Moebius Models 1/32 Viper Mk II**final photo update**

Modeling Subjects Science Fiction
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Ok, got one in hand, picked it up from a vendor this Saturday. Nice kit, will be great OOB. Two marking options, who else, Apollo and Starbuck. Fine, Great. Not who I need. Instructions are full color photos of the model going together with parts callouts. Wow, neat! A nice male sized Viper pilot is included as well with a full helmet. Right hand on the control grip, left in the typical Revell on the knee position. The instructions do a decent job giving you directions no how to come up with the highly unusual flight suit color. I’ve seen reproduction suits (high end suits, not the crap Rubies junk) next to a screen used suit that was purchased throgh the PropWorx auctions. I will experiement with painting the suit thermal layer gold first and then shading and highlighting with dark green mixed with clear flat. Maybe thier method works best, Ill experiment to see which is better.

I will be building this for Luciana “Kat” Carro to sign at ConDuLac in a couple of months. So…I may have to come up with my own markings for her name board and registration number. Over at Starship Modeler there is a detail set in PE and a film/acetate and mask set. One set of markings is set aside specifically if you plan to paint your own wing stripes ( I will). What I have not seen is alternate markings for other pilots. The color callouts in the instructions seem OK but I am suspect of the overall gloss white as the base color. Maybe for William Adama’s restored MarkII that Lee flew during the decom ceremony / attack on Caprica, but fleet Vipers by that time had taken on thier own patina. These ships were forty years old by that time and the MK VII’s had replaced them on mainline Battlestars. Kat certainly flew a well used Fleet viper. I may preshade the fueselage as usual and then work some magic on a white base to give it the neeed patina. The hanger deck scenes were filmed dingy and then digitally changed. so its hard to say what color the real studio mockups were. I know pics are out there, I just need to find them. Screen grabs are fine but I work from so many of them its easier to have a studio set shot.

Mount up!

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Check out Ragnar Anchorage for screen caps and other photos.

The flight suits are a metallic foam material, back bronze material I never got but it’s made by the same company, cuffs are a sort of gun metal silver.

There is also the metal ring around the neck with the same gun metal material under it as a neck seal, helmet should be silver with gold details.

Gloves are Ironclad work gloves in lt grey and black with yellow stripe with parts misted in metallic green.

Vest is buff that is weathered, detail panels are black misted in gold, buckles are antique gold.

I was at one time collecting all the actual materials and parts to make a costume so did a lot of research and even saw Starbucks suit on display at SDCC a few years ago. after almost 2 years and $1000 spent with only 1/3 of the parts needed I sold it all off to pay for other things.

Zoic did the CG for the show so some of their stuff should still be easy to find, also all the props and costumes including the full size ships where sold off last year so pix of those should be on line as well.

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Yep, already there!

I was bidding on Cheif Tyrols vest gak until it got too high for me. I could only do a Raptor suit --but as a line guy, I will always wear my orange, debuted it at D*C last year with utility belt and helmet. Getting the helmet together turned out to be a challenge, i used my skills to create the HaG-11 headset from scratch. Nicky Cline signed it for me last month at CoastCon and told me her own stories about the helmet she wore. I tracked down the ironclad gloves localy for my knuckledragger, not eactly the cheapest things but very comfortable compared to my other cotume gloves.

From what you can see of the seated pilot the viewer will get a good look at the helmet and vest. Now, should the helmet be pure silver, or silver green metallic? that looks like a hard color to pin down as it appears to change depending on light. The vest is well represented as is the pistol belt. Feet dissappear under the panel into troughs like the Corair had. The pilot is cast in a hard smooth resin, and is well repreesnted even with the armadillo plating on the back. The clamshell hande looks a bit long but that wil lbe hardto see anyway. Cuffs are present and will be easy to do but the neckseal is not visible. JT Graphics looks to offer patches for the suit with his decal sheet.

The troughs in the cockpit wil lmake it easy to backlight the (clear) Dradis screen. You have enough room to run F/O , but I wouldnt run LED on this due to gaps. Sidewalls…well they have visible sink marks and the part number on them when viewed, so that is a big boo boo on thier part. No detail, so they will get covered with detail. Panel is ok but should have more on it in this scale.

The kit is cast in very thick plastic. Heavy plastic. And it has very long alignment pins on the nose so dont ccut those off. The upper edge of the nose has a long chafe on it to help alignment. The cockpit is literally trapped by four huge pegs and will not shift, but you will need to seal it against light leakage if you do any lighting.

Breakdown is pretty stadnard but how this kit goes together is odd. Not hard, just odd. The wings are solidly locked into place prior to trapping them with the upper engine nacelle halve. But, making a way to have the wings removable and or added last is as easy as snipping of fthe J hook and sliding their mounts in the big slot when done, and the tab slips intoa positive locking channel. Good show!

The fiddly bit comes with the upper engine nacelle. I didnt read the diretions but I looked at the photos and thougtht about it. The whole model is keyed like a puzzle, one part making the next part stronger and locking it into place. You begin at the nose and work to the tail, literaly. So, adding the upper engine insert into the previously glued upper nacelle, knowing that it can only possibly fit one way and lock into the exhaust can, slip that whole engine nacelle assembly with trapped tail on, and then slip on the e-cans to lock it all togheter. Simple, effective and smart!

This will also let me pre-paint and pre weather a lot of this model before I get too far ahead and get something trapped behind something else.

I spent all of fifteen minutes slamming it together here at my work desk. Three rubber bands and one small piece of tape at the top of the upper nacelle. i can wave it around and it will not fall apart due to how it is all locked together (no glue of any kind at this point). Parting lines look good as long as care is taken to line things up, and fall on the ships maintenance panel lines. A touch of Mr. Surfacer wil close those lines up nicely. The only real seams will be the top and bottom nose and engine seams, and the engine parting lateral seams. Plus you wil need to fill the wings but we expect that anyway. Guns look fine, detailing will bring them to life. The side of the nose detail is adequate given what is seen on screen but fine details will always add life.

55 days to get this thing built and marked up in Kat’s markings! on day 56 I will get Lucianna Carro to sign the mounting plaque.

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Thanks for the info on the kit, I have 2 on the way as well as 2 of the 30th Anniv TOS.

Helmet is solid silver with the gold greeblies, the green you see if from the green screen reflecting off it, there are a lot of scenes where you see the reflection on the ship and canopy as well.

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i started doing some roundabout searches and come up with more hits on the helmet in plain light. Man I love behind the scenes and outtake shots.

Its missing the small lights at the lower cheeks of the helmet and the umbilical at the very back where the two heavy wires come togheter but that is easily added.

I found a good aft shot of it in fairly natural light int he Ragnar Anchorage screencaps of when Elosha has the crew assembled on the flight deck for a funeral ceremony. I had forgotten just how much stuff is IN that website!

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Found some pix of the set ship and the Zoic CG version.

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AWESOME pics I had not found yet!

I find it interesting that in this photo we see an open pipe at the front of the avbay inboard of the gun, but in the shot I found over at RA of Cally sitting down during the miniseries ( “I hate this part”) prior to jumping, it has a cover installed. No RBF flag, tho, odd since the rest of the ship is festooned with RBF flags.

Excellent resources, MUCH easier to figure things out than on SW models with fuzzy screenshots and crappy game modeling

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WOW just found this galley of pix of the full size viper that was auctioned off.

I see what you are talking about in the hanger jump scene.

Guess I need to start harvesting images since I have 2 models on the way, may even have to pop in the DVD’s for some screen caps of my own eventually.

Keep in mind that the model is based on the CG version (probably using the files) so there will be many differences from the full sized one.

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Interesting, I just noticed that the full size ship doesn’t have the vector thrust openings.

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no RCS openings and the model has fans at the rear in the black hole area between the exhausts, easy enough to fix.

thanks again for the info!

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This site may be of interest to you since you are doing KAT’s Viper.

Scroll towards the bottom.

Decals from her ship.

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again, Excellent! both for myself and anyone else who will be doing a build of this ship.

I love the way propworx put the real items in the hands of the fans!

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Glad to be of help, my kits should be here Saturday.

The BSG auction was pretty much right after the Trek auction, both selling off everything.

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i rinsed the kit in the sink with the Hannibal about to clear the desk, and I will be ordering my decals for the bird shortly.

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Looking forward to seeing your progress.

I got my models, 2 of each old and new, started working on one of the TOS ships and plan to try and make it look like a studio scale model.

Started working on the rear and removed the ridge on the back of the intakes, also doing some work on the pilot.

Once I actually have something to show I’ll start a thread.

Still need to order the PE for the Mk II’s.

Might want to look into hollowing out the helmet and placing a head in there, and don’t forget the missing greebie that goes on the back of the helmet that has a connector hose to the seat for the EVA pack.

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yep…one glaring thing I see missing is the pair of hoses on the back of the seat, that were actaully gas pipes from a water heater. Easy enough to add and the mounts are there on the seat.

I considered working with the head and helmet…will continue to consider it :slight_smile:

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I won’t believe you are building anything until I see some pics![:)]

Been troopin’ lately?

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Ed

I whammed out the cockpit last night and Im planning to paint tonight, pics on Facebook but Ill try to post them here tonight. Made some small mods to the cockpit overall…but stil limpressed.

Trooping…you BET!

Every weekend, two events this weekend and SWiC in 48 hours!!! :smiley:

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PM sent.

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!(http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b244/ThePlasticFanatic/Scale Modeling Album/MkIIpitc2.jpg)!(http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b244/ThePlasticFanatic/Scale Modeling Album/MkIIpitC.jpg)!(http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b244/ThePlasticFanatic/Scale Modeling Album/MkIIpit.jpg)Alright time for a pic update. I added strip and stock, with generic PE True Detials radio faces. I had no plan to make this 'pit 100% accurate, just improve it and so far this is working. I had to drop the cockpit a bit at the front to get the canopy to close right and made gap fillers at the back where the sidewalls meet. no other big changes just added detail and scraped away stuff that was too generic.

!(http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b244/ThePlasticFanatic/Scale Modeling Album/MkIiPitb.jpg)