Sci-Fi Wednesdays - Moebius Models Viper Mk. VII

Manufacture: Moebius Models
Scale: 1/32nd
Kit: # 916
Build Series: Sci-Fi Wednesdays - Viper Mk.7 (Completed) 

Background

Battlestar Galactica was such an awesome show! Based on the 1970s television series, the 2004 sci-fi show was a masterpiece of storytelling and I binged that entire series in a matter of weeks. Great characters, intriguing plot lines and of course, sweet looking ships.  Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a big ship guy. That is one of the reasons why I liked Babylon 5 and most of the Star Trek shows. I just love a good ship and BSG had some nice looking ships! 

Watching the show, I immediately fell in love with the designs of the Vipers, the Cylon raiders, the Battlestars and the Bay ships. They looked great on the screen and I couldn't wait to see those epic space combat scenes.

It wasn't until 2014 that I actually found out that Moebius had released some of the ships as model kits. I saw them in a Squadron mail order catalog and I just couldn't resist. I immediately pick up both the Mk. II and the Mk. VII Vipers and couldn't wait to get started. 

To be honest, I actually wanted to build the Mk. II first, since it was my favorite of the Viper designs, but since I hadn't built a sci-fi kit in ages and the Mk. II was going to require some very careful painting with the color white (a difficult color to paint on any day), I decided to start with the Mk. VII. 

The Kit

This was my first experience with a Moebius kit and I have to admit, I was pleased! The parts were nicely molded, flash free and clean. It does have some heavily scribed recessed panel lines, but it didn't bother me as much.

Moebius supplies a very high quality, glossy instruction manual, printed in color, which is a really nice change of pace. Their line drawings were easy to understand and I didn't have any real issues with assembly.

There decal sheet was well printed, nice and glossy, with all the images in registry.  Moebius gives the builder options for either Galactica or Pegasus versions of the Mk. VII and options for a number of different pilots. Nice touch Moebius!

This kit was well engineered, with very nice fit in most areas. I did have a large seam between the upper and lower fuselage, but some filling and sanding minimized it enough for my liking. This kit comes with both landing gears and an in-flight display stand, so depending on how you wish to show the finished product you have two options. I decided to cover the gear bays and use the stand, but the doors were a little finicky to fit. They seemed to be a bit undersized, so I had to take my time installing them.

One of my main complaints for this kit was the cockpit assembly. The detail was extremely sparse and not very accurate to the t.v. show. I ended up doing a ton of scratch building and after it was all done, I was able to get something that looked closer to the actual design. Honestly, I think a resin replacement would have been a better choice, but I got it to work.

I also printed my own gauges and glued them to my scratch built instrument panels. If I ever build another one, I might go with a lighting kit and replace the entire cockpit with a much nicer part.

I also had some issues with the wings. The overall shape were more or less correct, but the details were not as accurate as I would have liked. The guns were not angled correctly, the wing intakes were not molded in the correct shape and the gun housings were very different then what appeared on the show. Even so, the kit still built up into a nice looking bird, even though it isn't as screen accurate as one might think.

I ended up drilling and adding some additional thruster ports around the nose intake. There were several missing and it was a super simple job to add them in. I also deepened the remaining ports, to give them a bit more impact.

I used a mixture of Tamiya and Gunze Aqueous paints for the basic color. It is probably too dark, but I like how it looks. Decals settled nicely into the panel lines, I just used a bit of Micro Set and Micro Sol for good measure. It all worked well.

I ended up tinting the canopy with some Tamiya Smoke, not only to obscure the cockpit's lack of accurate detail, but to help hide my paint work on the pilot figure. I am just not that good at painting figures, so the tint helped to keep that hidden. 

Conclusion

Overall, I had a lot of fun with this build. The fit was good, the decals went on nicely and aside form a bit of seam issues here and there, it was a really enjoyable build. Like I said, I wished Moebius had spent a bit more time on the cockpit, but if it is a deal breaker for you, it can be replaced with a lighting kit or just doctored up with time and better references.

Despite the few misgivings that I had regarding some of the points of accuracy, I still would highly recommend this kit to any sci-fi enthusiasts. It was a great project of a really cool ship.

Feel free to checkout my completed Viper Mk. VII build over on my YouTube channel! This was my first entry into my Sci-Fi Wednesdays build series, so it was a little rough.

Until next we meet, stay safe and happy modeling.