by Gerin Choiniere

I have a bad habit of starting models and taking a really long time to finish, so I used this contest as motivation to start and also finish a project in a timely manner! The model is a 1/32 Moebius Viper Mark II built mostly out of the box, but with the addition of the photo-etch cockpit parts and engine/greeblie parts from ParaGrafix. Assembly was straight forward, except that I didn't pay attention in the instructions to that whole, "landing gear must go in before fuselage assembly" part. Some surgery was required to fit the rear landing gear in after the fact.

The red markings were painted on, the colonial roundels on the wings were cut from the red stripes on the decals because the ones for use with painted stripes disappeared into the paint on application and were invisible. Other kit decals were applied as per the instructions, except the cockpit where the ParaGrafix decals were used.

I chose to use the tail number of Lee Adama because I am making the assumption that the Galactica squadrons would have vipers that weren't assigned pilots so as to have some spares when other ships were down for maintenance or were lost. Lee flew his Mark II until the episode "Hand of God" and then after we see him the in a Mark VII, so in my mind, this is what happened to his Mark II.

I built the hangar deck section out of foam board, and sheet and strip styrene. There are three LEDs (taken from a string of Christmas lights) in the rear, one in a light fixture on the bulkhead, the other two in the recessed "fixtures" in the underside of what would be the catwalk on the full set.

I intended to show the lonely viper as it was sitting inside an abandoned Galactica on her way into the sun, hence the lack of all the clutter we see in the regular show and the heavy grime. I realize that in the scene of the ship as Admiral Adama leaves, the hangar is empty. This is my version.

There were lots of things I tried with this build that I haven't done before, like pastel chalks for weathering/dirt, and the very simple LED series circuit. I also made the primer/basecoat of paint a metalizer aluminum, so when I chipped and scuffed the paint, "metal" would show through.

Since the scene is really meant to be viewed from only a small range of angles, I have included shots of all sides of just the viper by itself so you can see more than just the starboard side. Photos were made on the work desk with my desk lamp and a tripod. All in all, this was good fun and I'm proud of the result.

Image: Ground level view

Image: Viper, left/rear view

Image: Front/right

Image: Cockpit