Colonial Viper Mark One

[Will Vale]

Hi folks,

I just registered after lurking around for a while, and thought I'd share a model I finished a week or so ago before I start the next project. It's the Moebius Viper Mark One - a nice kit to build, there are a couple of things that would make the fit easier but I suspect if I did another I'd be better able to deal with them. (Mainly I think it'd really help to add some blocks to the inside of the fuselage and screw this onto the engine intake piece from the inside).

I used the Paragrafix etch and made seat cushions and belts from putty. I also cut some of the detail off the main gear and built new retract jacks instead.

I've seen some comments about fixing the droopy guns, but from what I can see from the series this was also the case on the original models, so I left them as-is

I used the HS technique for the first time, which I discovered I really like, and masked the stripes (no decals, yay!) which made the painting a lot easier - no need to varnish so I was able to preserve the different gloss levels from the metallic chips and the paintwork.

The paint is more "inspired by" than "accurate" - e.g. I trimmed the stripes short of the edges of the wings, and left off the stripe on the fin leading edge since I don't think it fits so well with the pattern.

I also added lights driven by a little microcontroller board.

I have the Mk. 2 as well which I probably want to weather more accurately (and just more!) than this one since there's a lot more reference available.

Cheers,

Will

 

[duality]

Wow... Those lights are really impressive. The model is beautiful, but those lights are icing.

 

[BenCozine]

Great build, weathering and painting.

The photography is top notch.

 

[dbuck]

Beautiful.

 

[Jun Austria]

Your work is inspiring. Wow.

 

[Sporkey]

Amazing! That model and those light effects are just straight up gorgeous.

 

[Will Vale]

Thanks for the kind words!

I was really surprised at what you can do with the RGB LEDs - they have an integrated controller so you only need one microprocessor pin to drive a string of them. The only problem is the red, green and blue elements are slightly offset so you get a weird rainbow shadow effect. Thankfully not noticeable in photos, but it annoys me in real life.

Cheers,

Will

 

[Strode]

those lights are amazing! Wish i knew how to do even basic electronics :cry

 

[Azrael69]

Beautiful work, Will... And love the illumination

 

[Galactifan]

Very impressive!

 

[Moviekits]

Nice job!!!

 

[stromo]

That's lovely. Great job!

 

[Mike J.]

... I saw this on Fichten Foo, which is why this seemed so familiar

Great job!

 

[Keycube]

What a beautiful piece of work!

 

[division 6]

Totally sweet job.
Love the lighting effects.

 

[Will Vale]

those lights are amazing! Wish i knew how to do even basic electronics :cry

Honestly it's not that hard - when I was at school and it was all analogue you had to do sums and stuff, but with microprocessors most of the fiddly stuff is digital - it's more like Lego as you can just connect bits together. I started with a couple of LEDs and a coin cell in this ship:



and went from there. The Arduino movement means there's a *lot* of information out there, and while it may not all be perfect information on the programming side, it's very focused on getting things up and running and making stuff work.

... I saw this on Fichten Foo, which is why this seemed so familiar

Yeah, I know it's not new exactly but I thought I should post a finished thing before starting a WIP Glad you'd come across it, are you a poster on FFF?

Cheers,

Will

 

[Mike J.]

I lurk on FFF because of the high quality work there (nudge, nudge), but I don't have anything I'm confidant enough to post. I built an MG Ball, and a MG RX-78 OYW, but I didn't paint either of them. I remember that build; that's the Salamis & Magellan, right? You lit the bridge – did you light the Balls? Got any shots of it in the dark?

Don't be afraid to post a WIP here – we might learn something!

I have one of the Fine Molds 1/48 X-wings, and I did the paint chipping using rubber cement, but I'd like to try the hairspray technique. It looks like you got real good, in-scale results.


-MJ

 

[Will Vale]

Boo, everyone should post their stuff You might see flaws, but others won't. E.g. I know that the Salamis has some really nasty gaps in it which I filled with CA behind the bridge, and now that whole area is softened and rounded off by the CA fillets

I didn't light the balls - I guess it would *maybe* be possible with fiber but it'd need something to make it strong enough to pose the airborne one. There's an LED in the engine too:



Sorry, no pics in the dark

The hairspray technique is fun. I used the masking fluid/sponge thing on the stripes (also new to me) and found that much harder to control as you can probably see. I need to have another go with a more visible fluid like Maskol - the W&N stuff I used was almost transparent.

Will

 

[Strode]

Honestly it's not that hard - when I was at school and it was all analogue you had to do sums and stuff, but with microprocessors most of the fiddly stuff is digital - it's more like Lego as you can just connect bits together. I started with a couple of LEDs and a coin cell in this ship:

and went from there. The Arduino movement means there's a *lot* of information out there, and while it may not all be perfect information on the programming side, it's very focused on getting things up and running and making stuff work.


Cheers,

Will

Oh yeah. I'm trying but it's very slow going. I have to learn literally everything from scratch. Got myself a basic electronics kit with a breadboard and everything but i'm yet to devote any time and attention to it. Just reading up on stuff right now. First the basics, then perhaps the 'duino.

cheers

 

[struschie]

Super paintjob and the lights look great to me