Sometimes your imagination is just not enough. When Karl Kuhlenschmidt was eight years old, he dreamed of piloting the incredible spaceships seen on the hit 1978 TV show Battlestar Galactica. Four decades later, the Texas resident spends his spare time as a builder for Battlestar Raven, a fan group dedicated to the Seventies sci-fi classic.

"Being a little kid, all we wanted was to have a Viper," Kuhlenschmidt told KHOU news in Houston. "We played Cylons and Colonial Warriors on the playground."

The Viper, of course, was the awesome fighter craft piloted by heroes like Starbuck. If it was reminiscent of a Star Wars ship, it was for good reason. Ralph McQuarrie is an icon amongst Star Wars fans, as his fantastic concept art envisioned Darth Vader, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C-3PO. After working on Star Wars, the visual artist boarded the Battlestar pre-production team. McQuarrie whipped up designs of the Galactica ship, the Viper, the Cylon Raider and Basestar. (Check out some of his gorgeous art for the show.)

Unfortunately, there were no official blueprints created for the Viper ships. Kuhlenschmidt relied on drawings, sketches and photographs to create his very own lifesize Viper. He has parked it in the driveway of his Conroe, Texas, home. You can see Kuhlenschmidt's work compared to the original above.

The cockpit made its debut at a comic book convention in 2017. A week ago, the full body made its debut in front of his house. He hopes to present the finished product at Comicpalooza 2018, in Houston. Take a look: