by Dec Sibley

The Cylon Base Ships allow long-term support for Cylon raider operations, however during certain detached reconnaissance or long-range raids the size of the Base Ships can be a dis-advantage. A number of conventional Cylon Raiders have been converted to provide buddy to buddy re-fuelling. The “Cylon K15 Extender” flight performance is the same with just a reduction in top speed due to weight and decreased aerodynamics from the piggyback fuel tank.

Wing mounted lasers have been deleted replaced by jibs that swing outboard of the wing area for the extendable booms to locate onto the chin fuelling point of the Raider. Wing markings help the inbound craft requiring fuel to align on the port or starboard side.

I had to decide what method of re-fuelling to follow. (US style with boom into recess or European of probe on craft into basket deployed from rear of tanker) Looking at the Raider I noticed a circular port on the chin under the front lip of the cockpit. I decided this would be the fuelling port and that the US method would be used. Booms from Tie Fighter legs cut and reworked allowed two craft to fill up at once. Holes drilled into the former Laser mounts were reamed out for vinyl bushes to hold the jibs so the booms could swing outwards. Greeblies were used to make cradles along the wing for the booms and styrene tube dressed up for the booms themselves. Additional dressing up or filling was used for the holes in the hull. The engines were terrible so I binned the parts and added bulkheads with grills and a number of exhaust tubes deeper into the nozzles.

Image: front/right view

Image: Overhead pass

Image: Rear view

Image: With boom deployed