Apologies to Lloyd Bridges, but this ain't your daddy's Battlestar Pegasus!

Fresh out of the silicone is Fantastic Plastic's latest model kit: The Battlestar Pegasus as presented in the Sci Fi Channel's reimagined "Battlestar Galactica" series.

The Pegasus is a Mercury Class battlestar and represents the latest thinking in colonial battlestar design. It was commanded by Admiral Caine, a brilliant but ruthless commander who escaped the cylon massacre and dogged the cylon fleet with hit-and -run attacks. She inspired both fear and extreme loyalty in those that served under her. While tracking what she thought was a cylon contingent, Caine discovers instead the Galactica and her rag-tag fleet of civilian ships.

Scale: 1:9600
Produced: 2007
40 light grey resin parts.
Pattern created by Alfred Wong
Casting by BLAP! Models
Decals by JBOT

Very nice set of decals from JBOT. The 5 colors (Red, green, white, black, and silver) are sharply and brightly rendered with every element tight in tight registration.

Some good detail in the forward section. The lower part I received was a bit distorted but a bit of "persuasion" in some hot water ought to fix that.

The trench area should be fairly bristling with gun emplacements.

Nice, if somewhat soft detail overall. The scribed panel lines are also a little uneven. I don't necessarily find this a fault. The overall effect sort of reminds me of the way the vehicles were drawn in the old Macross animes. I think it'll look fine with some paint and weathering.

Underneath the forward section.

20 gun salute! Well, sort of. The Beast is fairly bristling all around with these gun emplacements. To get an even better effect, cut off the barrels and replace with metal tubing spaced a bit apart. Tedious work yes, but it'll be impressive looking!

The trim on the end pieces were a bit wonky. When the pour stub was trimmed back to the flat part of the piece, it did not sit correctly on the end of the main lauch bay piece, instead, it sort of toed in and downward. Some careful sanding and shimming might be needed to get these end pieces to line up correctly.

Very nice detail molded into the launch bays.

Amidship detail.

The model has generally good detail overall. The underside of the model is especially well done with lots of sharp detail.

The engine pods are the areas with the softest detail. I don't think this will affect the look of the finished model too much but it would've been nice to see them rendered a bit sharper.

Not too many parts to the hull (unless you count the 20 gun emplacements!), but there's plenty of great detail molded into the aft section. I think with a good paint job this model will shine!

How fast does this thing go?

Aft section detail.

Stem to stern dorsal view.
Here's a topside view of the dry-fitted model.

Stem to stern ventral view.

Port side view.

Starboard view.

Yeah. She's a "sexy Beast"!

The eight engine pods are scribed with identification numbers and letters.

Matching IDs are scribed into the positioning key at the back end of the model--just so there's no mix-up!

Overall, the casting is superb with nary a seamline nor an air bubble worth mentioning. The only place where this isn't the case is with the exhaust area of the engine pods. The ridge that defines the exhaust port seems to be where it's hardest to evacuate all the air during casting. Although a majority of the bubble are subsurface, some were broken through and required filling. And inspection by holding the parts against a strong light shows this may be especially fragile due to the air voids. So be careful handling these parts, and when in doubt, break the void and fill it with either CA glue or putty.

Finally here is now available a decent sized, and well detailed model of "The Beast". It looks to be a pretty easy, straightforward build with very good, if somewhat inconsistent detail. There are minimal seam lines (again, centered on those engine pods!), and only a couple of areas that will need some putty work. There are a couple of thick pour sprues that are pre-trimmed but will need some cleaning up. A small set of decals are provided to dress up your model with artwork for the ships name, the flight decks, colonial medallion, and the "racing stripes". The decals, produced by JBOT are bright and sharp. The only thing this beast really needs is a good display stand. Fantastic Plastic sells a great 2-part resin stand, but I think a slightly beefier stand is needed for this model, maybe a brass rod and plank, or cradle and plank, like a maritime model.

The well considered engineering and top-notch casting makes this kit pretty easy to assemble and with just basic skills and model making equipment, even an average builder can achieve a great display piece. This model kit is available from Fantastic Plastic.

The Fantastic Plastic Pegasus is in-scale with the Cobywan/Alliance Galactica kit and the Replicas Unlimited Cylon Basestar (both of which are available from Federation Models), so would make a great companion piece to either of them. SHL