November 2007
The hype for Razor got me going on this one, I guess. The kit's instructions include 2 Zoic images of the Basestar - a good start for assembly references, but not quite enough. I found more images at Battlestar -Wiki in the Ships Portal. And, my oh my... here at Modelers Miniatures and Magic.

In looking over the parts and the multi-color resins used, a wacky observation came to mind... In the original Galactica premiere, during the attack at Carrilon, Starbuck asked about bringing in purple and orange squadrons. Well, I guess with these launch bays, the Cylons have taken that to heart and gone one better.

After a good scrubbing to remove mold releases I began assembly by the book, attaching the arms to the core for each half of the ship. It took some trial and error to find the best match between arms and cores. The instructions suggest that the parts are marked to show which arm attaches where, but there were no such markings evident. I marked the best-fits before moving on to assembly.

I laid out the hull core and arms on a gridded cutting mat to make sure they lined up as straight as possible. If you want registration pins or other helpful assembly features, this is not the model you're looking for. The parts have to be simply butted up against each other and super-glued. I used wooden shims to work around a few odd twists in some of the parts. I applied super glue across the seam and let the assembly set up overnight. In retrospect, this step could be best saved for later, after some of the inner-arm parts had been added. The assembled core & arms is really unwieldy on a model this size. Or maybe I just need a larger workbench.

The kit includes styrene strips to reinforce the arm-to-core joins. I opted for 1/16" wire and epoxy instead. I engraved three grooves using a Dremel tool and superglued a 2" to 3" long wire segment in each groove. After they had set up, I applied epoxy putty over the wires. Once the epoxy had set, I applied green putty over the outside seam.

I began test fitting the inner arm parts (above) and quickly came to the realization that another change to the assembly instructions was called for. The instructions call for the 5 arm inboard pieces, A-E, to be laid in starting at the outer end. With no means to ensure the arm parts were going in with the correct spacing (registration pins? marks? notches? anywhere? nope), I couldn't be sure the core piece would fit in when all arm parts were placed. So, I attached the core parts first.

I drilled out holes in the central ring and added 1/16" aluminum pegs. These fit into matching holes in the other half. Yes, its... registration pins!!

Part A fit in without question of placement, butting against the detail inside the end of the arm. When I test-fitted Part B in place, the two end points would not fit flush against the rims of the arm. it was evident that the tab on Part A and some of the inside surface of Part B would have to go. After some Dremel work, I had a satisfactory fit between Part B and the arm. The gaps at the side of Part A's tab also needed puttying.

12/22/07 - Modification of the "E" parts continues. And Parts C will need several mods as well: The "shark gill" areas need to extend to the edge of the arm. Also the parts need to be trimmed to fit into the area between the B and D parts.