Battlestar Galactica ship sizes

[SicOne]

Moderators, please bear with me. I know we've discussed Trek and Star Wars ship lengths (and, most recently, volumes) in this forum, but have we discussed the sizes of the various BSG ships (both old and new series)?

I thought about putting this in the BSG forum, but didn't think that would attract the attention of the posters who have discussed Trek/SW ship lengths in the past, and those are the folks whose opinions I am soliciting, so mods, if you would, please leave this thread here where it can be found by those in the know?

Maybe (probably) this subject has already been discussed in the past, but I've been out of touch for a few years; browsed on occasion, but said thread could have easily slipped by. And I'm sure you've many links to external sources where this is discussed as well. Thanks much.

 

[JNG]

For original BSG there is some debate about the size of Galactica. It's hard to figure out. This read may be of interest: http://ravensbranch.allen.com/galacticasize.html

For the reimagining, there used to be ship lengths given in a sort of 3D chart on scifi.com/battlestar, but I believe they took that down after a while. I am not sure how official it was or if it was matching up to the episodes (I think the Cylon base ships were notably bigger in the chart than they appeared in the series, but this is just an unreliable personal perception ). Battlestarwiki lists these figures for Galactica, giving it a length of 4,640 feet (yowza). The chart listed the base ship as bigger than that, but battlestarwiki doesn't refer to those figures, or, seemingly, to the figures the chart gave for ships like Celestra.

I hope that chart is still on there and I just overlooked it somehow. Even if the figures are not right, they can serve as a starting point for discussion.

 

[David cgc]

Lee Stringer, one of the effects artists for the new series, posted a few sizes a couple years ago. Specifically:

Battlestar
Width (Pods out) 536.84m (Pods In) 352.34m
Engines Max 359.38m Head Max 334.58m
Length: Front (Main body) 730.65m (Antenee) 766.04m Back 672.6m
(using the center of the two arms as the middle)
Height (Armor/Mainbody) 181.825m (Details) 183.315m

Basestar
Width: 1030.69m
Length: 856.1m (two arm side) + 1039.87m (single arm side)
Height: 132.586m (Each Piece), 265.172m Total

IMPORTANT NOTE: These [next ones] are from the CGI models NOT the fullsize props. Although measurements etc. where taken of the full size props and the CGIs made from that, it doesn't mean they match 100%

Raptor
Width: 5.472m
Length: (Main Body) 8.488m, (with Front Equipment) 8.694m
Height: 3.5695m

Viper Mk2
Width: 4.7168m
Length: 8.4082m
Height: 2.7247m

Viper Mk7
Width: 5.61m
Length: 9.8643m
Height: 2.9508m

 

[SicOne]

Thanks much, David CGC; a similar thread on the BSG forum revealed a link to Battlestar Wiki (http:en.battlestarwiki.org). I will share what I learned there.

Galactica-class...4640 feet (1414 meters) long x 1821 feet (555 meters) wide (doesn't specify pods extended or retracted) x 581 feet (177 meters) tall. The flight pods are 2018 feet (615 meters) long x 361 feet (110 meters) wide x 210 feet (64 meters) tall.

Mercury-class (Pegasus)...6070 feet (1850 meters) long x 2444 feet (744.9 meters) wide x 1099 feet (334.9 meters) tall.

By way of comparison, classic BSG was 4166 feet (1255 meters) long x 1672 feet (510 meters) wide, but no figures on how tall it was, and the pods measured 1977 feet (603 meters) long x 351 feet (107 meters) wide.

Footnotes for stats on the Mercury-class show it came from a BSG magazine; not sure if that could be considered a "canon" source if it is licensed from the studios or not.

 

[David cgc]

I checked up on that Mercury-class image, myself. It didn't even come from a BSG magazine- it came from a fan-made schematic drawing of the Pegasus. Now, it looked more or less correct, so if they scaled it in the most sensible way, matching the viper launch tubes from Galactica to those on Pegasus, it should be close. I wouldn't take it as the gospel truth, though, especially if any sort of official source offers up numbers later.

 

[SicOne]

I was impressed with the Zoic schematic of Galactica; did they do one of the Pegasus, David?

Saw the same schematic of the Mercury-class, but it looked a little too wide. Think I might have to dig out one of my Titanium-series Pegasus die-cast miniatures and compare it to the schematic.

 

[David cgc]

Nope. If I remember right, there haven't been any new schematic renders from BSG released since the miniseries.

 

[137th Gebirg]

There actually were a few of some of the RTF ships that came out later on, the most recent being the big ring-ship earlier this year. Can't remember where I saw them. Resin Illuminati, maybe.

 

[SicOne]

I have figures on nuBSG, from the BSG role-playing game, of 4593 feet long x 1725 feet wide x 739 feet tall, as well as basestar figures of 4500 feet long x 2250 feet wide x 625 feet tall.

On the Titanium-series Micro Machines box for Pegasus, it lists Peg as 4640 feet long.

The old BSG model was "76" long x "30.5" wide x "11.5" tall...so if anyone can agree on an actual ship length, this will also give you the width and height of the ship.

Has Masao, et al, come up with volume for any of the BSG (old or new) ships?

 

[137th Gebirg]

I suspect that any such volumes will not be available until after the show is done, and possibly not after Caprica has run its course. Remember, RDM always hated bogging down stuff with technical details as he felt it would detract from the character-driven story.

However, that being said, if something like this did get produced, I would definitely be dialing up Amazon.

 

[SicOne]

137th Gebirg, do you know if they ever came out with a Colonial Technical Journal? I have many BSG comics from the mid-to-late-90s and saw the CTJ advertised, but have never found it, cannot find it in any comic book price guides (was of the understanding that it was a comic or small graphic novel, as opposed to the TMs we are used to from Pocket Books), and none of my local comic book stores know anything about it.

Do you know what the forum rules are for posting up scanned pictures, if I were to scan the ad for the CTJ from my old comic (a two-page preview showing a detailed cutaway of the launch tubes and flight pod), would I get into hot water?

 

[137th Gebirg]

I know exactly what you're talking about and, no, it was sadly never published. When the comic company (can't remember which) lost the license from Universal that project was shelved.

As for posting pics, I think as long as you're hosting them from your own server or something like PhotoBucket or ImageShack, you can post anything you want here.

Here are the pics that have been made available on the web, in case there are some you don't have:
http://www.battlestarforum.com/showthread.php?t=821

 

[SicOne]

Here are the stats from David cgc, in feet for those (like me) who, when see a measurement in meters, go "Uhhhhh...."

New BSG...4,718.7 feet long from tip of antenna to end of engine pod, 1,760.8 feet wide (flight pods out)/1,155.6 feet wide (pods retracted), 601.2 feet high.

These stats differ slightly from the Battlestar Wiki stats; these stats came from SFX guys on the show, yet the Wiki stats also have some credibility, so don't know who is right or wrong.

137th Gebirg, thanks for showing the link to the aborted Tech Manual...that was more extensive and about evenly detailed of what I had in the back of the comic book, though slightly different. Shoot me a physical address at sic1701@cox.net, and I'll shoot you a color photocopy of what's in the back of the comic; think you'd find it of interest...can't get my scanner to cooperate, else I'd go ahead and post it for all to see.

 

[NCC1968]

This is intersting:

 

[SicOne]

Whoa! NCC1968, that is impressive! Do you have a link to it, where we can see it in more detail? I tried enlarging the page, but it went all blurry.

 

[David cgc]

Here's the guy's website, with newer versions.

 

[philbob]

lame i cant acess the picture

 

[Captain Robert April]

I didn't have any problems.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Here's another good site comparing ship sizes from all different genres. Unfortunately, it doesn't show Battlestars from the new show, only the TOS Galactica.

http://www.merzo.net/

 

[SicOne]

137th Gebirg, thanks for the link! I had forgotten that particular site, thanks for putting it up for us.

I can't seem to get that other link that David CGC put up to work; is there another?