A squadron's-worth of Colonial Viper miniatures await the call to combat in Universal's Battlestar Galactica at John Dykstra's Apogee model shop, circa 1978.
Always liked the Vipers even the plastic model was cool. I still want to get about 5 of them and put them in formation. I could always imagine someone grabbing an X-wing and saying "Okay let's cut this off here and put this here and put that there and presto! A new ship is born". I even still have pictures of my model in the backyard in different scenarios.
John Dykstra's FX team was made up of a lot of ILM alum and they worked on the the first few episodes filmed (Saga of a Star World, Lost Planet Of the Gods, The Gun on Ice Planet Zero) at ILM's original Van Nuys warehouse. Here is a link to a great home video shot by Dave Berry who was one of the FX folk who had worked on both Star Wars and BSG. It's well edited and shows some great behind the scenes fottage of "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero" FX. You see John's Oscar for SW on his desk (like the old BSG trading card), the Dykstraflex camera, the full size Landram, Fleet ship models on a shelf, filming the shuttle snow crash and even some good natured FX fun with the crew It's very entertaining and only about 6 1/2 minutes long. There is also one for SW that's really great too. The BSG one is called "Behind the Scenes of Battlestar Galactica 1978"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lbBQ_QaI2k
The SW one is called "Early Years of ILM" it's about 10 minutes
Yeah, you can just send those Viper models over to me. I promise I'll store them in a safe place. I mean, it's not like I would take them out and play with them since I only had the Cylon battleship as a kid and not the Viper...
Long time lover of this site. I don't know where else on this site to mention it but archive.org has posted loads of back issues of Starlog magazine from the beginning that you can read online in case you didn't know. Ads galore!
Pretty ironic that Fox actually leased the original ILM facility and equipment to Universal with George Lucas' approval. Seems he thought it would be a good way to keep the original crew together until Empire started.
The Viper will always be an awesome ship design. :)
ReplyDeleteAlways liked the Vipers even the plastic model was cool. I still want to get about 5 of them and put them in formation. I could always imagine someone grabbing an X-wing and saying "Okay let's cut this off here and put this here and put that there and presto! A new ship is born". I even still have pictures of my model in the backyard in different scenarios.
ReplyDeleteJohn Dykstra's FX team was made up of a lot of ILM alum and they worked on the the first few episodes filmed (Saga of a Star World, Lost Planet Of the Gods, The Gun on Ice Planet Zero) at ILM's original Van Nuys warehouse.
Here is a link to a great home video shot by Dave Berry who was one of the FX folk who had worked on both Star Wars and BSG. It's well edited and shows some great behind the scenes fottage of "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero" FX. You see John's Oscar for SW on his desk (like the old BSG trading card), the Dykstraflex camera, the full size Landram, Fleet ship models on a shelf, filming the shuttle snow crash and even some good natured FX fun with the crew
It's very entertaining and only about 6 1/2 minutes long.
There is also one for SW that's really great too.
The BSG one is called "Behind the Scenes of Battlestar Galactica 1978"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lbBQ_QaI2k
The SW one is called "Early Years of ILM" it's about 10 minutes
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu4HK-fSNqk
Check 'em out.
-Rory
Thanks for those links. Enjoyed a lot.
DeleteNext to Alpha's Eagle Transporter, BSG's Shuttle and the Trek:TOS Galileo, the Viper'll ALWAYS remain my favorite space ship.
ReplyDeleteEver.
Yeah, you can just send those Viper models over to me. I promise I'll store them in a safe place. I mean, it's not like I would take them out and play with them since I only had the Cylon battleship as a kid and not the Viper...
ReplyDeleteSeriously, hand them over now.
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Long time lover of this site. I don't know where else on this site to mention it but archive.org has posted loads of back issues of Starlog magazine from the beginning that you can read online in case you didn't know. Ads galore!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip. That is huge!
DeletePretty ironic that Fox actually leased the original ILM facility and equipment to Universal with George Lucas' approval. Seems he thought it would be a good way to keep the original crew together until Empire started.
ReplyDelete