Moeabius - Viper mk2

Thanks robiwon


Some final details of construction are worked :
- Take care of the seams : engine hood, plate covers, belly ...
- For the air intake behind the cockpit, it had to take off the tabs, put a wedge below, glue back together and fill the seam (with two-component modeling glue and putty). After a good sanding, lines are engraved.






- For the wings, there was a gap of a good millimeter in some place (that I had not took car about during gluing, as I was focused to not brake the optical fibers).




It is filled again to two-component modeling glue, and after with thinner putty to fill the last defects.






- Fill a sink marks on the cheeks of air inlets
before



after




Returning to the cockpit for:
- Prepare the canopy and glue the panel behind the seat (which I had purposely left out so as not to damage during sanding the cabin



- The canopy does not lay properly because the dashboard is a little high, it was therefore necessary to sand it a little
before





After



 
very nice work, again. :)

Getting the canopy to sit flush was a pain. I did the same and filed down the top of the dash as well.

 
Fantastic job so far! And thanks for photographing the whole process. It explains the lighting installation much better.
 
Thanks Robiwon.

You're welcome Oriontide.
Hope this WIP will be of some help :)

----------------------

The inner side walls of the cockpit does fit properly to the cabin near the headrest. They are glued with the help of tweezers.





The slice is not pretty with 2 layers, so they are covered with a thin strip of Plastic, then painted.






There will be later some decals to apply here (before the final bonding of the canopy).




On the wing, the broken navigation light is repaired with a bit of fiber optic shaping and glued with the model glue. It was a test, and to my surprise, after a night of drying, this works !




Two holes in the front of the cockpit are partly visible when the canopy is installed. Since they do not correspond to any pin, they are filled with plastic bits.






----


I got a upgrade kit from a friend (thank you Marc) that includes a more detail bottom back panel, and 2 photoetched ejector handles.
The resin parts are nice and very well casted, and the photoetched ejector handles are superb.
In my opinion, it will be better to switch the two resin pipes to some metal rods so they do not inadvertently break.




The ejection photoetched handles are quickly installed. they are bent a little to allow a tight fit on the curve of the cabin.






I thought I would not use the resin plate on this assembly, as I feared it breaks with the handling of the nozzles parts (which will remain removable).
But after starting masking the nozzles, the black paint started to come off (it seems I forget to wash this part, and some releasing agent is still there)




So as I have the strip the paint, an idea came to me to install the detailed resin part white the rigidity of the nozzles part.

The paint stripped off.




The original part is hollowed.




Then sanded along the edges to reduce the thickness. To avoid to too much sand the frame, I also sanded the back of the resin part along the sides.





The part is a little too long, so I had to sand about 1 mm at the top and bottom, taking care that the holes for the pipes are still usable.







And with metal rods




The bonding is reinforced from behind with a heavy dose of cyano charged with resin dust. This makes a big block, ugly but super tough.
And like that requires a good dose of cyano, ca heater for a few seconds during the taking!




This is installed. The operation took just over one hour (without paint stripping).

 
Thanks Splat

I moved on the painting of this bird.

First, a layer of primer (Tamiya spray can)



Black preshading



And base in tamiya flat white
I had a bit too pressed here and there, so I had to redo the preshading here and there with a mixture of white and sky gray





I apply a light coat of Klir over the white to protect it from the next manipulations (masking tapes).



The stripes are in flat red, darkened with few drops of black.



As I have a bit too much diluted the paint, and it gave me some white rings.



So I applied Klir again, and they disappeared.











All the cabin is also protected with Klir.


 
The upper engine is isolated from the cabin with a single sheet of paper, technical openings are masked, and a glossy black is applied.




Then a coat of Alclad steel.









The engines then received Alclad jet exhaust.
A burnt metal effect is done with pale burnt Alclad.
The guns are also painted steel, and shaded with jet exhaust.




The guns were a bit dark and will be lighted with Alclad aluminum (no picture)
 
Thanks a lot jake88

------

Now, it is time to apply the decals.
They are very fragile, some have broken just in the handling !

Yellow roundels decals provided for the "I paint myself my red strips" choice can not be seen once applied !
It is therefore necessary to get those included in the complete red stripes decals.
Obviously, the red color is not the same. Too bad, I hope that playing with the weathering will reduce the difference.





The decals are then protected with a new coat of Klir/Future

I forgot to work the opened technical areas. Pipes and panels are painted in copper and silver.
And verniers are aluminum.







Klir/Future again, then black juice in panel lines and recessed areas.

 
Before the weathering, I applied a layer of satin varnish.



Paint chips are made with an old Pale Prey miniature paint (which have a beige tint).
It is a water-based paint, which can be corrected, or removed easily (that is not possible with Gunze, Tamiya or Lifecolor paints).







A new coat of satin varnish to protect them, then dirt and streaks are made of with a medium gray oil paint. Over the white, it looks dark, almost black.



Then a final layer of satin varnish.




The canopy is masked.



It then received a thin coat of primer, followed by black to give texture.



Then it is covered with Alclad stainless steel



Then dirtied with dark gray.



I had to use some wax polish here and there to remove some alclad stains, who had managed to go under the tapes (which can be seen in the previous picture).

The navigation lights are finished, with sanding of the optical fiber bits.



Then the base is painted Steel.

 
Viper pilots spacesuits are in a quite a special texture, with a green iridescent metallic sheen.

Rather than paint them in metallic and shade the folds with plain color, I did the opposite:
- base of tamiya xf73 dark green



- folds are in a darker green (an old Lifecolor)





- then a veil of alclad pale gold (with the airbrush)
I think it does the trick nicely.




The pilot is then finished conventionally with brush paint.
AI applied some little orange yellow the the face border for Starbuck/Kara blond hairs.






Once in the cockpit, the joystick is lying on nothing, so it had to be completed (although it will not be accurate).




A first try with the joystick from kit, not convincing.



So I simply used an evergren rod.



And once painted, it does the trick.




I still had to improve one last detail, the antennas on the wingtips. I used thin metal rods and small pieces for a tiny spring, glued together with white glue.





The support is made of an aluminum tube, a plate and a cleat. The male connector in which the Viper will plug is installed at the end of the tube, and the wires are runnning to a socket on the rear edge of the base.





Final assembly :
nozzles don't need glue, as they hold as is.
By cons, MicroScale repositionable glue is used for the guns, the pilot and the canopy.

 
Amazing work. I cannot wait to start mine. I really hope it turns out as good. I am doing mine maybe at the entrance to the launch tube from the mini series.
 
Thanks a lot for your comments.



And here is a Viper ready to go on a mission to knock out the Cylons.

in the daylight














In front of a dark background, with artificial lights.









 
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