31
Jul 15
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Photographing Our Battlestar Fleet

Missing only the Battlestar Triton from the Peace Envoy at CIMTAR (the openings of the original Battlestar Galactica series and film), here are the other four that were built and painted from the Salzo kits by artists Dan Grumeretz and Marc Elkins. They include the Battlestar’s Galactica, Atlantia, Pacifica and Acropolis. All painted differently to identify them each by their color scheme and detail. Dan and I were in a rush that day, and set these up quickly in my home office. Thus the unfinished shots never came to be. Never the less… I thought we’d share a few shots quickly taken that day. Please remember that this is my home office…and not truly set up for this… LOL. Of note: The mystery Battlestar seen in a few shots is the study model originally starting it’s life for the upcoming Singer/DeSanto Battlestar Galactica film, and with a few ownership agreement issues, and with even more design changes, then became for the Kuhn Global Productions, Battlestar Galactica origin story of “13”.
Kurt Kuhn
Kuhn Global, Inc.
Modeler’s Miniatures & Magic

EACH Battlestar pictured has a 2016 Modeler Magic appraised value of $15,000 USD

10
Oct 14
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Pre-Peace Rendevous

During the building of Battlestar’s Atlantia, Galactica, and Pacifica, artist Dan Grumeretz took a few photos, one of which I used to create the Composite you see below. The Vipers are actually R.L. Bleecker builds from my own Collection and Blue Screen photos. If you look very closely, you will see three of those Vipers landing on Atlantia…. with two coming in further back. They nearly look like dots, don’t they? Also, much closer we see a set of three off the port side of Galactica, with two even more close toward Galactica’s aft area. I felt adding these elements gave it a more realistic feel.

Kurt Kuhn
Kuhn Global Inc.
Modeler’s Miniatures & Magic

Original photo…

12
Jan 14
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World’s FIRST Studio Scale USS Defiant NX-74205 Replica

When Richard Long began his pattern work on this amazing model years ago, I felt lucky to be on the list whom would get this piece. Today, I know I am lucky to have one as only 3 were made according to Richard, and what you see here is number 1 of those 3 made. After Dana Moss cast the resin parts and laid up the fiberglass for this piece, Richard then a made basic build and paint up of this piece in time to be seen at 2013’s Wonderfest. After it’s successful debut, Richard brought it home and I assigned it to artist Dan Grumeretz to basically rebuild it, adding the lighting, windows, extra details and painted markings. While some of the markings are decals, some are also painted on. Since this is a smaller Starship, utilizing fiber optic for the windows would not work for it’s scale, so Dan used clear acrylic rods for the even lighting of the windows…. somewhat like what fiber optics accomplish. Dan also did the red vinyl tape job for the stripes, finishing it for display here in the Collection. I thank all artists involved, including Star Trek’s Doug Drexler for assisting Richard with the design in order to get the shape and markings correct. I am very pleased with the result of this replica.

BELOW: Kurt Kuhn with the studio scale model for size comparison.

Model Information

Current Owner: Kurt Kuhn of Kuhn Global, Inc.

Build Artist: Dan Grumeretz

Parts Made By: Richard Long / Dana Moss / with Doug Drexler’s Input

~Hours Vested to Final Display: ~500

2020 Estimated Value: $45,000 USD

Current Appraised Value: TBD

Kurt Kuhn

KUHN GLOBAL INCORPORATED

USA

**

Dan Grumeretz

USA

**

Richard Long

SOVEREIGN REPLICAS

USA

**

Dana Moss

USA

**

Doug Drexler

USA

**

06
Feb 08
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Studio Scale Cloud Car #1

This beautiful model was patterned by artist Tobias Rubom, then built by artist R.L. Bleecker, whom did a fantastic job. Every detail was carefully replicated. Artist Dan Grumeretz made the pilot figures exact to the originals used in filming.
As you can see I took as many angles and lighting effects as I thought would be good to allow for use. That stated, after I initially released these blue screen shots, Star Wars artist Chris Trevas contacted me to use them for a poster he was doing for Star Wars Celebration for Lucasfilm. I will show that poster soon in another posting. On the poster, it showed us looking over the shoulder of Boba Fett as the Millennium Falcon was escorted into Cloud City. The Cloud Cars seen in that official poster are taken from these photos.
The reason this Cloud Car is labeled #1 is due to this being the first we had shown, and the first that was ever known to have been replicated. There are now many that have these in their own collections, with kit makers making own releases from time to time in different sizes.
Pardon my look in this, I was taking blue screen photos of these models so much, that I decided never to wear the same hate twice, so I wore my beanie I picked up in Scotland!
This piece would eventually be shown in the collection of Hector Rosales in the USA.

This piece has a 2016 Modeler Magic appraised value of $3,500 USD

Kurt Kuhn with the Studio Scale Cloud Car #1

24
Oct 07
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Studio Scale Buck Rogers Thunder Fighter #1

The Buck Rogers in the 25th Century “Earth Directorate” Thunder Fighter is probably one of the most recognizable science fiction designs of it’s time! It’s beautiful, sleek lines, and aggressive look have always brought my mind to daydream of actually flying one. This model is a direct cast off an original Universal Hartland filming model from 1979. There were several different versions of this fighter in the television show, all of which we will soon replicate and show. When I received the parts, the box was nearly unrecognizable as a box since the shipping company handled it very poorly. I am surprised it survived so well. There were a few parts broken, like the tips of the wings on the fighter, that were covered up nicely by the build artist. This piece was fantastically built by artist R.L. Bleecker, and has been displayed for Licensed companies, and in modeling shows across the country. Unfortunately this model’s tragedies were not yet over. While traveling for display purpose, this model met with some broken challenges and would later be re-made by artist Dan Grumeretz into the “Happy Birthday Buck” Fighter…. known as Colonel Traeger’s Fighter in the series.

Kurt Kuhn with the Buck Rogers Thunder Fighter