Galileo Shuttlecraft from Star Trek

DISPLAY

The final step for me on this trek (see what I did there?) was to create a display base that looked like the scene from “The Galileo Seven” when the Galileo is first seen on Tarsus II. The actual base is an old picture frame with the glass removed. The frame sits face down so the back is the “ground.” I cut a piece of foam core to size for the ground. I found a picture of dirt that looked like the dirt on the original soundstage, printed it on card and glued it to the foam core. Using screen caps from the episode and Photoshop I made files to recreate the soundstage rocks. I printed these on card and glued them to 2mm chipboard. I Super Glued bamboo skewers to the back of the rocks and pushed them into the foam core where I wanted them. The rocks aren’t exactly in the same as they were in the episode due to the size of the display.

The final touch was to add the crew. Again, I used screen caps from various episodes for the crew. I scaled them to size, printed them on card and glued them to 2mm chipboard. After a lot of slow, tedious trimming, I edge colored them, glued bamboo skewers on and pushed them into place. And, yes, I know I have more than seven crew and it’s unlikely the entire senior staff would go on a landing party…but I don’t care. It looks cool! I wanted the display to have that ’70s cardboard pop-up-toy-feel like old playsets of the day. If I’d had this when I was a kid I’d have played the crap out of it!:biggrin:

And with that, I’m calling it a wrap for the Galileo. I still need to tweak the door, but all in all, I’m pretty pleased with the model. As usual in hindsight I see lots of things that could be improved on: better centerline molding, better pylons, better pylon bracing, better door hinging, actual retracting landing gear with recesses in the engines and hull, more detailed rear landing gear, removable roof, lights….ARGH!:hammerhead: But to be fair, this is a great model as is. All it really needed was a more accurate repaint and a better interior, which I think I gave it. My thanks to Joerg Stammen for creating a really fun model to build. If any of you have this model I encourage you to build and improve on it.:)
 

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Reactions: Chanur, ASC Mclaren, Rhaven Blaack and 6 others
That really turned out GREAT! :Bravo:
I love your dorama, but who beamed down from the Enterprise? The shuttle crew holds seven, and your dorama has nine people. I know the women beamed down to see what the guys did to the shuttle.;):)
 
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Very nice, though the inertia dampeners must have failed. It's amazing they can still survive!! All kidding aside, I am happy you built this model, it is one I have not seen built in a long time, and is quite fantastic, as is your build, and your build thread, textbook! :)
 
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bgt01 said:
EXTERIOR

CHANGES MADE: Made new sliding doors to compensate for new hull stripe. Corrected door windows for shape to match studio model. Added “Push” panel by door. Added missing hull markings by door.

Here’s where things start getting really “seat-of-the-pants” building. The outer sides of the shuttle were designed to be hollow wedge shapes with skinny wings. That wasn’t going to work for me. To make things a little easier on me, I started with the starboard side since it has no door.

First, I cut off the wings to address separately. That gave me an outer top piece and a outer bottom/inside piece. The inside piece needed to stay flat for gluing to the main body. I took some double-sided tape along the top edge where the inner and outer skin come together and curve. Next, I laid the piece flat and glued the upper forward and rear edges together. That gave me the upper hollow “pocket” of the skin. I glued craft sticks together with Super Glue gel until they made a solid brace across the center line. I cut the sticks at the front and rear to match the angle of the hull. This worked perfectly to keep everything straight.

I needed more sticks to completely fill the hole left by removing the wing, and give the wing something to attach to when I put it back on. I glued four more sticks together and only made them reach about 3/4 from the front to the rear, as the front/lower section starts to come together to a narrow point. Leaving these sticks square caused the center line to be too square and didn’t let the center line come together correctly. I solved this by using my X-acto to shave off, a little at a time, the top stick at an angle that matched the curve of the hull.

In the old design, the skinny center line you see is supposed to be folded out on the top and bottom and glued together to form a paper-thin lip. This doesn’t match the studio model, which has a thicker, wider center lip. I’m going to address this as a separate issue, but the section as drawn is about the right height of the lip that should be there. When I glued them down I overlapped these sections to use as a guide later.

To get a nice, straight, flat center edge I used my ruler to hold down the paper on the craft sticks while gluing.

With the edges sealed, the wing hole stuck out like a sore thumb. I covered it up with a piece of scrap hull cut to size and glued in place. Doing it this way created seams that aren’t on the original Galileo because the wings are molded in. But, I’d rather have a few extra seams than crappy wings.

Next, I layered the red panels that go along the bottom of both sides of the hull and attached the starboard one.

I glued the forward angled piece that covers the hole in the hull in place using Super Glue gel. The widest part of the piece ends right below the center line because of the way I’m building it. That leaves a small hole at the center line which will be covered by whatever new center lip I come up with.
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Hello, How did you re-do the stripes, I have re-painted as close to yours (which looks great I might add) but I'm stuck on the red line and yellow piece. What font did you use. Thanks
 
My son realy played hard with this model when I built it. I didn't see him grab it, but he did so the second I finished. I went to one room of the house, came back, and it was in his hand, and he was imitating a landing. It was his at that point. He was very young and roughed it up, but it kicked around the house, with me shaping and gluing it back to a very battle worn shuttle craft for two or three years!! When I finally tossed it, I was kind of sad. I will build this model again. :)
 
Very nice build and diorama. I may have to attempt building it. I've got a couple of Star Trek 6 inch figures of Spock and Kirk.
 
I love these simple designs from the past. They can be replicated so easily. :)
 
Revell-Fan said:
You could have saved it to display a crash-landing. ;)
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It ended up very very flat. I think he finally just sat on it, or my wife did, which would be a more viable outcome based on how thin it was. :)
 
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