I'm building a Mk II Viper as a present for a friend. Hopefully she doesn't stumble across this before it is done. 
Before I get into it, I'm not trying to be series accurate, particularly since the series wasn't consistent anyway. I'll be building it mostly out of the box, but I am making a few modifications. Also, I apologize in advance for the quality of the photos, I just built my first DIY lightbox, and don't yet have the lighting fully worked out or the lens I want for shooting models.
First, I did some mild cockpit mods: added wires at the top of the seat, put in some additional instrument bezels, and so on. I had made more accurate seat cushions out of Apoxie Sculpt, but then decided to go with a pilot, so I cut them out. You can still see the marks on the seat, but they will be hidden, so I'm not going to mess with them.
I also added some additional bezels to the instrument panel just to give it a little more interest.
I picked up a Mk VII because it comes with a female pilot. Of course, she won't slide right in to the Mk II, so I had to remove the positioning pin on her shoulder.
and, of course, the positioning pin on the Mk II's pilot arm.
After assembling the wings, I hit them with some Mr. Surfacer and started sanding to fill the low spots. It's a little difficult to see, but there are some low spots that show up darker after I hit them with some really fine sandpaper One is in the upper left next to the flap, and there is another about the middle of the picture. One trick I learned a while back is to get sandpaper designed for automobile painting. I pick it up at the local parts store, and they have some crazy high grit counts.
I also added a small bit in the greeblie part of the fuselage. It is difficult to distinguish in the photo, but it is a cylindrical part just behind the ribbed part in the left part of the greeblie well (I don't know what else to call that area). There was just a big open area there, and I didn't like the way it looked.
And a closer look
Then I added some piping to the engines using wire from a bread twist-tie.
and another closer look
I also did some filling and sanding on the tail.
Hopefully I can get some more work done on it before I go to DragonCon in a week and a half...
Thanks for looking, if you have any suggestions or resources, I'd appreciate you sharing them!
-Eric
Before I get into it, I'm not trying to be series accurate, particularly since the series wasn't consistent anyway. I'll be building it mostly out of the box, but I am making a few modifications. Also, I apologize in advance for the quality of the photos, I just built my first DIY lightbox, and don't yet have the lighting fully worked out or the lens I want for shooting models.
First, I did some mild cockpit mods: added wires at the top of the seat, put in some additional instrument bezels, and so on. I had made more accurate seat cushions out of Apoxie Sculpt, but then decided to go with a pilot, so I cut them out. You can still see the marks on the seat, but they will be hidden, so I'm not going to mess with them.
I also added some additional bezels to the instrument panel just to give it a little more interest.
I picked up a Mk VII because it comes with a female pilot. Of course, she won't slide right in to the Mk II, so I had to remove the positioning pin on her shoulder.
and, of course, the positioning pin on the Mk II's pilot arm.
After assembling the wings, I hit them with some Mr. Surfacer and started sanding to fill the low spots. It's a little difficult to see, but there are some low spots that show up darker after I hit them with some really fine sandpaper One is in the upper left next to the flap, and there is another about the middle of the picture. One trick I learned a while back is to get sandpaper designed for automobile painting. I pick it up at the local parts store, and they have some crazy high grit counts.
I also added a small bit in the greeblie part of the fuselage. It is difficult to distinguish in the photo, but it is a cylindrical part just behind the ribbed part in the left part of the greeblie well (I don't know what else to call that area). There was just a big open area there, and I didn't like the way it looked.
And a closer look
Then I added some piping to the engines using wire from a bread twist-tie.
and another closer look
I also did some filling and sanding on the tail.
Hopefully I can get some more work done on it before I go to DragonCon in a week and a half...
Thanks for looking, if you have any suggestions or resources, I'd appreciate you sharing them!
-Eric
