# Blakes 7 Liberator



## aussiemuscle308 (Dec 2, 2014)

Work in progress of my DSV Liberator. 
I've 3D printed it and started the paint. Not enjoying masking so many little panels so far.
When i started 3D printing the kit, the parts seemed small (only 10cm or so) but once it's fully assembled, its quite a big model (it's over 40cm long!)
I decided not to light it, but it would have been fairly straight-forward to do since the 3d mesh is made to allow for lighting.
the antennae are made of copper rod.
i've already once knocked it off its shelf, smashing it to pieces. I had to reprint the rear engine section as it broke along the tail end 'fin' area.

DSCF8605 by aus_mus, on Flickr
DSCF8609 by aus_mus, on Flickr
DSCF8608 by aus_mus, on Flickr
DSCF8607 by aus_mus, on Flickr
DSCF8606 by aus_mus, on Flickr


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

Right there is a ship that needs a mass market injection plastic kit made. Add it to the 'grail' list. Not that well known in America (the Blake's 7 fandom was never large but were quite vocal  ) but it's just an interesting and unusual design. That back globe screams for some neat lighting. 

Nicely done! Down and safe, as they used to say


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

Oh wow... there's something you don't see every day! I had always wondered why no model company ever picked up a license for this kit. Looks like 3D printing to the rescue again! This brings back a lot of memories... good sized model, too.


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## Faust (Dec 1, 2012)

Wow. 

That is awesome!

I remember having a Corgi of the Liberator when I was a kid. I loved it. It was metallic blue and yellow. My grandmother bought it for me at K-Mart. 

I never knew what it was until just a few years ago, actually! Your kit is looking great! Keep it up!


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

Supreme Commander Servalan approves this build.


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## terryr (Feb 11, 2001)

Unique design.

Too bad they destroyed it in the show to replace it with a 'star wars type' ship.


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## Krel (Jun 7, 2000)

terryr said:


> Unique design.
> 
> Too bad they destroyed it in the show to replace it with a 'star wars type' ship.



In the mid 80s, I was at a convention and someone asked Paul Darrow why they changed ships, and he replied that they broke the Liberator set. The audience laughed, but he was serious. During the big battle scene with the fleet from Andromeda they planned an explosion on the Liberator bridge. The explosives man was a bit over enthusiastic with his charges. They emptied the set, set the cameras, then set the charges off. Dust that had been accumulating in the rafters since the soundstage was constructed rained down,. When the smoke and dust cleared, the bridge set was in pieces. It just became too difficult to keep repairing the set, and the BBC wasn't going to pay for a new set on a show they disliked. So bye-bye Zen and the Liberator.


David.


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

I also understand that they had problems with the Liberator miniature. The major problem was if they left the light at the back on too long, it would melt the plastic (perspex?)!

And I'm sure as was normal at the time just when they would get a shot set up right a lightbulb would choose that moment to die...


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## The_Engineer (Dec 8, 2012)

Krel said:


> In the mid 80s, I was at a convention and someone asked Paul Darrow why they changed ships, and he replied that they broke the Liberator set. The audience laughed, but he was serious. During the big battle scene with the fleet from Andromeda they planned an explosion on the Liberator bridge. The explosives man was a bit over enthusiastic with his charges. They emptied the set, set the cameras, then set the charges off. Dust that had been accumulating in the rafters since the soundstage was constructed rained down,. When the smoke and dust cleared, the bridge set was in pieces. It just became too difficult to keep repairing the set, and the BBC wasn't going to pay for a new set on a show they disliked. So bye-bye Zen and the Liberator.
> 
> 
> David.


I didn't hear that story but another one. The UK at the time had 2 different rating systems. One was fast but inaccurate while the other one was took along time but had accurate numbers. By the end of the 3rd season, the execs (don't know the right name) had gotten the rating numbers from the faster system and they were low so they thought that the BBC was going to cancel the show. They wanted to go with a bang and decided the 3rd season finale (series finale) would have the Liberator blow up. Great way to end the show! When the episode aired, the one guy was watching the finale with his son and during the end credits the announcer came on and stated "don't worry, Blakes's 7 will be back next year". In complete shock, the guy phoned his colleague who also had watched the 3rd season finale and both were panicking. They made some calls and found out the BBC had gotten the ratings from the slower more accurate system and as it turns out, the ratings were up so they had renewed the show (and didn't inform them). Both were panicking - "we just blew up the dam ship! What are we going to do now?" Hence, the Scorpio.......


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## aussiemuscle308 (Dec 2, 2014)

I'm just surprised the original studio model of the Liberator survived. Last i saw it was here with Matt Irvine saying this is the original model, which was used in the final battle: 
[ame]https://youtu.be/34O2N9cntcc?t=231[/ame]


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## Krel (Jun 7, 2000)

Paul Darrow said that the BBC was ashamed that a cheap space opera was one of their most popular shows. He said that only reason B7 got a fourth series was that the BBC needed to fill a slot and had no other show to fill the slot. But they were told that there would be no fifth series no matter what the ratings.


David.


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## Hammerstein (Apr 15, 2018)

Is there any kind of canon on where the bridge is located on this thing?
I never understood anything about this odd ship...


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## electric indigo (Dec 21, 2011)

On Ebay 2015:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Blake-039-s-Seven-7-Original-Series-Liberator-Studio-Model-Film-TV-Movie-Star-Prop-/231564669649

Is it real?


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

Yeah, I'd LOVE to see some kind of authoritative cutaway of the old girl. Could never figure out what went where inside. Are the outriggers manned, or just weapons pods? Or reactor pods? Or...?


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## The_Engineer (Dec 8, 2012)

One of the main problems is that there is no size of the Liberator set as. Some people believe it's huge (say as big or bigger than the Enterprise-D), I on the other hand believe that it's smaller (in length) than the Enterprise refit. I peg the diameter of the main body (where the 3 pods are joined) at 10 decks, the spoke wheel at 12 decks, the rear of the front cone at 6 decks and the front of the cone (forward blaster) at 4 decks. The Enterprise refit's secondary hull is 7 decks for comparison. 

There's a few things that we do know about the interior that was seen or mentioned. It has 7 energy banks but we don't know the location. There's 1 teleport room, storage/cargo rooms, crew quarters, sickbay, lounge room, bridge, computer room and at least 1 landing bay. One thing that most people don't talk about, was that in some episodes it was mentioned that the Liberator could 'land' (picture Voyager landing on a planet). I had on the bottom side of the 2 side pods extendable foot pads with a shock absorber that would pop out when the ship lands. Of course then you would need some sort of elevator tube that would go down to the ground or a ramp from the side pods to the ground (in that case people would have to travel from the bottom pods, through the wing to the main body).

I have seen a cutaway where most of the ship is machinery and (I think) the front cone is the only habitable area of the ship.


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## Richard Baker (Aug 8, 2006)

I know that the green sphere at the stern is part of the drive system, but what are the three large units on the ends of the three pylons supposed to do?


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## Hammerstein (Apr 15, 2018)

The_Engineer said:


> One of the main problems is that there is no size of the Liberator set as. Some people believe it's huge (say as big or bigger than the Enterprise-D), I on the other hand believe that it's smaller (in length) than the Enterprise refit. I peg the diameter of the main body (where the 3 pods are joined) at 10 decks, the spoke wheel at 12 decks, the rear of the front cone at 6 decks and the front of the cone (forward blaster) at 4 decks. The Enterprise refit's secondary hull is 7 decks for comparison.


I found some guy who used the "London" shuttle for scale to figure out the size of the Liberator.
Looks legit.
The Liberator dwarves the Enterprise.

The system says I need 2 more posts to allow links.


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## Hammerstein (Apr 15, 2018)

Richard Baker said:


> I know that the green sphere at the stern is part of the drive system, but what are the three large units on the ends of the three pylons supposed to do?


I found a schematic.
It says almost the entire pylon is power banks.

One post to go...


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## Hammerstein (Apr 15, 2018)

Here we go.

Liberator size.

Liberator schematic.


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## The_Engineer (Dec 8, 2012)

I came across that article as well. The picture at the top of the article with the Liberator dwarfs the TOS Enterprise (and at the end of the article), I disagree with that size. The other picture further down were he scales the Liberator to 300m (about the length of the TOS Enterprise) is closer to what I would believe is about right but I would make the Liberator a bit smaller. I came across one of those spaceship size comparison pictures a few months back and the stated length of the Liberator was pretty much the length of the Reliant (I think that was under 300m) and I agree with that. I don't know why people just keep wanting to make the Liberator larger and larger.

As for the 3 pods, either the entire pod or just the forward portion of it is the weapon blaster. I also placed maneuvering engines/thrusters there (to rotate the ship) as these are the farthest points from the ship.


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## aussiemuscle308 (Dec 2, 2014)

Does anyone have any suggestions to make the aztek panel easier? decals? masks?


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## Hammerstein (Apr 15, 2018)

The_Engineer said:


> I don't know why people just keep wanting to make the Liberator larger and larger.


He didn't make it larger.
It never had a size until this guy figured it out.


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## The_Engineer (Dec 8, 2012)

Hammerstein said:


> He didn't make it larger.
> It never had a size until this guy figured it out.


The part of "until this guy figured it out" > The only way you can try to get how big the Liberator is to go to episode 2 (the first episode with the Liberator) and use the London and compare it to the Liberator and figure out how big the Liberator is. That is what I did and I calculated the Liberator size. "This guy" got about the same size I did (he had it the same size as the TOS Enterprise which is a little larger than what I got but that's ok).

He then takes off and upscales the Liberator to a huge size that about 2.5-3 times the size of the TOS Enterprise. I completely disagree with that conclusion. I also stated that I found online one of those (many) spaceship size comparison pictures and that person had the Liberator about the same size as the USS Reliant and I agree with that. I was complaining that some people don't like that size and for some reason *need* to make the Liberator HUGE.

<edit>
I dug around and I believe I found the picture (it's the second one down):

http://slash-addict.net/scale.html

TOS Enterprise - 289m
Reliant - 243m
Liberator - 230m

That to me is the correct size area for the Liberator.


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## Hammerstein (Apr 15, 2018)

The_Engineer said:


> The part of "until this guy figured it out" > The only way you can try to get how big the Liberator is to go to episode 2 (the first episode with the Liberator) and use the London and compare it to the Liberator and figure out how big the Liberator is. That is what I did and I calculated the Liberator size. "This guy" got about the same size I did (he had it the same size as the TOS Enterprise which is a little larger than what I got but that's ok).
> 
> He then takes off and upscales the Liberator to a huge size that about 2.5-3 times the size of the TOS Enterprise. I completely disagree with that conclusion. I also stated that I found online one of those (many) spaceship size comparison pictures and that person had the Liberator about the same size as the USS Reliant and I agree with that. I was complaining that some people don't like that size and for some reason *need* to make the Liberator HUGE.


The picture of the Liberator and Enterprise at similar lengths is his preferred size and taken from pure fan conjecture.
The larger Liberator is from the comparison to the London.
Read it again. This is very clear.


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## The_Engineer (Dec 8, 2012)

Hammerstein said:


> The picture of the Liberator and Enterprise at similar lengths is his preferred size and taken from pure fan conjecture.
> The larger Liberator is from the comparison to the London.
> Read it again. This is very clear.


I used the size of the London (which I had pegged slightly smaller then he did to get the number of decks for the Liberator. In the end we got to the same size (about the size of the TOS Enterprise) as did the artist(s) for the spaceship comparison charts. Then he doesn't quite state how he worked out to 780 (then down to 700m). To me that doesn't make any sense. He then ends by stating "This is the results I got, it is much larger than I expected. but its is conjecture and could be off by quite a lot."

My reply to that would be "Yes, you are off by QUITE A LOT!" I'm sticking to - by comparing the size of the London to the Liberator, we get that the Liberator is ballpark 230m-300m long (you might be able to argue a little bigger). For me 400m (or 350m) and higher is too big!


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## Hammerstein (Apr 15, 2018)

The_Engineer said:


> I used the size of the London (which I had pegged slightly smaller then he did to get the number of decks for the Liberator. In the end we got to the same size (about the size of the TOS Enterprise) as did the artist(s) for the spaceship comparison charts. Then he doesn't quite state how he worked out to 780 (then down to 700m). To me that doesn't make any sense. He then ends by stating "This is the results I got, it is much larger than I expected. but its is conjecture and could be off by quite a lot."
> 
> My reply to that would be "Yes, you are off by QUITE A LOT!" I'm sticking to - by comparing the size of the London to the Liberator, we get that the Liberator is ballpark 230m-300m long (you might be able to argue a little bigger). For me 400m (or 350m) and higher is too big!



You can have your opinion, but he did not at any point get the size of the Liberator similar to the Enterprise.

The 780m Liberator is what his calculations gave, nothing else.
Looking at his work he is clearly reasonably correct, and the Enterprise size is equaly clearly way too small.

You really should read his work again. You are not remembering it correctly.


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## StarshipClass (Aug 13, 2003)

I'm still trying to figure out which way the thing points when it's flying through space.:freak:


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## Hammerstein (Apr 15, 2018)

PerfesserCoffee said:


> I'm still trying to figure out which way the thing points when it's flying through space.:freak:


If it looks like it's going backwards, then it's pointing the right way.


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## Captain Robert April (Jul 5, 2016)

Ball in back, points in front.


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## whiskeyrat (May 7, 2012)

I think I prefer the Liberator dwarfing the Enterprise... just seems right to me, I have always thought of Liberator being a pretty massive ship. Just seems to fit, I can't really explain why.


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## Hammerstein (Apr 15, 2018)

I did my own calculation based on the screencap, and the assumed 55m length of the London.
This way the Liberator is 550 meters, which I think is quite reasonable.

Feel free to check my calculation.

I also always thought of the Liberator as being Enterprise sized, but that's just because of the massive influence of Star Trek and how similar early Blakes 7 was.


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## SUNGOD (Jan 20, 2006)

aussiemuscle308 said:


> Work in progress of my DSV Liberator.
> I've 3D printed it and started the paint. Not enjoying masking so many little panels so far.
> When i started 3D printing the kit, the parts seemed small (only 10cm or so) but once it's fully assembled, its quite a big model (it's over 40cm long!)
> I decided not to light it, but it would have been fairly straight-forward to do since the 3d mesh is made to allow for lighting.
> ...




Superb job!:smile2:


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## SUNGOD (Jan 20, 2006)

Steve H said:


> Right there is a ship that needs a mass market injection plastic kit made. Add it to the 'grail' list. Not that well known in America (the Blake's 7 fandom was never large but were quite vocal  ) but it's just an interesting and unusual design. That back globe screams for some neat lighting.
> 
> Nicely done! Down and safe, as they used to say




Definitely. There was the Comet kit but I bet there's enough of a fanbase to make a new kit viable.


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## Captain Robert April (Jul 5, 2016)

I still get a chuckle imagining a crossover with TNG, with that Starfleet comm badge looking a little too close to the logo of the badguys (with the added whoopsie of their being called The Federation).

"This is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation starship Enterprise --"

*"FIRE EVERYTHING!!"*


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