Verna Rockets has a full debrief on its own builds, complete with links to several sites with parts and instructions. You'll find everything you need to build a flying model rocket that looks like a Recon Viper, the U.S.S. Enterprise, even The Black Hole Space Probe from "The Black Hole"

Confession: I always get psyched by rocket kits. Have any pics of your own launches that you'd like to share? [Verna Rockets via Hobby Media]

During the episode in which the humans and the Cylons discover a devastated Earth, they come across the remains of its civilization. One of the things they found partially covered in the radioactive soil was a "2000-year-old, ancient Cylon." That was the exact phrase in the script, which was used by VFX supervisor Gary Hutzel and chief model maker Pierre Drolet to create the Cylon head you see above.

Like Ralph McQuarrie did for Darth Vader, the pair took inspiration on classic samurai armor designs.
The result clearly came way too close to the Sir Dark Lord Van Vader Von Ham of Shin's helmet. So close that they took a couple of layers out of the helmet, to make it look like the skull on the right, which is the model that finally ended up in the actual shot:

Beautiful design either way, although I liked the full helmet better. I don't care it looked like Vader's, specially when McQuarrie also did art for Battlestar Galactica (some of it is under these lines.) [Darth Mojo—Thanks Alice]

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• Grace Park answers some questions (Slight spoilers, but silly fun)
• The DVD version will have some extra scenes (Slight spoilers)
• The BSG finale you didn't see (Major spoilers)

• Final episode review (Yes spoilers!)
• All of BSG's sex scenes (Hey hey!)
• 12 plotholes that should have been filled in the finale

• The truth about Daniel (Slight spoilers)
• Battlestar Galactica at the UN
• 5 BSG spinoffs they'd like to see

My wife and I started watching the mini series skeptically on a Friday night around 7pm, sitting down to pad thai and a few beers. We forced ourselves go to bed around 4am, leaving the story somewhere in the first season. For the remainder of the weekend, we partook in a gluttonous feast of sci-fi, scarfing it quickly and knowing the behavior was completely unsustainable and wastefully opulent.

I've often questioned just what makes the show resonate with so many people. It's, of course, a completely unfair question with limitless legitimate answers. One thing I've always appreciated is the props. Just as the original Star Trek or Lost in Space would glue together studio scrap to fill their sets on a shoestring budget, so too does Battlestar accentuate the futuristic with the contemporary and mundane. Mechanics wear stock ski goggles, Captain Adama drinks from Bodum glasses and the crew loves a good backwards sleeveless tee. It's a small point that ties Battlestar to its predecessors, an homage, intentional or not, that designs a future (or past?) unlike any we've imagined before.

Anyway, if you're reading this, you're probably watching the Battlestar Galactica finale tonight (or very soon). So our question of the day is a little different that just that. With such a complex lore, can Battlestar untwist its own enigmas before the show fades to black?

Each episode will be three to four minutes in length with two episodes released weekly until the final season begins. And the kick off will feature some of our favorite characters, like Number 8 (Grace Park), Col. Tigh (Michael Hogan) and Lt. Felix Gaeta (Alessandro Juliani).

Plus, that first episode is co-written by Jane Espenson, who has a history of writing some of the best, tripped-out scripts of whatever show she's working on at the time.

The full schedule: Dec. 12: Chapter 1; Dec. 15: Chapter 2; Dec. 17: Chapter 3; Dec. 22: Chapter 4; Dec. 24: Chapter 5; Dec. 29: Chapter 6; Dec. 31: Chapter 7; Jan. 5: Chapter 8; Jan. 7: Chapter 9; and Jan. 12: Chapter 10. [SciFi]

The Medallion was laser cut in separate layers and pieces, then glued together. Red LEDs were added behind the bird inset to illuminate the dvd drive and provide a nice backlit effect.

The specs

• EVGA nForce 590 SLI motherboard
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ CPU
• Two EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS graphics cards in SLI
• 4GB (2x2GB) Crucial Ballistix Tracer Red DDR2 800MHz
• Cooler Master 850W modular PSU
• Pioneer slimline slot loading DVD drive
• Logitech G15 keyboard and G9 mouse
• IZ3D 22" 3D monitor
• Western Digital RaptorX 150GB HD (x2)
• Swiftech pump, blocks
• Black Ice Stealth 360 radiator
• PC Ice clear fluid
• Primoflex red tubing
• 10" LCD
• 2.5" LCD (x3)

Yeah, it's really horrible, but I really miss Starbuck. Hit the link for a detailed report and gallery. [Bit-Tech]