Cylon Raider

Steven Van Dyck
I stumbled on this series quite late last year, but I was hooked and wanted to build the sinister looking Raider model in 1/32 with lighting. Not easy to find, but I won one in an auction for only $25. Then I acquired the Green Stuff LEDs and a cheap PCB to make the roving eye.

Ben M
that'll look cool!

JD
Count me in!

Steven Van Dyck
Welcome, a video of the first roving eye experiments can be seen on Youtube Video. It's not yet very steady, I hope this is because the contacts are not all soldered. Sadly there is no possibility of including this module inside the model, so there will have to be a stand with a pipe containing at least 11 wires in it, 14 if I include thrusters. But this is no drama as such a large model needs a firm base to stand on.

Steven Van Dyck
I am building a pentangular stand for the Raider, that will contain the battery pack and the PCB and is made out of a 3mm lower plate and 2mm walls. The battery pack will be accessible through the floor. Cutting through the thick styrene plates is done quite easily with the Tamiya engraving tool.

Steven Van Dyck
The stand is now polished after the joints were filled with Evergreen rod. The leds have been installed on a plate scratched to match the face of the Raider, so all of them had to fit inside 10mm. A tube with a diameter of 7mm was needed to connect the base and the model. The PCB is placed top down so the frequency can be adapted through a hole in the bottom. The battery pack door is hinged with a wire and will have a lock. The two blue leds for the thrusters will get their own switch to make them independent of the roving eye. Soldering everything to test this will make it necessary to paint the model and the base after connecting both.

Steven Van Dyck
The project had stalled on a malfunctioning of the module, so to make sure it would work this time, I exchanged the Knight Rider DIY module with a ready-made one and used as little solder as possible. I finally got a LEd squence, albeit not a reciprocating one like the real Cylon. But I doubt the new module can be setup to do this. The good news is that the model is now halfway construction. One extra problem I encountered when I wanted to mount the cockpit roof, the pins do not match the wing part. I had to remove the front pin and move it to the rear.

Youtube Video

Steven Van Dyck
Now some sinkmarks and seams are filled and polished. I found the blue LEDs I had ordered for the thrusters and I got these to work on the same battery pack. The blasters are reproduced in brass tubes.

Youtube Video

Youtube Video

Steven Van Dyck
The Raider is now primed Tamiya black and probably will not shine through soon. The base is painted dark grey.

Steven Van Dyck
Some areas were painted Vallejo Air metallic colors like aluminum and chrome. Then these were masked. The last phase was painting with spray can chrome, which is not resistant to Tamiya tape. This the most reflective paint.

Steven Van Dyck
The raider is unmasked and Tamiya black wash is applied in the panel lines. A video now shows the raider doesn't shine through anymore. But I will still need to respray the base for the overspray.

Youtube Video