The Battlestar Galactica Colonial Viper kit was released by Estes in 1979 as kit #1310. It was only on sale for only one year. That Cylon Raider was never produced as a kit. To see the catalog page, CLICK HERE and scroll down to page 32.
The following year the kit focus switched over to the Disney movie, the Black Hole with the Space Probe. Interesting how the companion model, the Cygnus Probe ship, was another that never went into production.
The instructions and scans are available from Jim Zs, CLICK HERE
I went ahead and redrew the templates and decals. The original kit had stickers, so the die-cut scan at JimZs wouldn't work for a home print water slide decal.
The main center tube was a BT-50W, at 9.5" long. The three "Turbo Tubes" were BT-52S tubes at 3.938" long. I rounded that length up to 3.94".
BT-52 tubes were used in the Estes Saturn 1B, Thor Agena B and SPEV kits. Why they didn't use additional BT-50 tubes for the three turbo engine tubes is beyond me! Maybe Estes had excess 52 tubes. The BT-50 and 52 tubes are very close in diameter. The 50 tube slides into the BT-52.
I don't care for thin walled BT-50 tubes, I'll substitute a heavy wall BT-50.
There are long lengths of 1/8" and 3/16" launch lugs shown. That and the dowel will be cut to make up the "laser cannons".
The nose cone is a PNC-24C, plastic cone from Apogee. It fits the heavy wall BT-50 very well. It's not the same cone used in the kit, but will be close enough for me.
This shows a first draft of the decal PDF.
It will be available to Patreon member supporters. It'll be ready later in the build. This decal print is not for commercial kit production.
On the right is one of the BT-52 tubes
The original kit used four NCW-1A lead weights, totaling .48 oz in nose weight. I weighed the equivalent amount in clay.
What? Now the turbo tubes will be too long by (taps on calculator) .002"! You'll throw off your center of gravity!
ReplyDelete:^D
Hi Lonnie,
DeleteYep, I'm a rebel.
If BT-50 isn't big enough, morerockets.com makes a BT-60 version.
ReplyDeleteHi Metal,
DeleteToo expensive!
Read my comments about More Rockets below in my response to Scigs -
Just curious, why did you not build the More Rockets Viper? Heck I'll trade you an actual Estes Viper kit for one of your old 70s Centuri built model...
ReplyDeleteHi Scigs,
DeleteI don't personally know the vendor. I've built two More Rockets kits - both for clients. I have a problem with his kits.
Poor fit of a mismatched nose cone (Old ST-7 nose cone kitted to fit a BT-20 tube)_and badly printed decals.
The vendor also prints up old instruction sheets and drops his logo over the Estes logo. While Estes may not have ownership of many old designs anymore, they still own Copyright of the instruction art and copy.
The vendor has also taken a specific alien type font and art that was developed and owned by others. All without permission.
Good instructions and decal art are the most time consuming and expensive part of kit production. To assume you can simply copy and make money off somebody else's hard work is robbery. I contact and get written permission for kits that are not my own design.
Regarding that old Centuri finished model - It was pretty banged up when we had to clean out my parent's house in CA. Not worth saving!
I'm using the old-style Krylon. I'll have to wait until the humidity eases up here before I can write about it. With the humidity, the gloss white dries flat. Coverage is very good and even. It is nice not to worry about re-coat times -
Good to know as I was considering just getting a kit from morerockets.
DeleteI was a big fan of Battlestar Galactica as a kid. Looking forward to this build!
ReplyDeleteHi David,
DeleteThanks for tuning in! This was a longer term project that I had anticipated. I didn't have access to original kit stickers. The water slide decal re-draws took a lot of time.
I built one in 1980. Nicest rocket I ever built thanks to the included aligmment guides. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteHi Bob,
DeleteI used the alignment guides to mark the body tubes for the fins. The fins were lightly glued on the pencil lines without the guides, then the guides slid on to insure the fin angles. I didn't like the "glue and slide in" idea shown in the instructions. I was concerned about the fin sliding around and getting glue everywhere. More on that later in the build.
I looked it up in the old Estes Sci-fi parts assortment catalog. The BT-52 tubes in the catalog have the same dimensions as 29mm motor mount tubing. Your post already mentioned you selecting different tubing, but I figured passing on the info might be useful.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lester,
DeleteI never thought to look up the parts in the Sci-Fi catalog. I did use BT-52 tubing for the three outside tubes, bought through BMS. The only real substitution was to use a heavy wall BT-50 for the main body.
Nice kit that tended to cone on its way up & snap off its laser cannons. I lost my original in a house fire two years ago. :(
ReplyDeleteThe BT-52s (sounds like a band name!) may be a SPEV, but it definitely fits the design better 1) for the triple engine arrangement as viewed from the rear, and 2) for the look of the rectangular connector piece between the turbos.
Looking forward to the build as well!
Hi Grapetang,
DeleteInteresting you say the laser cannons could break off. Just from handling (when placing the decals) I noticed a small crack near the balsa/laser cannon glue joint.