Colonial Viper MkI

[Splashcoat]

Here's a W.I.P. look at my build of Moebius' 1/32 Colonial Viper MK1:


Box art:


Stock Cockpit:


I removed the molded detail from the cockpit tub and re-faced it with ParaGrafix's photoetched set:




I opted not to use the pilot figure; so I made some cushions out of styrene to dress-up the pilot's seat:



My initial inspection of the kit revealed that the manufacturer's mark on the side of the fuselage is going to have to go:


The kit features a clear insert for the engine exhausts. I'm not going to light the kit so this will be painted:


Engine assembly - Moebius has engineered a fanstastic alignment/locking tab system into this part of the kit:


I covered the stand attachment slot with a length of styrene channel:

 

[Chrisisall]

No pilot? C.O.R.A. then?

 

[Splashcoat]

No pilot? C.O.R.A. then?

Maybe next time; when I build the "Long Range" Viper variant

 

[Chrisisall]

Got it.:cool

 

[Splashcoat]

This kit's construction is very straightforward and no modification is required apart from the cockpit. So now on to the fun part... paint!
The kit is very well engineered and can be built and painted in sub-assemblies. Starting at the front; the nose intake cone is a darker grey than the rest of the fuselage so it will be painted separately. After painting the intake grille a dark metallic colour, it was masked off with tape using a molded line on the back of the part as a template for the mask. The recessed line is exactly the same size and shape as the grille and makes a pefect guide to cut the mask - coincidence?



I pre-painted the intake fans and masked them off prior to installation in the inatke scoops. The fit is very tight - they practically snap in, so you can get away with doing it this way.



Sub-assemblies masked and primed:

 

[Splashcoat]

I'm not going to use the kit decals for the red and grey stripes; rather, I'm going to paint the markings. I'm going to keep the grey primer for the stripe around the engine intakes, I masked this off prior to painting the main body colour.

 

[Splashcoat]

Sub assemblies pre-shaded:


Sub assemblies painted:

 

[Fireball Joe]

Your paint job looks really great! I'm on the fence about getting one (or more) of these Moebius kits since I still have a couple of the Revell kits in the box.

 

[Splashcoat]

Go for it, Fireball Joe. This really is a fantastic kit - the fact that it's much more accurately detailed than the Revell kit sold me. Plus, it includes landing gear. I'm going to cast copies of the gear to use on my old Revell kits before I install them on this bird.

I'm skipping the decals and painting on the Go Faster Stripes with a custom mix of Tamiya Red and Orange. First... a great deal of masking:



- - - Updated - - -

Looks faster already:

 

[Chrisisall]

Nicely moving along. Don't forget to do radical weathering at some point!:lol

 

[Splashcoat]

Thanks, Chrisisall. I'm not planning on weathering this one too radically. I'm shooting for something resembling the full-sized filming mock up which had an all over grimy appearance, but wasn't quite as weatherd as the miniatures.

After I test fitted the sub assemblies, I noticed that the two wing wing mounted cannon were aiming slightly lower than horizontal. It's particulary notciable since the cannon are directly in front of the two open access bays which perfectly follow the horzontal plane of the fuselage. The wings are slightly warped, so softened them with a heat gun and coaxed them up a bit. This wasn't quite enough, so I carefully broke the glue line where the top of the fuselage meets the front of the intake section and added a styrene shim to push the nose down a little. This straightened everything out and the shim will be hidden by the rear section of the canopy.

 

[Chrisisall]

Yes, this seems to be a problem everyone faces with this kit. Not a big deal though.

 

[Splashcoat]

True, Chrisisall, I've noticed this problem pop up with almost every Moebius Viper I've seen. I don't know if it's the wings or the fuselage/intake joint that's the root of the problem. At least it's an easy fix.

The secondary weathering stage - After painting in the engine plumbing and other details, I applied various colours of pigment powder and sealed that down with a layer of Future. I added a few drops of gloss white acrylic paint to the gloss coat to lighten up the overall look of the paint finish and to tone down the bright red/orange stripes a bit.

 

[Splashcoat]

Well, it's 99.9% finished. I haven't installed the landing gear and landing gear doors yet, I'm going to cast copies of those to use on my old Revell/Monogram Viper kits. In the meantime, here are a few test shots of the (almost) finshed product. The weathering was finished off with burnt sienna, black, and grey washes sealed in with a couple of coats of Liquitex matte varnish. I added a couple of drops of white acrylic paint to the matte coat as well to lighten the finish even further.

 

[Chrisisall]

You fully captured the full-size mock up look! Well done!

 

[Splashcoat]

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[Splashcoat]

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[gunnerk19]

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Says "Invalid Attachment specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator" when I click on those attachments.

 

[Splashcoat]

Hrumph! Let's try that again...

 

[Chrisisall]

Ahhhh, that's nice!