Colonial Viper 7242: factory-new, aged on purpose

20 January 2017

The Battlestar Galactica Viper Mk II from assembly to chipping, red stripes and gold nozzles: ten months of work between 2016 and 2017.

In Battlestar Galactica the Vipers are never shiny. They leave the hangar, take a beating from the Cylons, come back, and somebody patches them up with whatever is lying around. So when I decided to build one, the problem wasn’t making it pretty: it was making it look lived-in.

This is Viper Mk II, tail number 7242, built between March 2016 and January 2017. Ten months for a fighter the show repairs overnight: the Galactica’s deck crew had more staff.

Assembly

It starts the usual way: instructions open on the bench, tweezers, glue and a pile of grey parts that slowly turn into a fuselage. The Viper looks simple from a distance and is fiendishly complicated up close: fairings, air intakes, three rear nozzles that have to line up perfectly or it shows straight away.

Into the booth

Then it goes into the spray booth, the one with rear extraction I wrote about here. The model sits on a turntable and gets painted one side at a time, without touching it.

White, but not too white

The trick for a worn Viper is to spray the white over a darker base and then remove it in patches, so what’s underneath comes back through. The result is irregular chipping, like a hull that has gone through atmosphere, debris and mechanics’ hands one time too many.

Colonial Viper painted white with grey chipping all over the fuselage — The first chips: grey showing through the white.

Colonial Viper seen from behind with the three nozzles covered in masking tape — The first chips: grey showing through the white.

The white really works in the details: cockpit, panel lines, engines. That’s where you see whether the job is done properly or it’s just a white model with some dirt on it.

Close-up of the Colonial Viper's open cockpit with chipping on the fairing — The cockpit, waiting for its pilot.

Rear view of the Colonial Viper with the three engines and nozzles painted blue and grey — The cockpit, waiting for its pilot.

The red stripes

Then come the red stripes and the Colonial markings, and the Viper stops being a generic white fighter and becomes the one from the show. For precision work like this, a magnifier with a ring light isn’t a luxury, it’s insurance for your eyesight.

The Colonial Viper's nose seen through a magnifying glass with a ring light — Under the magnifier: this is a game of tenths of a millimetre.

Colonial Viper with red stripes and Colonial markings on a green cutting mat — Under the magnifier: this is a game of tenths of a millimetre.

Inside the Viper

In December the Viper was still open, fairings off and internal structure on show. It’s the stage where the model looks more like a wreck than a fighter, and you start wondering whether it was a good idea.

Finished

January 2017: gold nozzles, tail number 7242, GALACTICA on the fin and enough grime to look like it just got back from a sortie. It was factory-new, now it’s a veteran. Mission accomplished.

Finished Colonial Viper seen from behind with gold nozzles and red stripes — Ready for launch.

It’s still one of my favourite models, not least because it’s the only one that came out of the spray booth dirtier than it went in. On purpose.

Tag: airbrush, Battlestar Galactica, sci-fi, weathering