by Marco Scheloske

The container transports of the "Mover"-class has been widespread all over the colonies before the insidious attack against the colonial fleet and the main planets.

The vessel shown here, the HERCULES, is one of the latest variants, a "Mark IV, long range". Equipped with an extra-large Thylium fuel tank it is made for non-stop long distance travels between different star systems. The ship is modular and can carry a minimum of three and a maximum of 12 containers, attached to cargo modules.

Besides from the large cargo containers small items can be carried in the spherical bow of the ship. For that purpose the nose carries several docking ports, made for the most common systems that are used on the different worlds. So small courier ships can take over the goods and bring them down to the plantary surface, which saves time and money because the huge mover can remain in free space.

Because of the intended purpose as a pure cargo transport crew space and live support systems are both very limited.

The HERCULES is owned by a smaller firm called "Olymp Transports". It survived the final cylon attack like a few others that have had the luck to be in deep space when the assault started and is now part of the rag tag fleet collected by the last surviving battlestar, the GALACTICA.

The Model

The HERCULES is not intended to be a screw-by-screw replica of the colonial mover transport shown in the movies and the TV-series, but it is very much inspired by this kind of ship. While building it I thought that there will be different versions of those containerships in active duty just like different kinds and variants of trucks are today.

I kitbashed it from several parts of my bits-box. The containers are made from cardboard. I have traveled to a nearby container terminal to get a feeling about how they should look - you won`t believe how colorful those terminals with thousands and thousands of different containers are! So I decide to make the ones attached to the HERCULES also that way. The result is an unusual look, different from the often seen greys.

I couldn`t resist to add some graffitis to the one or other cargo module. So you can read for example "Cylons go home" on one or "Adama (heart) Ila" on another (think about young people in fresh love, and a mild summer night under the two moons of Caprica... )

I painted the ship neutral grey as a base color, with details painted in several other greys, black, silver, boltgun metal, yellow, red and green. Finally I weathered it a bit with drybrushed silver and dark grey. I tried to keep the weathering subtle - when you look at the trucks of today they are normally in more or less good conditions, aren`t they?

The names are taken from the greek mythology just like almost everything in Battlestar Galactica. The base is made from cardboard and styrene tubes.

Image: Rear view

Image: Below and behind

Image: Port side

Image: Top view

Image: Markings

Image: Graffitti

Image: More ...