Moebius Colonial Viper Mk 2 WiP

Moebius kit 

Photoetch from Paragrafix 

To back-light the cockpit ... 

... everything must be opened. 

Now the photoetch. 

The resin pilot 

First primer 

Primer for the pilot 

Black basing 

Some middle grey 

Details in Black grey  

Details in Black grey  

Weathering with oils 

Instrument screens installed 

Instrument screens installed 

Instrument screens installed 

The pilot received some love, too ... 

I used 0603 and 0402 LEDs 

First light test 

Need to think about light insulation ... 

First light insulation 

Little lights an switches were done with fiber optics. 

Some ugly ejector pin marks in the cockit sidewalls 

Thats the look I'm after! 

Second bundle of fiber optics - this time blinking 

More light insulation 

Closed the gear bay doors for in-flight position 

Too much plastic for illumination 

That's better 

After installing the Paragrafix screens painting is cumbersome - so I base-painted everything beforehand. 

Screens installed. Added light shielding to prevent the nozzle plastic from glowing. 

The brain of the illumination: A little circuit board by Helios Models & Lighting. It gives me flickering engine lights and various blinking sequences for the cockpit and position lights. 

For the engines I use flashlight LEDs. Beware: they get very hot without cooling, so operate them only in the lower range! 

Light insulation 

Cockpit tub installed 

The cables were bundled with little PS bits 

Clused up the fuselage 

Engine LEDs installed with light insulation/reflector material 

To keep the Viper in flight I installed a brass tube which will also route the cables into the base containing the electronics. 

Engines installed! 

One ugly gap had to be treated with the nuclear option for gap filling - Milliput. 

A little black basing in the engine area 

And ready for paint! 

For this model I'm trying black basing for the first time. I did some testing beforehand ... 

I didn't have Mr. Surfacer 1500 at the time, so this is still classic priming. 

I really like the Paragrafix photoetch, but here it's just ... urgs. 

Out comes the wire! 

Better. 

Black based! Like Knight Rider ... 

Covered the engine for a different color. 

The marble coat 

Blending it in with the blend coat, here Gunze C69 

A detail shot showing the subtle variation of the color. 

Did a lot of testing for the red stripes. You can use the decal, but I wanted to chip them, so hairspray an paining it is. 

The best way to get shape correct is to copy and print the decal and use it as a template. 

That's a loooot of masking ... 

To reduce the chipping contrast I pre-painted the stripes with tan. Then I applied the hairspray. 

Now we're getting somewhere! 

Chipping in progress 

Time for decals 

For the open pits I used RLM66 a base color. 

For the weathering part I'll be using OPR techniques described by Mike Rinaldi. 

OPR in progress 

Now for the details. The position lights were made from acryl glass. 

The antenna is a needle. 

Metallic tubing on the seat 

The cannons got muzzles made of syringe tubing. 

Apart from the lighting module every LED gets its own poti to trim the individual lighting levels. Additionally, every group (cockpit, position lights, ...) got an extra poti to tune the lighting levels as a whole. 

The base is an aluminum casing. 

Every fine wire gets a plug. 

Quite busy in the base!