Doc.. Excellent!! You'll going to go from no Galactica's to a full fleet :grin: ~ and you wont need any stinking assembly guide to build her! With you guys assisting, V3 may be a full dress rehearsal, a first for me!.. Sorry must have got my wires crossed there somewhere about the bridge inserts. Yep the braces were next to useless.. sorry bout' that, see below for an update. . Solaria ! I like that name to, a few of the others sound dumb! just on the names, like the variations on the model, there seems to be several versions of the '12' that may or may not be cannon.? seems the series crew came up with 5 original names, but their not on other lists? Can anyone confirm THE definitive list of names?
OK , since you were the instigator of this model, here's some stuff for you comment/decision.
Firstly.. this is where I'm up to with the texturing. Its been a VERTICAL learning curve since I've discovered the texture tools in META, so if they look on the sad side don't be disappointed, hopefully they'll improve a bit before the final release. Probably raise a few eye brows here, but I've gone for a 'generic' grey plating tex, I played with a few others but they all looked to ..plastic. The 'sides' are a bit of a worry, the tex's are just screen caps from for a reference pic. So.. what do you recon? persevere with them ~ clean up/ improve OR just revert to the generic grey?
Here's the detail stage (highlighted in blue so you can distinguish them). They will be separate textured parts like ..er.. plating glued to surface, I've used this method to great effect on other Spacecraft models, BUT it ramps up the Dev and build time ~ requires a bunch of extra numbering / paper etc etc.... A lot of experienced modellers can do this themselves + extra.. though, I'd like to give novices a reasonable model without having to scratch their heads.. The sides of the Galactica are pretty 'gnarly' ( IMO.. makes it look a lot smaller...) So what's your opinion? keep it very basic = perhaps one or two detail bits per part, go the hard yards and make lotz, OR dice the detail all together?
BRACING .. Both you and Steve recon bigger is better.. pretty sure I can ramp it up a few more percent and still keep you 'letter' guys from forming a posse, obviously that'll make bracing essential. This is a cap of the 'NEW IMPROVED brace for the bridge. It'll serve a multi purpose in retaining the .. 'trench' shape in the bridge underside. After seeing StevO's mates work ~ I've reworked it somewhat, with an extra part, and moved the 'Neck' to the Bridge module ~ supports the rear bulkhead and brace.
Steve !!!! Great reference shot ! .. I was going to scale it up to the max but after seeing it against the kit, as you've said, V2 must be close.
Flaps ~ Yep V1 was done on the fly so have to apologise there ~ time waster.. V2 has several flap changes.. Normally I like to keep flaps on critical shapes = the front and rear sections of the bridge. There's a lot of reasons why I do them that way, mainly for novices ( yep ! noted your ease of construction point ) the sequence has changed a little, so hopefully they'll work this time. Having said that the flaps on the rear have to stay, though I concur with your point re the nose, so I've moved them to the bottom!.
LB arms ~ That's what I needed to know..! By solid surfaces, would you say completely enclosing the LB end of the arms, or Larger flaps on ALL of the edges? + LB Line removed ! + parts lay out ~ I'll try for a reasonable layout, though, page space/ number of pages, is a limiting factor.
Engines ~ Yep retaining shape looks like a problem. I think it'll require a considerable rework. Noted angle problem ~ a brace or spar may help there....
Beta V model ~ I can see your point re ratio's. I've 'flattened the V2 bridge by 10 / 15 percent, and I'll do the same for the other sections as well.
There's probably a point I've missed responding to there but I have them all noted, we can work through them as we come to them. Thanks for the offer of ref mat! I have enough reference pix, what I can't get is stuff like you guys have posted ~ beta build pix, ref shots against the model + your comments and suggestions etc..so that's what I need the most!
btw.. If you have the op any future beta pix with the Model in shot as reference, would be 'MOST EXCELLENT!' also times not a problem, its going to take a while for me to ramp up my tex skills anyway.
Thanks guys ! by time we're done, no Cylon will dare show his 'little red glowing eye' again!
Oh yeah.. Doc.. do you want a base to mount the Gal on? if so what ideas do you have?