GELT’S SPACESHIP - from the 1979 sci film film ‘BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS’ produced by Roger Corman / directed by Jimmy T Murakami

’Battle Beyond the Stars’ is a low budget sci-fi adventure film based on ‘The Seven Saumrai’ / ‘The Magnificent Seven’. Made in the wake of the phenomenal success of ‘Star Wars’. It was produced by the master of low-budget film-making Roger Corman.

The film featured several distinct spaceships representing the rag tag group of mercenaries enlisted to protect the peaceful planet Akir. Gelt is a hired gun, a man with a price on his head. Shad offers him a safe place to sleep and a good meal. A cool, weary and restless character, played the always cool Robert Vaughn. The ship is cool and sleek, like its owner.

Like all of the spacecraft in the film this was designed by James Cameron and the admirable visual effects were handled by miniature experts Dennis and Robert Skotak.

As the film was a low budget affair, i have tried to represent a likely manufacturer from the time. ‘Life-Like’ Hobby Kits was a small outfit who produced, models of ships, galleons, civil war cannons and aircraft as well as dinosaur kits. (the latter were not patch on ’Aurora’s Prehistoric Scenes). This is all ‘what if..’ and a bit oif fun, as such I am not 100% concerned with potential accuracy, and I think this is credible enough.

No scale dimensions are indicated and the scales in the movie are a bit fluid - even for a Sci-Fi movie. I think this ship is about the same size as Nell. The kit would be approx 12 inches long and would be molded in a white, or light grey plastic,

Designed by James Cameron

Visual Effects by Dennis Skotak Robert Skotak