by Lez King

It is the year 2000, twenty years after Galactica finally found Earth.

Whilst being kept busy by the Galactica and the fleet, the Cylons have still found time to upgrade. Cylon warriors had become tougher, stronger and more intelligent, with greater sentience and cognitive quotients, making them more self-aware and capable of better independent decision making. Cylon ships were also upgraded and improved.

The Marauder is a completely new design, brought into service only a few months ago, gradually replacing the Raiders. They have already proved to be a significant threat to the new ships that had been developed by the Earth-Terran alliance.

The Marauder is in fact a full member of the Cylon race, rather than a mere ship. They contain the “computerised brains” of three Cylon Warriors, reminiscent of the original Raiders, but the brains are incorporated into the Marauder's body and systems, thereby becoming an intelligent and self-aware entity in its own right. One brain controls flight and navigation, one is dedicated to weapons and tactics, and the third commands and controls the integration of other two.

The Model

The gubbings box was “raided” again for parts to build my idea for a Cylon fighter vehicle that would be the Galactica 1980 equivalent of the Raider in the latest incarnation of the interstellar saga.

It occurred to me... Why would completely robotic beings build fighters that required robotic pilots? Why not just make the fighter an independent robotic being itself?

Whilst the idea of semi-organic Cylons (and Raiders) is the main plank of the current version, I didn't think this would sit right in the Galactica 1980 story, so I envisioned the Marauder. As there are no organic parts, and the ship is an entirely robotic entity, this would be reflected in the design, with a lack of organic shapes, although I wanted to make it sleeker and significantly different from the Raider, to show that it is a completely new piece of hardware.

Spare parts from Zoids were used for the wings and guns, whilst the main “body” was made from from the top halves of 2 “new generation” Thunderbird 2s. Other spare parts from other models (long cannibalised for other kitbashes) were used for the underside details and the engine pods. Card and putty were used to fill out recesses and gaps. The scale is in the region of 1:72.

The model was painted using Plasti-kote enamel paint (pewter), with black accents, and a red holographic border sticker was used for the front “scanner array”. I always thought that although the sweeping “red eye” of the Cylon centurions and new model Raiders looked cool, they would be a fundamental design flaw, leaving potential “blind spots” as the eye swept from side to side, so I decided that the scanner array should be static, and extend the full width of the Marauder's face, giving a 180 degree field of scan.

Image: Underneath

Image: Top

Image: Front

Image: Rear