NELL - SHAD’S SPACESHIP - from the 1979 sci film film ‘BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS’ prpduced 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 disttinct spaceships represenating the rag tag group of mencarnaries enlisted to protect the peaceful planet Akir. Richard (John Boy Walton) plays Shad a native of Akir who goes in search of ‘gun-fighters’. His spaceship has an AI called ‘Nell’, and it the most memorable ship, with its sleek organic dsign.

The spacecraft were all deisgned by James Carmeron - yes that 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 is indicated allthough I think the ship is approximately 150 feet long, so in 1/44th scale would be approx 12” / 30cm. Garage kits have since been made, but I would have bought a model kit of this immediately after leaving the cinema had one been available!

Designed by James Cameron

Visual Effects by Dennis Skotak Robert Skotak