Model Mondays: Colonial Viper

For today's Model Mondays, we're going to step back to the 1970's, an era of bad hair and campy sci-fi TV shows, and even some campy sci-fi with actors who had bad hair.  In this case, I am talking about one show that combined both of these qualities: Battlestar Galactica.

I won't go into the whole story of the show--suffice it to say that it was a great idea with (for the most part) decent special effects and a good story, but it got tripped up somewhere in the first season and, well, didn't really go anywhere.  But it left us with some EXCELLENT new sci-fi ships to drool over.  (Battlestar Galactica would be remade in 2003 for the Sci-Fi Channel, and if you haven't watched it, please do so--it is quite possibly one of the best shows ever made. Period.)

So today we will look at my build of the Colonial Viper, which was the fighter craft used by the Colonial fleet throughout the show.  Here's what it looked like on TV:

And here is my version:

The main color for the craft, a light gray, was painted on using an airbrush.  Everything else was done by hand, to include the orange striping.  I used about an entire roll of scotch tape marking the stripes off.  But, I think the outcome was worth it.

I tried a couple of new techniques with this model.  The panel lines were drawn in with a pencil--after putting the paint onto the model they were very difficult to see, so I went over them several times with a drafting pencil.  Also, since the Viper was designed to fly both in space and in atmospheric conditions, I dirtied up the panel edges and the engine sections to show exhaust/oil/fuel stains over the skin of the craft.  This was accomplished mostly with black chalk--I would rub my finger on the chalk, and then smear it down the side of the model in the direction the air would flow if it was in flight.  I also gave the engine parts in the rear of the craft a pretty heavy black wash (a "wash" is accomplished by running thinned-down paint over a model's surface, so it gets into the cracks and crevices and brings out detail--it is also a good technique for simulating stains).  For a little added realism (on a craft that doesn't exist in the real world--I know), I used a hobby knife and sandpaper to chip the paint around the panel lines where the pilot or crew might have to remove the panels to repair the systems underneath.

The model is about 12-14 inches long, from the nose to the tail.  It is in 1/32 scale.

Comments are always welcome--enjoy the pictures!