Battlestar Galactica Colonial Recon Viper, 1/32 scale

This is a build I completed several years ago… This is my version of a Battlestar Galactica Colonial Viper, from Revell’s 30th Anniversary edition

 

However, I wanted to do something a little different to maybe spice it up a little. I decided to make it a fictionalized, Recon Viper. No, to my knowledge, there never was such a Viper, but I figured there should have been something like it theoretically. I also decided to make the outside of the original series canon, and indeed, prior to those events, but after the series, “Caprica”.

The Colonial Viper is one of my all-time favorite space fighters (though, it was also capable of atmospheric flight and ground landings!), and looks absolutely plausible for flight, whether in space or over a distant alien planet. It's a sleek and sexy craft! It also screams 'fighter' to me. For this anniversary edition, it had been updated with newly tooled details, molded in light gray plastic and clear parts.....far surpassing it's predecessor of 10 years last release prior from what I've read; and this kit came with a detailed cockpit interior and pilot figure, which is an added bonus to me.

When I started this kit for Build on another modeling site over ten years ago now (yikes!), I decided to go way off the beaten path and make this a Recon Viper of the Colonial Marines Fleet Patrol, complete with under fuselage camera. So basically, since I’m going with pre-Fall of the Colonies era (when the Cylons attacked the second time), this also supports the old style pilot uniform depicted on the figure.

A little bit about the kit and it’s role in the Colonial Fleet

I found that the kit didn't have a huge amount of parts, which kinda surprised me out of the box (pun intended). I guess I was getting so used to building more complex pieces with tons of tiny little bits, that I remember that this really threw me a bit on first inspection, wondering how much of a challenge this kit would present. In the end, it actually proved to be a satisfyng build, overall. Being a Revell kit, perhaps this is more of a starter kit? But the addition of scratchbuilt extras and moving away from the kit out of box and tailoring it to a specific purpose brought the model to life for me!

As mentioned, what I ended up going for was straying decades before the events in the original Battlestar Galactica series canon, and modelling after the First Cylon War; a Colonial Marines Fleet Patrol (MFP) Recon Viper, piloted by the intrepid, yet ruggedly handsome Captain Gallant ....inside joke 

In my version of the Battlestar Galactica universe, the MFP was a squadron of elite fighters and served as recce deep in Cylon territory, which forced these birds to fly long sorties; fly in atmospheric low-level flight; and duck & go in asteroids and interstellar dust clouds …and well, just get the ever livin’ crap beat out of them! This means they were 'dirty birds' in more ways than one: Both in appearance, and in lethal stealth kills. These pilots were Top Guns of the Colonial Fleet....and damned good at Pyramid!

This viper would be flown by the intrepid Captain Gallant, call sign “Bullet”. The bird is equipped with high tech recce photographic gear. It also has more than traditional positional thrusters in the nose and tail, for long range orbital positioning.

I built this kit about ten years ago, and it was a pretty quick construction of the kit parts supplied, as there were not a lot of little fiddleybits to the kit, but I did do modifications, scratchbuilding and alterations; as well as a new chipping technique (hobby knife!) and oil paint weathering to the paintjob.

Some of the pics in this thread will be thumbnail size... for some reason, when I saved these pics onto a thumbdrive, it saved them as a thumbnail image, rather than full size...I have NO idea why that happens!

So, first up was the cockpit tub, which though fairly true to the original series Viper, it was way too plain for my tastes so first,

  

I did a search for the version in the new reimagined series and found this great shot…

 

So I set out to recreat some of that retooled look with styrene…

 

 

 

I scratchbuilt a seat and headrest and dry fitted the Colonial Pilot…

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I felt I was on the right track! I next added wiring/ejection seat and a scratchbuilt center control stick plate.

Then it was time for interior paint.

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The Draidis (Radar) console is a decal; the controls were all hand painted with a very fine artist brush.

Next camed the pilot, the Intrpid Captain Gallant, call sign "Bullet". These were done with Folk Art Acrylics, same as the cockpit consoles. I went with the original series color scheme of course and love how he came out! I even added interior helmet lights (in paint).

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And into the cockpit...

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And finally, into the Viper...

        

  

Of note, the tough part on this was making sure the recon camera and the cockpit glued in place properly, at the same time! The cockpit was a tough fit, as it sits on a little plastic 'pin head'....the very end....and in back of the cockpit at the top, it rests on a small nub against the fuselage half. Not a very easy fit. Put on top of that the recon camera placement and it was delicate positioning to say the least!




 

That cockpit tub was a little precarious attach, but both nose shell halves keep it propped with little pins. I was glad thr figure came in original series uniform, as it fits the kits’ storyline! Finishing touches were made to the cockpit, including the “stick”, but then came my next issue… I needed to adjust the cockpit canopy, which because of the addition of a pilot’s seat, didn’t seat down (no pun intended) right, and had to be notch cut and filed in back. I also attached the ejection seat wiring to the rear of the seat.

          

 

Next up, the recce camera! I built that out of some spare parts in my bits box - where all my unused bits from different kit builds go. It was a pretty rudimentary assembly, and I decided not to go crazy painting it in the end!

          

I next, needed a mounting plate to go against the underside nose hull and to what the camera would rest in, within the camera canopy. 

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Then, I needed a box shell for the camera to be attached to the canopy plate. Using styrene, I got to choppin’ “n gluing.

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, attaching the camera assembly to the underside of the. Viper’s nose! First, I taped the nose halves together temporarily and marked out the cut area using the canopy from the bits box.

 

Then cut the hole through each half. Next, I attached the camera assembly to one nose hull half.

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I glued the nose hull halves together and breathed a sigh of relief!