by Steve Hartley

This is a VIRGON TRANSPORT SYSTEMS Short haul heavy freighter, designed for short hauls between the 12 colonies. But was pressed into long term service with the exodus from Caprica. At first this ship was not outfitted with the things needed for extended travel even thought it had a low grade jumpdrive. Once the colonials got a few moments to breath the crew of this freighter installed a large power converter that they just happened to be bringing to caprica at the time of the attack. This was truly a life saver as this ship's power source would have been worn out in short order with the multiple jumps that were needed to escape the Cylons.

With most of the cargo holds empty now, there was room for refugees to set up long term billeting. At this time the freighter has 250 souls on board. This freighter was also equipt from the start with a small craft landing pad on its upper cargo hold, and its been used often for viper and raptor landings. Captain Vaughn Darris has done his best to make the situation as livable as possible, by getting people on and off the ship to visit whatever ships they need.

This model was built over about two weeks mostly from sheet plastic, a trestle from a GI Joe toy and some plumbing supplies. Oh yeah, and the obligatory greeblie box. This ship is quite large by civilian terms at 540 feet long and my thinking was that all the cargo boxes could be removed when need be, leaving just the engine, framework and bridge.

Image: Left/front view

Image: Right/front