Gene's Viper-in-a-month - NEW Photos on page 14 !!!

[GKvfx]

I don't know, maybe I'm a masochist. Let's take a relatively simple project and somehow complicate it. Take the Original BSG Viper, for instance. We've got the newly tooled Monogram kit and we have Salzo's nifty Studio Scale version that looks like it will fall together in about a weekend. Rather than go that route, I'm pulling out a casting off the original hero filming miniature (the one with the lights and jets) and trying to restore that. You'd think that a casting off of the original would be a breeze to build - but it's more complicated than I initially thought. Imagine having to clean up 30 years worth of glue buildup that was molded with the model. Not to mention that the originals themselves have their own idiosyncrasies - like slight warpage, an asymmetrical fuselage, and soft details as a result of the crummy foam/resin used back in 1977.

Then give yourself a deadline of less than a month to get the thing done.

Since we're having a screening of the Original BSG series' movies here in Los Angeles next month, I decided to throw together a display of models, posters, props, and artwork that I, Otist, and Carson Dyle have accumulated over the years for the lobby of the theater (More info about the screening in this thread - http://www.resinilluminati.com/showthread.php?t=6613). I had organized one of these for the 25th Anniversary and had Jim Key's Viper and Cylon Raider on display. Since then I got this other Viper casting (which is noticeably bigger than Jim's), but I hadn't really started it.

So, it's something of a race, I guess. I guess it's also time for me to take my own advice - shut up and build the damn model.

This photo gives you an idea of the size difference between the Jim Key version sold years ago (the ones from MIM and other dealers are all about the same size) and a first generation casting off of the real thing -


While it's nice that it's the same size and not a re-imagined version (like I was doing with the Jim Key casting), the casting itself still had lots of problems.

I spent a lot of time picking out little bubbles of resin from the grills and corners -


Though the casting is hollow (to allow for an armature), it is not rotocast or pressure cast (Guys like REL, Timeslip, and Salzo really have spoiled us.......), and there are the usual bubbles. Since this is cast off of an original, the soft detail of the material used then transfers over to the casting. Also, all the glue smears that were on the original are also on the casting. I shaved off some of the detail - the most offensive being the little bits of Plastruct channel that are on the engine and the T-34 muffler exhausts -




Anything you see here that isn't tan is a replacement - either a kit part, a piece of Plastruct, or a piece of styrene -


The BIG ding you see in the above photo on the afterburner can (well, that's what I call them) was my own stupid fault. I dropped the damn thing in our parking lot and chipped a chunk out the back. I picked up the parts, but a large chunk had turned to dust. To fix it, I backed the opening with some styrene and globbed in some Bondo -




I found that using a fine toothed X-acto saw blade really helped with cleaning out the panels lines. It seemed to make them crisper than with an X-acto blade. And there were less errant scratches with the saw blade.

One other note - see the pattern of the little squares of styrene that look like latches on the engine panels? See how one of them has four and the other one has three? I think it looks a little weird, but apparently, the original was done that way too. Because I wanted a cleaned up Viper and not a completely idealized Viper, I decided to keep them that way. I'm also keeping some of the weird panel lines of the Viper the same. Some lines meet up, but some cross each other, and others just stop.

It was a long weekend, full of resin dust and cursing, and gluing myself to the model (Charles Adams was on the phone at the time, he can attest to the cursing....) and cursing - but I managed to get the body into a place where I am satisfied with it. It's not as perfect as Salzo's Viper (which is gorgeous), but it will work.

This morning, I primed the body with this new self etching automotive primer that I got over the weekend. I have had plenty of problems painting this kind of resin in the past, even with a thorough cleaning, so I'm hoping this stuff sticks -




More later.....

Gene