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

This 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 from the evil Sador. The giant Hammerhead ship dwarfs all of the other spaceships.

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 of 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 - but this ship is massive, and the model would be similar in size to teh contemporary big ship sci-fi kits (Battlestar Galactica, the Cygnus, Star Destroyer and USS Enterprise). The kit would be approx 18” long in grey, light blue or lilac coloured plastic. ,

Designed by James Cameron

Visual Effects by Dennis Skotak Robert Skotak