Cylon A/B Raider (Galactica: 1980)

[137th Gebirg]

This is an illustration I made in 2010 of the Galactica: 1980 "A/B Raider" that made several appearances during that show's short run. It is probably one of the coolest things that came out of the show (aside from the 2-seater Viper and flying bikes). It was piloted by 3 centurions and 2 humanoid-looking Cylons (long before Ron Moore's show would approach the same subject) and it was scaled to be positively massive compared to its earlier Raider counterparts and Colonial Vipers. It's one of my favorites...

Additional ship designs can be viewed at the Ship Schematics Database.

[Proteus]

"Speak."

If this is indeed the AB Cylon, then I am...intrigued, to say the least.

[137th Gebirg]

It is, indeed, the AB Raider from Galactica: 1980. The schematic is based off of master model builder Jon Billings' detailed replica of the original, using the same materials and building principals that were used to create the original.

[Thunderstruck]

I vaguely remember this ship...I do recall when the show aired,,that the raider was different.

I have not come across a model (Mesh) or actually think I have seen one of these outside the the series.

Would like to have one to look over...will keep my "eye" out if I see one.
--but a lot of the Model Dwnload sites I have used have shrunk their offerings or do not offer them anymore (SciFi Meshes)
--many I wanted to get ..and did not,,,are no longer available... Example: Scorpia Shipyards cant find it anywhere,,and I know someone shared a model of it.

Note: Colonial Fleets seems to be out of commission and all the BSG models they had too!

Booked the Schematics site-though..I am not a modeler yet..I still like animating first.

Thanks

Regards,

[137th Gebirg]

I suppose that, if you had access to a 3D scanner, you might be able to contact Jon Billings and ask him permission to scan it in after making road-trip. You can likely get his contact info from Kurt Kuhn on that site I posted above. IIRC, he based the hull off of original castings, possibly vacuform. Since nobody out there to my recollection knows where the original miniature is, that's likely to be your best source at getting the most accurate mesh.

Not a cheap option, though, by any stretch, but it's all I got...

[GoldCylon]

I seriously doubt connecting Jon would help at all once finding out the reason it would be used. If I recall a limited release was made of this model in kit form. I think tracking down someone that owns one of those models be the best road to take. Mike Salza, or Charles Adams might be a source also.

[137th Gebirg]

Oh, cool! Wasn't aware that kits were cast off the master. Yep, that could certainly work too.

I'm sure that, since (I'm assuming) that it was a limited run, generational degradation would be minimal enough to still make an accurate scan.

[GoldCylon]

Sorry I didn't mean to imply kits were cast off the original, but a few one to one replicas were made using the same method to make the original.

[137th Gebirg]

Hello, all. I received a PM from @groupleaderzeta asking about dimensions of the AB raider. For some reason my response kept getting stuck in the outbox without actually getting sent, so I decided to post the conversation here for everyone's edification.

Groupleaderzeta here, Do you have measurements for the AB raider. I need lenth, width, and hight.
cylon-knight said you may have them.

thanks
zeta

Well huh! That's a truly excellent question. Can't say as I've given such a thing much thought, honestly, but I'll do my best. This is a rough guesstimate, mind you, as I don't believe there are any "official" dimensions for this or any other vehicle in TOS, other than the Galactica herself (1 nautical mile in length).

So, I found this one picture by a rather prolific BSG ortho artist, David "CanisD" Briedis, where he already did some legwork on the scale of a TOS raider with a 6-foot guide at the bottom. If we assume this to be correct, then from this we can infer that the base-model TOS raider is approximately 41.5 feet in length, 10.75 feet tall and with a 51.75-foot wingspan:


This fits with the approximate size of a standard centurion, about 7 feet tall. Some of them, IIRC, were played by basketball players back in the day.

Now, as the AB raider was built with a Monogram-Revell canopy piece to make it look that much more immense, we can use that as the main key to judging its size. Its width is approximately 10.5 feet. Extrapolating this scale gives us the final estimated dimensions for the A/B raider. It is one big beast! Pretty much double the size of the original.

Length: 67.25 feet
Height: 20.5 feet
Wingspan: 102 feet


That's about the best I can do for you with limited information. Hope this helps.

[groupleaderzeta]

Thank you vary much 137th Gebirg. this is vary helpful.

zeta

[137th Gebirg]

Most welcome!

[spicmart]

The Cylon AB Craft is my absolute favorite space craft in its class. I remember to be in awe when it first appeared in Conquest of Earth.
As a kid I would always imagine roaming the Galaxy as a Han Solo or Boba Fett kind of rogue. The AB Raider was about between the Millennium Falcon and Slave 1 sizewise. So it was a fitting mount.
This Raider really deserved a proper model kit of its own.

Here is another quite recent build of it: https://modelermagic.com/ab-cylon-raide ... -piasecki/

[Cylon-Knight]

That build is amazing! Thanks for sharing the link.