Revell Colonial Viper Build-up

[Joseph Osborn]

Nothing to update today-- I worked on casting AH-1S Cobra parts all night

elend, thank you! The details on the jacket are just little blobs of epoxy putty that are flattened, prodded, sliced, and pushed around until they look something like what I see in my reference pictures. I am constantly learning how to manipulate the putty and work it into the shapes I want.

Joolz, my sculpting tools are very basic-- a pointed round wooden toothpick, a stainless steel clay shaper like you find in craft stores, an xacto knife, and my fingertips.

I admit I am very intimidated by sculpting figures. I am in awe of the people who take a wire armature and create ALL the figure from putty. For the past several months I have kept some figure bits on my desk and when I had some left over epoxy putty I'd spend a few minutes playing around and experimenting. I believe that you have to try and fail at something a few times before you really learn how to do it. My wife is not a fan of this philosphy, however

Thanks again for all the replies-- have a great weekend, everybody!
Joseph

 

[Grumpy Popeye]

Wow Joseph!

Your Atlantia viper is beautiful, and the work you are doing now is unbeleivable! I love the sculpt of your pilot! I'm going to enjoy watching your progress! Keep up the great work!

By the way, love the old school "the chopper"!

 

[ScreamingSamuraiStudio]

Simply, WOW

You know..the novice in me would have accepted the helmet the way it was. But I totally understand your methods.
And I'm gonna pretty much agree with all of the other jaws that hit the ground when I saw your figure. I think it's some pretty amazing work that you're doing and does nothing but inspire me to learn more about the process.
Keep it up, can't wait to see this one finished up and ready to go.

 

[morethandanorm]

Awsome idea with lighting the helmet! My viper won't have anything on yours! Can't wait to see it completed.

 

[Ferris928]

Lighing the helmet...wow! Can't wait to see it completed.

 

[Joseph Osborn]

Thanks very much for the positive feedback-- I appreciate it very much! The build has stalled the last few days due to other work that needed to be done and I'm off to a wedding a couple of states over this weekend, so there won't be anything new until next week. I did manage to cast a test head in clear epoxy and all I need now is a moderately-bright white 3mm LED to see if I can embed the light inside the head and block out everything but the two thin light strips.

Cheers,
Joseph

 

[Joseph Osborn]

I'm back from my trip and back to work, too.

Here's the clear test head cast:

The only 3mm LED I had to test with was a yellow. I masked off the light strips and painted the head with chrome silver first, then flat black. I added some flesh to the face for reference. I wanted the LED to go up into the head from the neck, but there was too little light coming back to the lower "jaw" light. These pics are of the LED coming into the back of the helmet, straight at the face. The result is okay, I guess. Definitely need to tighten up the masking on the light strips. A brighter white LED will make a lot of difference, too. My female head/helmet piece is quite a bit different from this kit piece, though, and I am not so sure I can get the light blocked without obscuring the facial detail. Not sure what to do about the helmet light-- all I know is that it will hold up the progress of the model.

Joseph

 

[Shark]

is the bulb to big to go in from the bottom and sit flush inside the head? This way the only thing you need to do is make a channel for the leads. And are you saying that you dont think painitng the other head the same wont block the light? The one you have looks like it's working great. I'm thinking what got going is the way to go. Mask off the light bars paint the head silver then black and then paint the face over the black. I'm really liking your build, keep us informed.

 

[elend]

Wow, that looks quite great already. This will be a marvellous build!

 

[the Baron]

Wow, Joseph, fantastic job! Not only sculpting your own pilot, which is already a great job, but then, lighting the helmet! This really touches my heart, on so many levels! I much prefer the original series, dated though it may be, just can't get into the new one (for one thing, Cylons are supposed to be shiny robots with harmonizer voices. And Baltar should be clearly evil, not some kind of ambiguous anithero. John Colicos just dripped evil. I'm sorry, that's just the way it is!). And I built the original Viper and Cylon raider, back in the day, with their operating torpedos, and the small scale Galactica.

You're doing a really great job, and I'm getting some good tips as you go.

Fantastic, really fantastic!

Regards,
Brad

 

[Joseph Osborn]

Well, the lighted helmet is going to go into the dustbin for this build; maybe I'll re-visit the concept for my next Viper. I need to get this thing moving along so that I can give it to my friend before the end of summer

 

[Backbreaker]

I understand, but don't let this concept go .
Joolz ;D

 

[Joseph Osborn]

Here's a bit of an update; I've been working on two different 1/32 scale models at the same time and I'm running out of space on my desk. I've finished the scribing on the wing & engine package:

That's the best "FSM in-process photo technique" imitation I could come up with. You see the Dymo tape used as the scribing guide and the little scribing tool from Micro-Mark or Squadron or Bare-Metal (can't remember exactly where I got it). This tool works okay, but leaves a lot of ragged edges that have to be sanded and cleaned. One of these days I'll get one of those micro-chisel tools from Mission Models.
I added the little latches back on the access panels:

I also screwed up a little on the access panel scribing; I meant to refer to some pics of the studio model BEFORE I started scribing to see if there was any differences I needed to address, but I ended up just rescribing the lines that were on the kit. Of course, the studio model had some different lines. The engine & wing package is glued together now, and I have to get the cockpit done and mounted into the fuselage tube, then I can scribe that subassembly.

Thanks for lookin'
Joseph

 

[elend]

One of these days I'll get one of those micro-chisel tools from Mission Models.

You think that'll work better? I am curious, because I had to scribe quite some lines on my scratchbuilding project as well. And I am not happy with the way they turned out and the amount of work it is. I also had some of those ragged edged and had to sand them down quite a bit, only to discover, that they are still not perfect. :-[

Anyway. Great work on your kit. Too bad the lit helmet idea has to wait for another Viper. But I think the birthday of your mate is much more important! Keep up the good work!

 

[Joseph Osborn]

I had a little time after church this afternoon so I worked on the engine lights.

Here are the three superbright LED's. I harvested the flicker circuits from the tealights and removed the amber LED from each one, and added the white LED. I still have to add a resister once I calculate the proper values for the circuit.

These are the assembled "burner cans" that hold the LED's in the engine section. The original lights in the studio models were high-intensity halogens that sat in a brass tube tohelp protect the model from heat. The particular LED's I'm using don't give off the same color light as a halogen, but it's darn bright and that's close enough for me. I painted the insides of the rearmost portion of the cans with Testors Metalizer Brass. It's too dark compared to the brass metal on a studio model, but will look okay with the rest of the build.

Here's one of the cans inserted into the engine space:

For the cockpit, I've decided to print a new main display screen on overhead transparency stock with my inkjet printer. Only problem is I ran out of one ink color and the printer refused to print in color until I get a new cartridge. If it hadn't been for that, I probably would have gotten the cockpit done this weekend (yeah, right). To light the main display, I'm gonna build a box out of sheet styrene behind the panel and stick a low-intensity white LED to light the display and the few fiber optics I'll use. Come to think of it, I could probably use a green LED with the main screen and drive the fibers with a separate LED. It might even look better with a green LED instead of a translucent green screen...

Cheers,
Joseph

p.s. elend, those Mission scribers are like $40 once you buy the chisel handle and the scribing bits-- maybe you could get one and try it out (ha ha) before I spend the money

 

[Joseph Osborn]

I have the cockpit almost 100% done now. Here is a pic of the red side lights:

Here's the main display screen:

This was drawn in CorelDraw and printed on overhead transparency film with an HP inkjet.

I also decided to replace the laser cannons:

This is the work-in-process cannon. I will make a mold of it so that I can copy it to use on this model and other models in the future.

I'm really jonesing to get the fuselage closed up and start the painting!

Thanks for looking,
Joseph

 

[Backbreaker]

Beautiful

 

[elend]

Wow that lit up cockpit is truly amazing. I love that target computer screen there. Incredible work on the cannons as well! How did you do that corrugated stuff on the tips of the cannons?

 

[Chas]

Wow, the cockpit = awesome. The screen looks so good, that is such fine detail, impressive stuff.

Your work with LED is amazing.

 

[Shark]

I'm with Youch, that screen is awesome. Great work on the laser also.