3DBattlestar Galactica - The Original Series

SeanP

This week I went back into my archives and dug out my TOS Battlestar Galactica work files - they date back to 2003 when I first started this thing.
Over the years I have been gathering every photo I can find of the original 6 foot long studio filming model as well as pictures of the studio scale replica builds people are posting on the Internet.
I now have 750 MB of photos.
This week I decided it was time to fix my model and get back to work on it.
I was stuck for the longest time because I couldn't get the whole front structure of the model to look right - until now that is.
I recently found a simple top down drawing full of measurements published by a guy who spent a little time with the original filming miniature.
Those measurements gave me enough information to rebuild the front structure of my model with a great deal of accuracy.
I was also able to correct some minor scale issues for the rest of the basic structure.
Here are some pics of the basic structure sans any details.
I plan to finish this model over the next 2 years or so.
My books and the 3D models that go with them are going to take priority and this will be a fun side project.

Galactica Body 01.jpg

Galactica Body 02.jpg

Galactica Body 03.jpg

Galactica Body 04.jpg

Galactica Body 05.jpg

Galactica Body 06.jpg

Galactica Body 07.jpg

BolianAdmiral

Looking great so far!

SeanP

BolianAdmiral wrote: »

Looking great so far!

Thank you sir!

SeanP

Started the long journey of modeling the detail on this thing - it will literally take me 2 years to finish as I am trying to do everything as accurate as possible and that means looking at tons of photos and measuring for scale.

Galactica Detail 01.jpg

Galactica Detail 02.jpg

Galactica Detail 03.jpg

BolianAdmiral

Awesome. I don't envy your task of tackling all that detail, lol... but I know it'll be worth it in the end.

SeanP

BolianAdmiral wrote: »

Awesome. I don't envy your task of tackling all that detail, lol... but I know it'll be worth it in the end.

Thank you sir! Yes the detail will take a lot of work and you are right it will be worth it in the end.

SeanP

Okay I did a little more work on the Galactica.
I added the bridge base and discovered that the slope of the front section was way off so I fixed that.
Then I discovered the angles of the center arms of the landing bays were wrong so I fixed those.
Then I discovered the cutouts for the main thrusters that I originally built were wrong so I totally rebuilt those and added the proper hexagonal grills.
Every time I add a piece of detail it reveals any errors in the base structure - which is good - eventually I will get everything correct.
My goal here is to make the most accurate Galactica possible no matter how long it takes.
Next I will be adding the large base details on the top of the ship.
Once those are done I will move on to the smaller details.

Galactica Detail 04.jpg

Galactica Detail 05.jpg

Galactica Detail 06.jpg

Galactica Detail 07.jpg

Galactica Detail 08.jpg

BolianAdmiral

very nice! Keep it up!

SeanP

Okay, so I took a few weeks off of working in 3D and from writing my book.
This week I started back to work adding in the large details on the top of the Galactica so I could check the accuracy of the shell.
So far everything is fitting perfectly - doing lots of measuring on photos and lots of scale calculations to check to make sure.
After adding in all these big details on the top I have an anomaly showing up when I render it from certain angles.
As you can see in the pictures below I have large black spots that are showing up on detail that is stacked more than 1 section high.
I am using a very simple render setup using a skylight and light tracer - these pics are done with the default settings.
I have tried adjusting a whole bunch of settings in light tracer and in the scanline renderer and I can improve the situation, but I can't get rid of it all together.
I have checked the geometry, normals ...etc. and all is good.
As you can see by the last picture it doesn't show up unless you render at a sharp angle.
Anybody else run into this before?
If so were you able to find a solution?

Galactica Detail 09.jpg

Galactica Detail 10.jpg

Galactica Detail 11.jpg

Galactica Detail 12.jpg

SeanP

Got some more work done on the Galactica - started adding the rear landing bay detail.
I'm doing my best to make this as accurate as possible, but some of the pictures I have of the original model are a little bit blurry.

Galactica Detail 13.jpg

Galactica Detail 14.jpg

Galactica Detail 15.jpg

SeanP

Added more detail to the rear of the landing bays this morning. Progress is slow due to photo research and measuring to ensure the highest level of accuracy.

Galactica Detail 16.jpg

Galactica Detail 17.jpg

Galactica Detail 18.jpg

Galactica Detail 19.jpg

BolianAdmiral

Sweet progress on the flight pods!