Originally conceived through Ralph McQuarrie’s outstanding artwork, the Battlestar Galactica was designed to look like crouching lizard.  An immense aircraft carrier and heavily armed and armored support vessel in one, a self-contained city, the ship was incapable of landing on planet; indeed, according to some estimates it stretched 6,000 feet or more from it’s weapon-bristling snout to it’s massive tylium engines. The final result was a flying armored tank, capable of withstanding intense punishment while returning enough lethal firepower to threaten whole planets. 

Capable of traveling at light speed, the Galactica and her fellow battlestars’ primary mission was to protect the 12 main planets of the Colonies, those being the homeworlds of Colonial society.  Although never fully defined in the series, the Galactica was also responsible for protecting the space lanes against pirates and driving off marauders who threatened Colonial outposts.  Each battlestar carried a complement of 70 or more Viper fighter craft, the most powerful and deadly fighter craft ever produced by man, as well as transport shuttles, ground support vehicles, and other wartime necessities.

The battlestars representing the ultimate fighting capability of the Colonies, built by a society that had been a war for uncounted generations.  Once part of the President’s fleet, the Galactica was still a serious threat to most Cylon task forces. In addition to its strike force of Viper fighters, the Galactica contained its own array of weapons and defenses of turbo laser turrets and solonite missiles,  defensive systems that were capable of placing a temporary shield that covered a major portion of a planet.  The Galactica model was built using parts from many off-the-shelf models, including tank bodies and numerous car model parts.  The final model was also used to represent the Battlestars Galactica, Alantia, and later the Pegasus.

Since the cancellation of the 1978 Battlestar Galactica, the Monogram Galactica model has remained a very popular and often hard to find item.  Additionally, expert model builders have created near perfect replicas of the Battlestar Galactica.

The owner of the original model has restored it and offered its use for any new faithful Galactica production.

In recent years the Galactica has also been recreated by a number of talented CGI artists.  Those images can be found on a variety of Battlestar Galactica-related web sites as well as these pages.