The Raider in the original series is an exceptionally powerful fighter/attack craft employed by the Cylon Empire and carries much more formidable armament than the weapons on Colonial Viper fighters (two directed energy weapons and provisions for internal bombs). A Cylon Raider carries a crew of three centurions (commander, pilot and co-pilot). The commander sits on a slightly elevated seat between the two pilots and issues orders. Raiders frequently make suicide attacks on enemy capital ships, typically attacking the fighter launch bays. Although a typical Basestar holds far more Raiders than a Battlestar has Vipers, this advantage is often negated by the human ability to improvise and adapt to changing combat situations.
Moebius Cylon Raider Model Kit Review
The Kit:
Not too long ago Moebius Models promised and delivered. First with the 1/4105 scale Battlestar Galactica and now finally we can get our hands on a brand new 1/32 Cylon Raider. Besides the new Cylon Raider from Moebius being an all new tooling, this model was made in the same scale as used for filming the scenes of the popular hit TV Show. Several scales of a particular model are made and used depending on the scenes to be filmed. From a smaller scale convoy patrol of Cylon Raiders for a distant shot, to a larger more detailed scale model for close camera flyby.
I saw the Cylon Rider a few days ago at my local hobby shop. I was surprised to see a rather small box for a model this scale. As with their 1/72 USS Skipjack, Moebius broke down the super structure of the Cylon Raider to keep the packaging as small as possible, save precious shelf space and of course, this means smaller molds.
One can quickly notice some familiar molded on armor parts like hatches, tracks, suspension, exhaust and cannon barrel halves as well as parts from Morser Karl and Anzio Annie as they were used to dress the studio models back in the day.
A quick dry test fit was done on the large structure parts and the fit is impeccable with no warping at all. As you can see on the pictures provided below, this is not a high parts count model as most of the detail is ‘crisply’ molded on. It scaled to Level 3 Skill but honestly, I don’t see this model kit too complicated for the occasional model builder. In fact, the instructions booklet consist only of 7 pages 5 of which are for assembly of the model in just 10 steps. There’s plenty of room to add lighting and attaching points in case you want to photograph this model (as I intend to) so plan ahead.
The kit provides the pentagon shaped decal markings. However, the black stripes unlike the Revell Cylon Raider are not provided as decals. Honestly, this should be a big deal. Even on the Cylon Raider from Revell I decided to paint the stripes instead of using the provided decals. Moebius provides a template so you can airbrush the stripes. I think this was a smart move from Moebius as I believe that most model kit builders would had destined these marking to the spare box or most likely to the trash bin in favor of painted on markings.
If you lack any of the above, then the closest thing to own a prop replica model is to wait and pray if this group decides to cast the molds and produce a resin kit for sale. Needless to say, these kits don’t come cheap (ranging in hundreds of dollars and sometimes a long waiting list) plus you need to have what it takes to build entirely in resin.
Now with this new Moebius release of the 1/32 Cylon Raider, we mortals can build our own studio scale prop replica model at a fraction of the price of a resin kit. Moebius and its product development team evidently has done their homework with this kit. If you loved the show back in the late 70’s you will love this model. Even if I wasn’t into model building, I wouldn’t hesitate to get it as a collector.
Released to commemorate the 35th Anniversary of the original series. Kudos to Moebius for this fine model!
Highly Recommended!
