VIPER MKII

 One of the greatest redesigns in history the Viper MKII. Gorgeous and functional this workhorse of the colonial fleet is a straight up killer!

 My MK II is done up in Starbucks markings. (The tail numbering is 7242 Nebula Constellation, the bird William Husker Adama flew in the first colonial war.)

One of the striking features of the Vipers, new and old, is their Orange and Red striping. Rather than fumble my way through decaling the ship and having cracked lifting decals I painted the striping on as I did with my classic Viper. This involved a not terrible amount of masking (try painting the aztec paneling pattern on a Refit Enteprise!)

The engine access ports were enhanced with some light piping inserted using small guage copper wires. The areas were then masked off and painted in metallic grays and deepened with washes and some metallic drybrushing.

The cockpit was fabulous right out of the box, I added some wires over the headrest to bring it a little closer to "as seen on screen". It was also painted throughout to match pictures from the big Battlestar prop auction of the shooting cockpit.

The pilot was a challenge in itself, Not wanting to lose any detail of the fine resin cast figure, I painted the metallic green flightsuit in fine, smooth, very light coats. I tested numerous colors out on spare plastic and figures before I settled on the colors for the flightsuit and vest. The suits were then given an overall drybrushing of silver and gold to give them an iridescent look that maintained their small scale.

Finally deatils were picked out in various colors and patches were applied before thefigure was given an overall wash of dark brown and black to deepen the recesses.

 Some More detail of the Cockpit interior.

Weatheirng on the MK II was kept light, you want the ship to look flyable, not dilapidated. Rather than blast marks the ship was given an overall look of wear that is more akin to wear and tear from maintenance than battle. Light dusting of sooty black color and charcoal dust, and lots of tiny paint chipping on high surfaces and panel edges. The red stripes were also chipped away and scuffed with some steel wool to apply wear and tear.

 Like on the MK VII the thruster were drilled out and deepened with black paint and given directional streaking with charcoal dust before being sealed with clear satin. The panel lines and mechanical areas were then washed with black to deepen the recesses.

VIPER MK VII

Another model photo feature!

Today's kit of choice is the Moebius models Mark VII Viper from the new Battlestar Galactica series.

 I built this kit about a year ago and it went together like a dream! One of my favorite craft from the New Series (which isn't saying much because I quite frankly love all of them!)

The real challenge with most of the Moebius Battlestar kits is in the detailing and finishing, as they practically fall together out of the box.

 I decided to mark this one up as Apollo's MK VII since I made my MK II into Starbucks bird. Thus the appropriate nomenclature was chosen from the excellent decal sheet which gives plenty of options for pilots.

The hull color is kind of tricky with this bird. It is somewhere between gray, silver and blue. I think I struck a nice balance by mixing Tamiya Light Blue with a dash of silver and some white. This was sprayed over the pre shaded hull. The next tricky part is in the weathering.

 As seen in the series, the MK VII typically has a chipped and blasted exterior as though the paint has worn off the high surfaces all over the ship. I first went in and deepened the panel lines with a was of black run throughout and I also made sure to spread it out of the panel lines a bit in areas. I then attacked each panel with a brush loaded with silver. Moving in random chipping patterns around the panel edges and in some high spots where wear would likely occur. Once this was dry I then used a fine steel wool to knock back the brushed on acrylics. This flattened them out a bit and brought the chipping effect down to scale.

Once the silver chipping was done another light wash of black tied all the weathering together.

 

The engine cluster was a special case. First a steely color was mixed and airbrushed over the black pre-shaded nozzles. Then they were drybrushed with lighter silver. After all this was dry, I airbushed in light layers Clear yellow, red and blue. This built up filters of color which helps to make the metal look heat treated and worn without just looking dirty, sort of the same effect you see on Mufflers and exhaust pipes.. A light wash of a rusty brown was applied to again top the weathering and tie it all together. 

After all the special weathering was done with paint, I attacked a few areas to make blast marks/contacts. In specific one series of blast marks runs over the ship as though it was strafed from port-fore to starboard aft. These hits are given directional streaks of soot running from their initial silver contact points. It is better not to over do these kinds of things as you want the ship to still look flyable.

The maneuvering thrusters and gun emplacements were also deepened with black paint and given some directional streaking with charcoal powder and a q-tip. This was all finally sealed with clear satin paint before the decals were applied and the model was placed onto it's stand.

All in all a beautiful ship to add to the shelf, and lots of fun to put together!