Raptor concept designs

Since you’ve seen the Raptor in yesterday’s post on the Cylon basestar interior, we may as well continue on that tangent.

With the Raptor being the mainstay military transport and support vehicle available to Galactica and, later, Pegasus, the ship is modeled after real world military helicopters, namely the Apache.

These designs show a more complicated model of Raptor, however it is very close to the final product that we get to see on screen both in CGI and the physical, full-scale models used on the show.

These are pencil drawn and shaded designs by Ken Rahebl (familiar with that name yet, folks?) on vellum, and said originals will be available in the auction.

And the final product, that you get to see in every episode…

Cylon Baseship interior concept art

In Season 3, we finally saw most of the Cylon baseship’s (sometimes it’s called a basestar) interior: corridors, rooms, command center, and the Hybrid’s chamber. Yet, before Season 3, we received a brief glimpse into the Cylon baseship’s interior during “Kobol’s Last Gleaming, Part II“.

Still, there were some concepts for interiors drawn by Ken Rabehl that were done for that episode. These are obsolete concept sketches, but still provide insight into possible Cylon architecture. Enjoy!

Concept of large Cylon Baseship room.

Concept of Cylon baseship corridor interior and large room at end.

Concept of Cylon baseship landing area with Boomer and Racetrack’s Raptor.

Astral Queen prison cell concept drawings

In the final part of our Astral Queen series, we have two concept drawings for both the cell block and corridor of the ship, first seen in Season 1’s “Bastille Day“. Both by Ken Rabehl, these are scans from the original hand-drawn artwork on vellum paper.

As I may have said before, the physically hand-drawn (as in pencil to paper) production artwork is rare in the Battlestar Galactica universe, simply because the artists on the show went digital near the beginning of Season 2.

So while there are cool concept drawings available for the remainder of the series, they are all digital, making these original hand-drawn physical ones extremely rare for this series—and extremely valuable for collectors who like production art.

Without further ado, here are scans of those concept drawings, and beneath them you will see how things ended looking up on screen.

Ken Rabehl’s concept drawing of a cell block on the Astral Queen.

Two views of the cell block seen in “Bastille Day”. (Note that brightness has been tweaked in order to enhance visibility of details. “Natural” environment is darker.)

Ken Rabehl’s concept for a corridor of the Astral Queen.

Marines sweeping a corridor of the Astral Queen during their insertion.

Hope you guys have enjoyed these so far. Come back tomorrow for a peek at some original concept drawings of the interior of the Cylon basestar meant for “Kobol’s Last Gleaming, Part II“.

Day 1

Well, Day 1 of our cataloging process has come and gone, and while we only worked a half day (I had to get to Seattle as I am going to the Vegas Star Trek Con tomorrow), we did get the ball rolling with some wonderful stuff. It was the first day on the Studio lot for my assistant Joe Beaudoin. So we got Joe going on his Studio ID and introduced him around to the staff that was there. The full crew is not back yet as the BSG movie is in the earliest stages of pre-production.

We met with Doug McLean and his assistant Lynn who walked us through all the art they have produced and saved from the mini-series on. Of course these days, most of the work is digital, so there is only actual original art from the first two seasons. But we did get a bunch of envelopes full to start our process and there were some gems, including the first concept paintings of the CIC and hangar deck.

CIC Concept Art by Ken Rabehl

Hangar bay concept art by Ken Rabehl.

Galactica Corridor Concept Art by Ken Rabehl

There were also a bunch of great pencil sketches of everything from Vipers to Raptors to side arms and sets, which we will soon have in digital form on the website. And to make the budget challenged among you all happy, we found lots of items that we can sell around $1-200 that will be great additions to your collection.

Joe at his desk with original concept paintings of the CIC and hanger deck.