Studio Scale BSG Shuttle GAL356 (WIP)
  Work in Progress Build Diary

I've been waiting a long time for one of these. It doesn't look like this kit is going to disapoint either.

Super clean casting work from Mr. Salzo and great teamwork from the pattern builders Sean and Ryan.

I thought about building out the interior to match the set as seen on the show. I've seen a few builds of this out there that turned out really nice. But after thinking about it I decided to just go with the studio-model interior. I'll do the pipe armature and lighting as well to be as close to studio-model-accurate as possible.

This is what I have. They seem a little smaller than the original but the same round shape. I think these are intended to use with 12V power. Definitely not bright enough with a 9V battery. I found these available here: http://www.cir-kitconcepts.com called screw base bulbs and sockets.

I found these bulbs today that are about 9/16” diameter (about 14mm for you metric guys). They work on 12V AC and I also found a socket that they fit in that also fits perfectly inside the engine tubes.

I like how the light looks on the engine bell with this light. So I’m thinking I can use the 12V LEDs in the cockpit connected to these lights in the engines. I’d like to have the option to mount the model from either the bottom or side but I’ll probably never mount it from the front or back. If I can run a power lead out of the side and the bottom and just use one at time I think that will work. The one not being used just needs to be capped off under the cover so it doesn’t short out. It will also need a long enough lead to connect to the power supply source.

I can see where this will get difficult if the wires run through the pipe support as I’ve done on other models. I may just wire to the bottom and have the pipe supports for ‘accuracy’s sake’ on the other sides but no lighting connection. I need to think about that some more.

It was hard to get the exposure right on the camera. I'd say the actual brightness was somewhere between these 2 photos. Pretty bright.

I did a little more experimenting on the lighting. I found some more small lights that also work on 12V. These are halogen bulbs at 5watts and 10 watts.

This is the 10w bulb next to the previous incandescent. You can see it is much brighter. (The exposures is distorted so just keep relative brightness in mind. Both lights appeared much brighter in person). The 10W bulb got hot pretty fast and I'm thinking it will be too hot for turning on for more than about 15 seconds or so especially since the resin of the engine bell is really thin and might melt fast.

This is the 5w bulb. It is still much brighter than the incandescent but didn't get hot as fast but was much warmer than the incandescent. The size, brightness and color of the 5w halogen looks really good. It's much 'whiter' than the incandescent which looks really yellow in comparison. The color seems to match the color of the light as seen on the show pretty well.

Here are the bulbs that I sampled above.

I also did some work on the armature. This is a rough diagram of the layout with dimension in mm. Mine comes to 455mm in length

Here's with the parts laid out on top. The 2 hardware stores I go to had almost no stock in 3/8" this weekend and this is all they had. for the rear section I'll have to cut pipe to length and tap threads on the ends. The hardware store lets me do this with their equipment but I wanted to lay these out and get some feedback from the group before I do that

I got the 5-point armature working after a little trial and error and I wanted to share what I did in case it is helpful for anyone doing this type of mounting armature in their shuttle.
First the plans then some issues I encountered with the assembly.

The part list I used is (all 3/8" fittings):
  (6) couplings
  (3) 1-1/2" nipples
  (2) 3" nipples
  (1) bronze cross
  (1) tee
  (1) close nipple (1" nipple)
  (1) 6" nipple
You'll also need (not shown) a pipe section for the stand and a floor flange.

Here's the diagram. Note that the rear is to the left and front to the right. This is looking down (plan view) and the bottom mounting point (off of the tee) is actually pointing down but shown pointing in the port direction in order to dimension it.

The long pipe in the back is not labled but is made up of (2) 3" nipples and a coupling (substitute with a 7" pipe instead).

Overall armature.

The cross is bronze because it's the only one I could find. You could probably use a steel cross but this will probably be a little bigger in size (like the tee) and you might need to reduce the size of the adjacent nipples to the next size down. I thought the smallest size was the 'close nipple' but I found out a 'butt nipple' is smaller and would probably be necessary if you use a steel cross next to a steel tee.

Front mount point.

I used a pipe wrench to tighten all the joints down to get these dimensions except for the 1-1/2" nipples on the port and starboard couplings. These are a little loose and are threaded on so the couplings fit just right in the recesses in the armature plate. Because they are loose, these joints will definitely need gluing down to the armature plate and the other pipes. The 2 areas with the red hatching labeled as 'very tight' are just that. I had to put the pipes in my bench vice and really lean on a big pipe wrench to get these tightened down to the right dimension.

Looking in from the cockpit opening.

The pipes aren't perfect and the assembly needed just a little bending to straighten it out. The front and back pipes were just a bit out of alignment with the holes. To fix this I added some layers of masking tape in the armature where the port side nipple sat against it until the pipes aligned to the front and back holes. The fittings are not consistent in size and threads. I recommend a lot of test fitting to make sure yours is working the same as what I'm showing before you glue anything together.

Rear mount point.

Here's some shots with the lights set in place at the back of the engines. This is just to test it out for overall effect. Looks spot on to me so I'm going to stick with these lights.

Here's the modified diagram for the armature. I changed the coupler in the front to a smooth coupling (referred to as a "merchant coupling") and extended the front in length just a bit so the end of the armature extends into the fitting block to help support the front end.

Armature exposed.

Cockpit cube over the armature. The cockpit piece needed to be modified a little to make it fit.

View from the front.

I installed the engine light sockets with epoxy putty.

Here's how the bulbs look relative to the engine bells.

Added the side plates on these guys.

Engines glued on.

The tray under the cockpit area is glued in. I added a couple of holes to run the wires through from the rear. I'm going to make the cockpit lid and the "cube" part removable and do all the electrical connections underneath so they are accessible.

Ok, so, I admit I'm more than a little paranoid about things coming loose inside the model once it's sealed up. I drilled holes through all the joints it the armature and wire-tied them so they can't ever move. The pipe armature is wire-tied and epoxied to the resin frame. The taped on part is the bottom mounting block. I taped it on the armature so I don't forget about it when the armature gets glued into the body.

Lastly, working on the brass plugs for the power connections. Trying to stay true to the studio model will a little inspiration from Wombat. Thanks !!

Rear brass plugs installed. I decided to go with only the front and rear plugs in keeping with the studio model.

And with the greeblies installed over the plugs.

The front half of the body is installed on the armature. Here's a view looking inside at the bottom mounting point. Everything slathered in epoxy.

Before sealing up the rear half of the body I did a last check on the wiring to make sure the plugs and lights are all working. Here's the rear plugs in use.

Photo just before gluing up the rear half of the body to the front. Masking tape applied around the glue joint to keep it clean.

Inside view of the cockpit with the front power plugs installed.

In adding the front plugs I tried to recreate the slight asymetry of the original. .

It was a lot of work to get to this point and getting the body sealed up. Now it will be fun to start applying the greeblies and flush out all the exterior details.

Getting started on the greeblies now. Tackling the rear and bottom first.
The armature and the stand are really handy for putting on the greeblies. I can rotate the shuttle end over end with it attached on the side like this.
I was lucky to have a few spare kit parts donated to the cause so there will be a little plastic mixed in with the resin now.

To hold the side covers on at the side armature mounting points I'm using tiny rare earth magnets. These are 3mm x 5mm.

Magnets epoxied into place. I learned the hard way nearly losing a magnet that slipped inside the armature pipe and got stuck there. I was just barely able to fish it out with needle nose pliers. The tape over the hole is a little safety net.

The magnets are so strong that I only need them on one side. The cover has some steel screw heads epoxied in to attact to the magnets.

Holds on tight.

Epoxy sanded down and cleaned up.

Starboard side cover.

Starting the greeblies on the rear starboard side and managed to get most of the parts on it tonight. The details are tough to reconcile on this part but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The central pieces between the harrier parts will go on later.

The weather was gloomy all weekend and it kept me in the workshop the whole time. I loved every minute of it and feeling good that I made some progress on the shuttle. Especially since I crossed the line of having more parts glued on than sitting in bags or bins.

Port side rear.

Front greeblies and cover plate finished.

The top rear deck was a lot of fun to do and went together pretty quick. The black and white top side image that is available makes a huge difference here. That image shows a little metal screw at the top rear end I was lucky to find one just like it in my hardware bins.

I got some of these tiny rare earth magnets to hold the side covers on. They were the smallest ones I could find.

Dremelled out recesses in the hull under the cover plate and installed the magnets with epoxy putty.

Holds on tight !

Here I'm using the Plastruct plastic-coated wire for the piping. Phil suggested this and it works great. Bends easy and glues on a little easier than exposed brass.

Bottom front details attached.

Starting on the primer.

Landing gear installed.

Installing the landing gear is a major PITA !! Very little contact area for the glue to hold on to. Luckily the armature came in handy and I was able to position the shuttle upside down which helped a lot.

Close up of the landing gear.

Construction is finally done now.

Close up of the canopy with final details installed.

All of the "to be painted separately" parts hot glued onto sticks.

I'm looking forward to getting the grey colors on next. Today I finished up the primer.