Battlestar Galactica Land Probe aka Turbocycle

Pretty please...

UNFORTUNATELY the bike will not be in scale with the Viper; it's going to be in 1/6 scale and a Viper of that size wouldn't fit in my living room..! :mrgreen:
But there will be a simplified 1/32 scale version and maybe a CG file for 3d printing. And the 2-seater Viper is coming, too, if you want it or not! :twisted:

I want it! I want it! :mrgreen:
 
UNFORTUNATELY the bike will not be in scale with the Viper; it's going to be in 1/6 scale and a Viper of that size wouldn't fit in my living room..! :mrgreen:
But there will be a simplified 1/32 scale version and maybe a CG file for 3d printing. And the 2-seater Viper is coming, too, if you want it or not! :twisted:

Humm think about it a 1/6 Viper over your recliner chairs watching BG it could be fun :cool:
(until your wife finds you :eek: )
I remember as a kid siting in my paper box ship watch my shows was always a good time.

any way 1/32 bike and a two seater WAY COOL !! I would want.

Thanks again your work looks great!
 
UNFORTUNATELY the bike will not be in scale with the Viper; it's going to be in 1/6 scale and a Viper of that size wouldn't fit in my living room..! :mrgreen:
But there will be a simplified 1/32 scale version and maybe a CG file for 3d printing. And the 2-seater Viper is coming, too, if you want it or not! :twisted:
:( No love for 1:18? :mrgreen:
 
What? Models can be built in 1:18 scale? I thought that was a myth..! :mrgreen:
 
I'm still occupied with other projects.

To all fans:

Rest assured this model will be finished and released as soon as possible. I always finish what I begin (even if it takes a year, or two...)! :thumb:
 
Cough! Cough! Cough! My, my, this one accumulated quite a bit of dust..! ;)

tc15.jpg

I did a bit of cleanup and combined the hand guards with the front cover. Don't worry, I did not wipe off the colour but deactivated the textures to see which parts of the mesh need to be refined. The saddle got smoothed out and the front of the side tubes were prolongued to make it go into the turbine housing like they do on the original. :)

tc16.jpg
 
Galactica 1980 had a chance, and blew it, but they had a couple great props. I'll give this one a try when you finish it.
 
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Most of the props made for G1980 were supposed to be featured in the original show, be it in the first or in the second season that never came to be. Design-wise G1980 did not disappoint at all: Turbobike, Derringer, Cylon humanoids, AB ship, Dr Z's ship, new practical helmets, the small but new bridge wall set and Starbuck's jalopy are all en par with everything the original series offered. Even the time travel and spacewalk effects were great. It's curious to note that "Buck Rogers" had much more model and VFX work though even though it was produced simultaneously by the same team. Here you can see that "Buck" was designed with cost efficiency in mind. The costumes alone make the show look 100 times more expensive than it really was. :)
 
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Also take into consideration that the original series, was suppose to be a series of "MADE-FOR-TV MOVIES" and not an actual TV series. Not only that, but ABC (the TV network that BSG aired on) gave Glen Larson only half of what he asked for in order to make the series. Then CBS (the TV network that BRTC25 aired on) gave Glen Larson half of what ABC gave him to make BRTC25. After ABC realized how successful and popular both BSG & BRTC25 had become, they asked Glen Larson to make another BSG series. However, after Glen Larson agreed to the make another BSG series, ABC gave him half of when CBS gave him to make BRTC25. That is why G-80 was of such poor quality of series.
 
True. Ironically, all eps of G1980 were written by Glen Larson himself. He often mocked himself about this, asking himself what the heck he had done. The events surely left a mark on him because later he would complain about being (too) cheap on the first seasons of "Knight Rider"... :sticktongue:
 
You may be asking why this project was paused for so long. I had extreme difficulty making the handlebars. They bend in a very strange way in three directions and doing this in SketchUp is not an easy task. Last week I had an idea to make compound recesses in SketchUp using a dummy object. Basically you do not edit the mesh but work with a new 3D object which you edit and shape separately. Then, when you are pleased with the result, you move the dummy object onto the main object and merge the two for further editing. I tested this on the hand guards of the bike - with success. So I thought about a new way to approach the handlebars.

The most difficult part of that was to create a beam with a perfectly circular cross section. Making two or three round beams meet at the angled points is not easy and if you further manipulate the direction of the sections leads to distorted results with more or less oval cross sections. I thought construction could be done using the follow me tool but I had no idea how to start. Then, two days ago, I had an idea.

tc17.jpg

I drew a line with three sections on the "floor".

tc18.jpg

Then I rotated the segments a bit to make the shape askew.

The next step required to make a circle follow that path but up to then it was uncertain where that circle had to be positioned. Then it struck me: The only place where the circle could be aligned correctly was the center of the handlebar. And the center began as a straight line along the red axis. So I drew a circle there:

tc19.jpg

and made it follow the path:

tc20.jpg

This was exactly what I needed!!!

tc21.jpg

A quick test mount proved that this idea finally lead to a pleasing result. I rotated the bar a bit and prolongued the handles so that everything matched the original pretty well.

tc22.jpg
 
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You may be asking why this project was paused for so long. I had extreme difficulty making the handlebars. They bend in a very strange way in three directions and doing this in SketchUp is not an easy task. Last week I had an idea to make compound recesses in SketchUp using a dummy object. Basically you do not edit the mesh but work with a new 3D object which you edit and shape separately. Then, when you are pleased with the result, you move the dummy object onto the main object and merge the two for further editing. I tested this on the hand guards of the bike - with success. So I thought about a new way to approach the handlebars.

The most difficult part of that was to create a beam with a perfectly circular cross section. Making two or three round beams meet at the angled points is not easy and if you further manipulate the direction of the sections leads to distorted results with more or less oval cross sections. I thought construction could be done using the follow me tool but I had no idea how to start. Then, two days ago, I had an idea.

View attachment 224657

I drew a line with three sections on the "floor".

View attachment 224658

Then I rotated the segments a bit to make the shape askew.

The next step required to make a circle follow that path but up to then it was uncertain where that circle had to be positioned. Then it struck me: The only place where the circle could be aligned correctly was the center of the handlebar. And the center began as a straight line along the red axis. So I drew a circle there:

View attachment 224659

and made it follow the path:

View attachment 224660

This was exactly what I needed!!!

View attachment 224661

A quick test mount proved that this idea finally lead to a pleasing result. I rotated the bar an bit and prolongued the handles so that everything matched the original pretty well.

View attachment 224662
Great solution! Looking forward to seeing the templates .... someday!;)
 
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