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!