Assembled & puttied up

9/17/09 - And a coat of white paint...

9/18 - And another coat.

4/3/2010 - And... well, what to do with this now that Moebius has released the subject in 1/32 styrene. I think this will turn into part of a diorama involving Husker and the phrase, "rusting out on Airilon."

4/8/2010 - I mixed Euro Gray and Gunmetal about 1:2 and hand-painted the engines, guns, and other detail areas. That portside gun keeps wanting to fall off. Tyrol!!!

5/25/2010 - Or maybe that phrase will be "If the Commander will check the tail number..." Seems a shame to mess up a pretty paintjob, plus a resin kit doesn't really lend itself well to becoming a rusted out derelict. More hand-paint work's done - the cockpit and landing gear.

7/7/2010 - Off and on, I've been decaling this for past month or so. The decals have revealed some problems in the model, most notably that the topside wing, engine, and tail aren't in quite the right proportions. Those topside red stripes should all line up. . The wing decals should also extend further outboard. Decals too short or wings too wide?

7/9/2010 - Decaling continues, and I've added the landing gear. There are a couple dabs of clay to hold the forward gear bay doors in place while the superglue sets.  I dotted thinned black + gunmetal into the RCS ports, even though the full-size studio Viper didn't have them at all. Nyaah. Some of the decals needed some edge touch-up. Testor's Chrysler engine red was the best match for the decals' color.

7/23/2010 - I've trimmed the canopy and plan to add a frame to it with thin strip styrene. The base is a square of wood (black) topped with 1/4" plexi for the hangar deck floor. Both have the show's trademark "cut corners." I got some sets of Preisser 1/72 flight crew and civilian figures. There's enough starter material there to make the figures necessary for the dio.

9/6/2010 - The base is painted with stripes of insignia red and a mix of gold/wood for the floor guides on Galactica's hangar deck. For the black tarp covering the Viper I used a square of lightweight parachute cloth wetted with dilute white glue then folded, poked, prodded, and smushed to look like a heap of tarpiness. Once the glue dried I sprayed it flat black.

8/13/2012 - How's that for a long-overdue update? There's been a long hiatus in work but at last I've been moving this on toward completion in the past month or two. What's this supposed to end up looking like? The target scene is just a few minutes into the Battlestar Galactica 2003 miniseries, when Adama visits the hangar to meet with the deck crew, who are presenting "Husker" with his restored Mk. II Viper. Tyrol's line, "...if the Commander would take a closer look at the tail numbering - Nebula 7242 Constellation," is the moment being represented on the diorama.

First order of business was attaching the canopy and detailing it. I first white-glued the trimmed out canopy in place, then superglued narrow strips of styrene to the canopy so it had a reasonably proper frame. I painted the frame metallizer steel.

I made a set of "remove before launch" tags to hang from various locations on the Viper with the text printed on paper, colored with orange marker and painted over with gloss clearcoat. I attached the tags with a dab of superglue.

There are 7 figures needed for the dio: Adama, the two tarp pullers, Chief Tyrol, Prosna ("bucking for promotion"), Cally, and another deck crewman (I call him Ricky). I examined the frames in the scene for uniform details, which would require extensive modification of the Preiser figures. Modifications typically involved resposing legs and arms, adjusting the figure height and hair, adding tool pockets and bagginess. For Adama, I adjusted the lines of the uniform top to give it the offset front flap. Once all the sculpting was done, I attached the figures to sytrene sprues for painting.

Colors... The deck crew jumpsuit is a dirty orange - I mixed international orange with burnt sienna, about 7:1. It made a glossy mix which I later clearcoated with dullcote. Inside open collars we can see the standard gray and black undershirts. And chains with daggit tags - not sure yet if I'll attempt those. The tool pockets are semi-gloss black. The jumpsuits have strips and patches of dayglow reflective material. I tested using chartreuse-painted invisible tape, cut to strips and squares. That works well enough. The chartreuse paint is really Testors (square bottle) zinc chromate.

For Adama I used insignia blue overall, with insignia red for the uniform piping, and for buttons & insignia, and semi-gloss black for belt and shoes.

One final bit along the line of insane detail, and to confound rivet counters... I printed a sheetlet of small, 3/64" decals for the "Battlestar Galactica BSG75" shoulder patches each crew member sports.

8/16/2012 - Five figures are finished and placed on the dio - just Cally and Ricky. And somehow, a pole-dancing Six seems to be working her way into this.

8/18/2012 - And done! Finished up the last of the figures last night and placed them. Cleaned up a few details.