Finally(!)...shuttlecraft Galileo!

[Warped9]

Not sure where to post this, but this is great news for modellers and collectors of TOS ships.

This year Polar Lights Round 2 will finally be producing the looong awaited shuttlecraft Galileo. It will be the most accurate TOS shuttlecraft replica ever offered. It will be in 1/32 scale and about 11 ins. long.

https://culttvman.com/main/round-2-news-galileo-shuttle/

I cannot wait! I, like many others, have been waiting decades for this to be available.

 

[Spock's Barber]

Cool!

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I wonder, will it be accurate to the mock-up, or the miniature?

 

[Warped9]

The fullsize exterior was meant to represent the real shuttlecraft even though it was a bit undersized, but I believe (from past discussions online with Gary Kerr) the model will incorporate elements from both the fullsize mockup and the miniature. The underside of the shuttlecraft was never seen on the fullsize exterior and the hull markings were also slightly different on the miniature. I’m pretty sure the markings on the fullsize mockup better represent what we’ll get.

 

[Phaser Two]

Not sure where to post this, but this is great news for modellers and collectors of TOS ships.

This year Polar Lights Round 2 will finally be producing the looong awaited shuttlecraft Galileo. It will be the most accurate TOS shuttlecraft replica ever offered. It will be in 1/32 scale and about 11 ins. long.

https://culttvman.com/main/round-2-news-galileo-shuttle/

I cannot wait! I, like many others, have been waiting decades for this to be available.

I'm really glad for you!! Even just the rough concept drawings look great, frankly. I have not tried model buildling much since I was a kid and I was never the strongest at it. (And I am not sure of any particular reason why that might have changed.) After they come out, perhaps I can find one already built and buy it for display. Or heck, give it a go. Thanks for posting about this.

 

[Warped9]

Several years ago I managed to reconcile the contradicting exterior mockup with the interior set we saw onscreen into a “real” integrated vehicle that looks near exactly like what we saw onscreen. My exterior ended being about 27ft. long and with an interior slightly shorter and with a bit lower ceiling than what we saw on television. I designed it with a double hull to allow for real world mechanicals and systems. I first drew the plans up in schematic form then sometime later used those drawings to render a 3D model.



I’m sure the PL R2 model will be more accurate given Gary Kerr had access to the actual fullsize exterior while I worked off reproduced construction drawings and screencaps.

 

[Spock's Barber]

100 years from now there might be a full size Shuttlecraft with real Impulse power!

 

[Redfern]

To clarify, the article notes Round2 will not incorporate an interior as was originally considered...yet the mockup depicted has open forward ports. Maybe they intend they be "frosted" for a diffuse lighting effect?

 

[Warped9]

They mentioned they might include figures with the kit. Maybe.

 

[Warped9]

The interior is problematic. If you scale the interior to match the onscreen set then the exterior needs to be a lot bigger to accommodate it. Also, proportionately, the exterior is distinctly wider than the interior AND the interior’s forward bulkhead and window placement do not align with the exterior’s forward hull and window placement. No matter what you do it becomes a matter of compromise that never looks right.

Part of the issue is that the interior was originally meant to be smaller with a lower ceiling. But they decided they wanted an aft compartment and a higher ceiling for the actors to stand and to allow for the bulky cameras. The interior was actually built in sections to facilitate filming. And note also that the chairs look a bit too low to the ground because they had the chairs already made when they decided they needed a higher ceiling.

So much about the shuttlecraft was a production compromise in some way or other.

 

[Forbin]

Gary had the interior all figured out to fit inside, refiguring sizes and ignoring the 24-foot comment from Kirk. 11" at 1/32 scale come out as 29' 4".

PL said they may come out with a reissue with an interior if the bare-bones one sells well. But an interior would double the price.

As for the clear windshield, well, they had the shutters closed most of the time anyway. so just paint them hull color.

 

[Warped9]

A couple of interesting tidbits.

As I understand it originally the nacelle domes were supposed to be lighted, perhaps even similarly as the spinning domes on the Enterprise 11 footer, but eventually they didn’t bother doing it possibly for budgetary reasons. Also I thought I once read somewhere that those two rectangular details on the shuttlecraft’s lower forward hull were originally supposed to be landing lights that, obviously, were never lighted either.

 

[Maurice]

I find some of these cost questions... er, questionable.

There was already a light source in the shuttle miniature, and putting two small bulbs in the ship's nose couldn't have cost that much.

I had an Erector set that had a tiny battery-powered electric motor in it, so two such gizmos couldn't be that expensive if it came in a kids' playset. Maybe it was the complexity of putting motors, multiple small lights and the spinny domes inside such small nacelles?

 

[Warped9]

The spinning lights in the domes of the fullsuze exterior mockup would have looked cool, but maybe they didn’t bother because of being behind schedule or because the exterior was for when the shuttle was landed and the engines wouldn’t have been powered anyway while landed. Ditto with the supposed landing lights. I have no idea why the domes couldn’t have been lighted on the miniature other than they evidently chose not to bother.

But there us nothing to stop a modeler from adding extra lighting.

 

[Henoch]

I guess nobody thought of this for the TOS-Remastered CGI of the shuttlecraft.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Hmm. I've got a kitbashed AMT Galileo. The aft end is modified to approximate the FJS drawings (AMT really butchered that part, which is odd, because my understanding is that they were involved in either the original filming miniature, the original exterior mock-up, or both), and the top does not come off. I also kitbashed my AMT Romulan ship.

 

[Warped9]

That remastered shuttlecraft doesn't look like the fullsize mockup or the miniature particularly in terms of colour.

 

[Shaw]

They mentioned they might include figures with the kit. Maybe.

It would take almost no effort for Round 2 to include figures... when they updated the TOS Bridge kit, they included heads for the characters from The Galileo Seven.

Of course those wanting to do The Galileo Seven diorama... I would think that the Lost in Space Cyclops figure would be a good starting point for representing the Taurus II creature.

11 inches is a good size (that was the size of my half studio scale study model). When I made 5.5 inch (quarter studio scale) versions, my wife found me playing with them more like toys. I gave the last of those to an artist whose work I'm an ardent admirer of...

Click to enlarge​

 

[Maurice]

I still wish the shuttle in the show looked a bit more like its original conception, which had some subtly nicer lines.