[gmd3d]

Originally Posted by maudib

Taranis, I didnt think about the nautical mile. Oops! When I break dimensions down into inches and feet, I assume that I will be using the US Survey Mile. I forget that the rest of the world uses other systems of measurement. maybe I should convert my G to metric system? Sorry about that.
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Hey lots of people have done the same, cough er like me when I started trying to work out what works. it was only when I had Folkrms mesh I was able to scale the models, Galactica, Vipers, Shuttles, etc to see how things would line up.

I think the most important aspect for establishing scale is the Viper and Viper tube!! and settle on the scale of the Viper..

The studio Viper scale was 28.5ft as far as the link below discusses at some length, I don't know what the scale of the miniature is so I used
the high end scale of 30ft I think.

But I believe that the Miniature scales should be used and not the studio mockup.. but thats just me.

The full scale mock-up of the Viper was 28.5 feet long, however this mock-up is proportionally shorter than the filming miniature. I currently don't have any information as to the difference but in the visual effects shots, the Viper should normally be considered to be longer. For these measurements I will be using the 28.5 foot length however.

Here is some added information,, just to really mess with your head

First some information as to where these camps come from:

2000 ft - This measurement comes from an article from Starlog, August 1978, by Richard Meyers who supposedly got the number from the production staff. The British BSG Annual in 1979 also has this figure contained in the article. This size is also stated on the Revell/Monagram model kit. I don't have access to these articles (but I do have the model kit) in order to give an exact quote but I will trust the sources I got this information from.

6080 ft - This measurement comes from an article in a British magazine by one of the three owners of the Galactica Archives and estimated the scale of the model to be about 1/960 scale (1 inch = 80 ft). This measurement is roughly supported by Glen Larson (Producer) and John Dykstra (VFX supervisor) who say the ship is about a mile in length. The extra material on the DVD also says the ship is a mile long. This measurement is exactly one nautical mile. Again I don't have the article and will trust this scale was stated.

2-3 Miles long/random measurements - In an issue of Fantastic Films (February 1979) James Delson interviewed Ken Swenson, a model maker on Battlestar Galactica. In the interview he says "They called them battlestars because they were so huge...It's the size of a small city." (Personal note: He also says the ship with the three film cans is the livery ship.)

Fantastic Films (April 1979) shows a blueprint with the Galactica's dimensions and showing the length to be 3280 d.m. (whatever a d.m. is...)

In the magazine Science Fantasy (October 1978) James Burns writes "The 'Galactica', which is supposed to be two to three miles long, has been built down to scale..."

In a related note and one that I will use eventually to do some measurements, The Battlestar Galactica Scrapbook mentions that Dykstra's team extrapolated the length of a the shuttle from the size of the windows to be 110 feet. For practical purposes, the art director arbitrarily cut the scale in half and a 33 foot long section of the shuttle was built..

Source http://ravensbranch.allen.com/galacticasize.html

Recenlty I have reconsidered that the 6080ft scale should increase by another 100ft (approx) or so to have enough room for the Vipers.