Kitbash Viper N°8 from a FA-18 super Hornet 1/72

[YOULI]

This time I will show you the entire process of making a Kitbash from a modern airplane.

The (almost) final result is this.



But I started with this.






Let me write some commentaries with my pictures and you'll know all about this Viper n°8.

 

[Ravhin]

Oh I can't wait for this. Your work is top notch and your patience to share it, is worthy of praise

 

[ModelMakerMike]

That one looks really kewl!!!
I remember back around 1992 I had bought up a bunch of jet fighter model kits. I was going to scratch-build spaceships from my own gaming sci-fi Universe, but never got around to it, and had accumulated so much stuff, that I thought it would be better to liquidate them, so I sold them ALL on ebay! But some folks got REALLY good deals.
How many of these scratched Vipers have you made?, and have you finished any of them yet?

 

[YOULI]

There's about 14 kitbash Vipers with 3 or 4 of them really done (one just need to get decals). The rest is "in progress". The fault to me when I wanted to exhibit some "work in progress". Packed, I, then, never really had the courage to go for it and resume my buildings.

But I learned a lot and built a Heavy Raider Cylon, a Battlestar, two Star Destroyer, one really BIG, several Gundam customs, and a lot of scratches (my famous Wraith dart).

Most of them presented in my first post here I think.
http://www.scalemodeladdict.com/index.php/topic,4389.msg62423.html#msg62423
I'm always painting and building something. Just painted a Songoku for example, right now...

Edit : I checked and actually never posted my very first kitbashes... This will be solved in time, I hope you'll like my first attempts to build new, original, designs from existing planes.

 

[YOULI]

Some teasing pictures for future posts...



Viper n°1 : done from a F-5 E 1/72 Heller...



Viper n°2 : Done with a V.I.N.cent leg (Black hole), the back of an F-4, F-105 wings and even gundam kits...



Viper n°3 : done with some old Rafale kit, 1/48, not done but fairly and mainly built. This one need a serious re-arranging make up since it, and several others kits, were broken during some transport...



Viper n°4 : Done with left-overs from a real Galactiva Viper (thrusters part), a Rafale, a Zeta Gundam and... a warp engine from the Enterprise.




Viper n°5 : too many sources, can't actually tell you how many kit parts has been used here. Hasegawa Valkyries wings, F-15, 1/144 Tallgeese, car engine, Su-27 1/144 wings, Zeta Gundam gears and so on... The result was surprisingly appealing to me...



Viper N°9 : From a Super Etendard, 1/72, the kit is gorgious but I cut it anyway...





Leukirix Viper : named after the name of the friend who gave it to me, this kitbash needed to be completed, I transformed it with Mosquita 1/48 plane parts...

 

[YOULI]

OK let's go for some explanations.
You cut width and then lengthwise.
As you can see this way I've got some parts for the engine area and parts for the long nose.



And now we move ahead, with the good spirit of using only the kit parts of this model. The cockpit is the original, so the canopy will have no problem to adapt to this "new" design. The different parts are placed and glued almost immediatly since I got a "plan" in my head. No hesitation, only action. Even now I can't explain how I did that.
Obviously I cut more parts, the two halves of the back of the FA-18 end up aroud the cockpit, the air enty the base of the engine area, the gears panels, for the nose and the engines, and so on... For the bottom, the original nose, the tanks and bombs... A puzzle per say !



Let's this dry.
I put some putty in the gaps too... Mostly on the nose, the cockpit edges, between the engines and the wings.



You may note that all this building part was done in ONE night.
Next phase some detailing with parts that didn't go with the FA-18, mainly the thrusters some pipes and wires.

 

[YOULI]

Next day I added a lot of details.
For the pipes some Gundam Sprues (from a 1/144 FG Aegis Gundam I think).

The very next day, some valiant kit parts helped me to finish this new kitbash.



Once the putty dried, I sanded and observe that, once and for all, the Mr surfacer will never be as satisfying than the White Tamiya putty.



I glued some sprues parts, sometimes blended, to fill the gaps, the lines and avoid as much as I can to use putty. Same thing for the Viper n°4...

I used for the engine some part that can be taken from a Warhammer kit... Really don't know. I added the thrusters from the FA-18, piercing the back of it. That's for the left and right thrusters. The main engine will be the hood from an old race car and a F-14 thruster.
Since it's too obvious that the part is a bottle cap, I added a derive, actually a missile attachement, taken from the FA-18.



Some kit partes here and there, windows from railway model building, little wings, cable for in flight refueling, completed the back part...



All this has been painted black...

 

[YOULI]

Some putty for the bottom...



As I said I painted all black, it's just a primer color of course. It's with Games Workshop Black chaos Primer spraycan. It's fine, it's perfect. The parts are OK, in harmony in this new form.



I painted then in blue, with Revell acrylic colors I was experimenting. It's not subtile, but I have no guts for Spraygun, it's all but stress and disappointement.
I like this Duck egg blue color. It goes well, with a simple brush. Same thing for the Dark aluminium for the engines, kinda drybrush with Prince August colors.



Sanding the putty it happen that i scratch some paint and like the result. So I continued.



And then I continued detailing, finding some inspiration with the original gears of the FA-18 (wheels), some bomb and tornado 1/72 thrusters cut in half for the air entry.

 

[Grendels]

I love looking at your work in progress videos.

 

[YOULI]

Haha !

A friend of mine said the same thing. The problem is that I don't have the place to do anything on video. I don't like my voice (it would be in french, I don't want to even imagine what it could be with my french accent in english, hahahahahaha !), filming me would imply to listen to it, on a regular basis...

Plus I would need a good internet connexion, that I don't have for the moment.
But, let's say that in 2013 it could be different. I may have to move in a house, a lot of place, even a BIG workbench, something that could support a camera and a tripod. If I can manage to subtitle this would it be ok ? Or with audio commentaries, so I can record as much time I want some things ?

Let's be open to options...

 

[Grendels]

Sorry I meant photos. Can you tell I have not had much sleep this last few weeks? But videos would be nice as well!

 

[YOULI]

Yep, but that's worth it, isn't it ? A beautiful new house, a lot of space for family and thunderpaws... A new workbench... You're doing well, I'm happy for you, your wife and Bibi !

Guess what ? I'll try it. I just have to check what I can do with my webcam in my MacBook and my New PC Laptop, OK ?
I don't have my tripod, just a little one, but I'll try to do something with my SOny Cybershot too... This would be about my resuming building of the Viper Mirage, okay ? Let's pray that the cats that goes with the house i'm gardienning leave me alone a couple of minutes.

(and thanks for the compliment )

 

[Grendels]

Yes it is worth it. I just can't wait until Christmas when we have everything we want done with the house completed.

The cats, Thunderpaws, Tomodachi, and K.C. love this house. Lots of room for them. This weekend Bibi will get a swing set which will make a happy kid in the back yard.

I look forward to the video.

 

[YOULI]

3 cats ? Thunderpaws appear sometimes in the videos, that's why I thought about him.

Maybe Pileou, that I nicknamed pouillou (pew-you) one of the cat I'm responsible for this 4 next weeks, will show of in my video ?
I just prepared my workbench and a big light to compensate, to work and to record on video It's kind of difficult but I wil try it.

The Viper Mirage is ready to be fixed and to resume its building.

 

[Grendels]

Yep three, Thunderpaws is the youngest and the most outgoing, the other two don't show up much.

Looking forward to the video.