of B5? I'm a Garibaldi fan. He's one of the most human characters I've ever seen.

@ShadowHawk: I know what you mean. Obviously Jay designed his models for easy assembly and easy scoring. Hence some of the models appeared rather blocky around the edges. However, he was one of the first ones (if not THE first one) to offer B5 and BSG paper models.

@TC: I know what you mean. There was a show called "Harsh Realm" from the makers of the X-Files which I would have liked to see on German TV. It took five or seven years till it got here. Late between 2 and 4 AM. Not a big problem, I could have recorded it and watched it at the daytime. I COULD have, IF they hadn't changed the title to "Virtual Reality - Fight for Survival"....! The last episode aired two weeks before I found out that it was in fact HR. :curse::curse::curse: We are still waiting for the last seasons of "The Clone Wars" and "Sarah Connor Chronicles" here.
 

Maverick65

Member
Station Complete

The top is complete, only the solar panels to go.
B5-28.jpg

Here it is folks, the Babylon 5 station is now open for business.
B5-29.jpg B5-31.jpg B5-33.jpg B5-34.jpg
 

Maverick65

Member
Here are the last of the pics.
B5-32.jpg B5-35.jpg

I have to say that this turned out to be a fun build so next up I think I'll build a starfury to go with it and then Jays Omega-Class Destroyer.

@RF - The show was full of rich characters so it's hard to say which one was my absolute fav. But the 2 I liked most were Garibaldi and G'Kar.
They both went thru a lot of trial and tribulations and remained sane. The writers did a great job, they made you want to tune in to see what was going to happen next.

Well thank you to everyone who tuned in here to watch the station take shape. In the end I would have to say that Jay did a fantastic job on the design.

Cheers, aussie

Rick
 

D-WHALE

Utopia Planitia Engineer
honest opinion???

Well, i was allways not a big fan of Jaybats cardtoys! And they are not more or less than that: Cardtoys :cry: no models

if you see the Screenshots of the final pepakura model, then you see, that all the tube and cylinder are not round! not so round like you did in you build, what is of course better!
the unfolding is a disaster, not only at this model! I build his "Rhode Island" and this was one of my worse build ever!

So, you did a good job (maybe a bit more edge coloring :twisted: ), but i would better wait for a better version!

BUT: your stand looks great!

Greetings
Marko
 
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