This is my build of the Eastern Alliance Cruiser from the classic TV show Battlestar Galactica. I built this several years ago using the resin kit from Fantastic Plastic. They added the “Stasi Class” because the uniforms the crew used reminded them of East Germany and they listed it as 1/288 scale. Is this scale correct? Who knows? It’s a made up space ship.
The kit is well detailed and builds up great right out of the box, but I wanted to make a few corrections and improvements. The biggest error was in the main engine pods. These are too thick on the inside, with a bunch of extra “stuff” added. This made the engine pods sit too far away from the main hull.
I sanded all of that off and added some sheet plastic to fill in some gaps at the rear.
When done, the engines were much closer to what the studio model looked like.
Ken
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That’s a very cool build.
Did the resin have any air bubble issues?
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Speaking of East German, wasn’t Stasi the name of the East German security bureau? Their version of the KGB?
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STAatsSIcherheit
Staatssicherheit, or Staatssicherheitsdienst. State security or State security service.
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@Armor_Buff Wade, not really, there were a few bubbles and blemishes, but easy to fix.
@Stikpusher Carlos, yep, that’s what FP named it after.
Ken
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Next up was the head and neck area. The neck joint is really thin and flimsy, so I reinforced it using some brass rod and tubing. I left it loose, like the real thing, so I could remove it to protect it during transport. I also moved the neck a little farther out, the kit has you stick it in a little too far into the main body:
What mine looks like:
And the real thing:
The detail on the neck and upper part of the head were great, but the underside of the head looked pretty empty.
The kit:
The real one (missing some parts/being restored):
And mine:
More to come!
Ken
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nice work. Look forward to more pics.
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Moving on to the engines. The original prop had 5 engines of various sizes. These later had lights added to show the engines in use:
The kit engines are OK, but they could be better:
The top two engines are not real good, so I replaced them with a couple bits from my parts box.
The center engine was nice, but a little small. I added some brass tubing to the outside of it to fill it out.
The two bottom (main) engines were originally done using the F-1 engines from an Airfix Saturn V kit.
The kit engines are decent enough on the outside; but are molded solid with a “flame effect” on the inside of them. I wanted my engines to be open, so I had to fabricate new ones. I used the engines from an AMT 1/200 scale Saturn and some other bits.
The last thing I did to the engines was to add some old light bulbs to simulate the lights used in the real thing. The bulbs were out of an old mini mag-light. They don’t work, this thing is solid resin and there is no way I was going to hollow it out to install some lights.
Ken
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The real model has lots of little detail parts all over the place. These were all kit bashed from various model kits. They include, among others, Sherman suspension parts, Panzer IV suspension parts, jeep parts and a bunch of others, some of which I never did identify:
The kit provides some parts for this, but a lot more are needed, and some of the parts they give you are not real accurate:
So this is what I came up with:
Ken
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I believe the inclusion of Sherman (bogie) components in F/X models was compulsory back in that era; check the rear of a TIE fighter…
Cheers,
M
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Pretty much, along with Saturn V parts, and Leopold parts.
Ken
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SIr, there’s an F-15 Eagle attacking us. In space. Upside down. It appears to have some sort of weird…ah…thing, stuck to the radom. And some extra engines. I guess they are space engines.
Well that’s not something you see every day.
(I’m kidding.)
Having not see an episode of Battlestar Galactica in 30 years or so, I have no memory of this ship at all!
Now if you will pardon me, I need to glue some Sherman tank bogies to my guided missile frigate. I already glued some Panzer IV road wheels to it, so I have that one covered.
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I remember it was in at least 2 episodes…the special 2 hour Greetings From Earth and Baltars Escape.
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Yeah. Yesterday, when this discussion came to my attention, having no memory of the ship, I looked it up. I was somewhat surprised to learn it came from the original Battlestar Galactica. I vaguely remember an episode with white uniforms but not the ship.
As a fun aside, a ship strongly resembling the Stasi cruiser features in the opening sequence for the original Master of Orion game. Both ships pretty obviously are in the design lineage of the Klingon D7.
I bet the Stasi ship is of the, “we have a week to build it”, variety.
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Cool build … love the extra work going into it 
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You’re actually not far off. This ship originally started off as part of the “rag tag” fleet fleeing the Cylons. It was heavily featured in the early episodes doing flybys. It even ended up in the opening credits of each show:
When they needed a ship for the bad guys in the episode “Greetings from Earth” the model makers reused it; removing some parts, modifying others, and adding a bunch of new ones:
They added more F-15 parts, built up the front “head” part with more detail, and added the Saturn V parts, along with all the tank and jeep parts.
The prop and model makers were also building items for the upcoming show “Buck Rogers”, so they took a set of wings from the Buck Rogers “Thunder Fighter” and added them to the model. Those wings really give the ship it’s iconic look.
As a side note, they also “borrowed” the Buck Rogers “Ranger” shuttle, with a few modifications and a new paint job, to be the Terran Shuttle:
That was one of my favorite ships! It was just so cool looking.
Mean looking!
Ken
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Not the only one that made it into the show:
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That is all very interesting and I still have no memory of it!
The three vessels that really stand out for me are Galactica herself, which is an excellent piece of super detailed model work, the ship comprised of three inline disks, and the spinning wheel ship. Those three I did remember.
Yet another campaign idea: Ships of the Rag Tag Fleet.
Use kit bashing and scratch building techniques to create a non-combat space vessel of your own design that could have sailed with Battlestar Galactica and the rag tag fleet that fled the 12 colonies on a voyage to find the lost planet Earth. You must use model building techniques contemporary to 1975. The finished model must not resemble any of the source models from which it is comprised. Computer designed and printed models and pieces are not allowed.
I doubt there would be much interest but who knows. It would be fun to merge photos of all the finished models, taken from the same angle, into a single panoramic shot, depicting these heretofore unknown vessels sailing as a fleet through space.
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wow that would be cool…are there enough BSG fanes here who would even have the time for a build like this? love the idea of it 
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