Viper, quick build

[tim]

Wanted to go off of the "challenge to the board" thread, and get started on this Viper kit.
My Father gave me this several years back, thought it would be a good subject for a quick, simple build. Wanna stick mostly to the instruction sheet for most of the colors. Don't know much about detailing this one, so its perfect for this. Plus, it'll look nice on the shelf.


This is what I've got so far, painted the engine alclad aluminum, the pulleys and inner wheels were done with an old can of testors chrome I've had for many years, it actually looks real close to alclad polished aluminum, think I'll use it more often, much easier to use.



Starting the interior and body now, getting ready for paint.

[68chevy]

Great looking start

[zbuckster]

Very nice start.

[Nacho Z]

Let me add my "great start" comment too. Looks good!

[john2308]

Lookin' good, can't wait to see some up dates on this. John

[roadhawg]

The chassis looks great!!! And that Testors chrome silver has been one of my secrets as well!! As far as chrome, its not that good, but it looks exactly like polished aluminum!

[tim]

Thanx guys. Got a small update. Slow moving quick build!
The instructions called for light gray, light ghost gray. My light gray is shot, so I went with light ghost gray, and brushed testors gray. Got some flat base mixed with future, gonna try to knock the shine of of the gray a little.
Wasn't gonna detail any on this kit, but thought I'd try to make some speaker covers out of some stuff around the bench. Small dia. wire wrapped around a paintbrush handle, health care 3M tape, flat black, trimmed and touched up. Just experimenting, could use this on a future build.

[zbuckster]

Nice, the speaker thing turned out pretty good. Thanks for the tip.

[68chevy]

Looking good yes I like the speaker covers to thanks

[tim]

Thank you all. Had a chance to get the interior done. The dark gray is a little shiny. Was gonna tone it down a bit, but it looks ok. It should blend in when in the car. I was going to try to pick out the gauges with a brush, but after panting them black, then after a little research, they're white. After I repainted, they were lost. Tried to scrape them, looked bad. I couldn't find decals at my LHS, so I got a detail master street rod gauge set, punched a few out and stuck them in. Don't know if anyone has tried to put future on them to simulate glass, it smeared the red needles. So I tried to touch them up with Chevy red. I'll never do that again.

[zbuckster]

Nice interior.

[tim]

Thanx! Got the paint on. Tried this Tamiya gunmetal...X-10 through an airbrush... kind of tired of the majority, red and blue Vipers. Wanted something a little different.
Trying to figure weather to try and rub the rough spots and blemishes out of this paint, then clear? Or just clean the surface best I can, and clear?
I've used their paints on aircraft before, nice stuff! But never shot the metallic acrylic on a car body before. Gonna use the X-22 clear, instead of Future on this one.

[Nacho Z]

I like that color Tim. Not sure what will happen if you try to rub that color / paint out??

[zbuckster]

I am not sure either. It looks good .

[68chevy]

Great looking paint job I got two cars painted that Tamiya gunmetal myself Love that color.

[tim]

Thanx, got an update. I tried the stripe decals and couldn't get them to conform around the rear end. And they were pretty translucent, looked horrible! So I'm going ahead with painting. Going with white, it'll look good, and will be easier to cover up mistakes. Used masking tape so I know I will have to probably respray the gunmetal from marks it'll leave. It's the only thing I could get to stick in the nooks. Pretty big masking job. Started out as a quick build, tuned into a not so quick build! Here it stands before paint.

[tim]

Painted the stripes, turned out pretty well. Need to touch up a few spots. I'm happy with the results.

[68chevy]

Great job on the stripes the car is coming together niceley

[roadhawg]

Looking great, especially considering the issues you had! Good color choice too!

[fireguy14]

Excellent! Really like the speaker cover trick, thanks for sharing that one!

[zbuckster]

Nice paint.

[tim]

Thanx guys. Got the stripes masked, guess this is what it would've looked like with yellow stripes...I'll stick with the white. Resprayed the gunmetal. After I got home from work today, noticed I went a little heavy on the nose. The rest of the car is fine. Found out on this build that I must be careful when spraying this metallic. Spraying a little too heavy is very noticeable. Live and learn! I'll mask and respray. I'm gonna touch up all of the white after this is fixed

[tim]

Hi all. Been a very busy family summer, not much time for building. Did finally get the body glossed. I redid the gunmetal and stripes with Citadel Boltgun, and Polyscale Reefer white. Both paints are nice to work with, although the polyscale stuff mixed with distilled water seemed to crack, but it sprayed good. The Citadel layed down real good. Think I'll be using it more in the future...speaking of future...that's what I cleared with.


After taking the pics, I'm gonna make some inserts for my paint booth to take pics. Just can't get enough light off of florescent bulbs.

[intimidator]

Gonna be a nice one!

[zbuckster]

Looks great.

[tim]

Thanx guys, just bout done with this...quick build Was messin with the plenum, was gonna paint silver for the clamps...no! Bare metal was a pain. So I decided to brush Alclad.
Started with this.

Painted gloss black, thinned with lac. thinner, dried quick.

Fist and second coat.


Turned out ok, Should be done with this tonight.

[tim]

Well, almost got it done tonight. Got the glass, interior in and on the frame. Engine all together. Then Bang! Found some paint under one of the lenses, tried to pry it off to fix, snapped it in half. Found one half, the other went the way of the buffalo! Still looking for it. Anyway, I made it this far.

Broken lens

Pretty sad looking puppy right now, I'll figure something out.

[whtchevy]

Oh man just when you were so close and the gremlins bite and it is looking sooooooo good

[tim]

Yea, the gremlins got me good! Well, I'll never say "Quick Build" again! Turned into a horrible kit. Anyway, I tried to figure out this lens. Found the other half, glued it and tried to sand and buff, broke again.

So I glued it back, and sanded smooth.



This is what I had at that point.

[tim]

So after thinking about it for a while...that's scary! I covered it with bare metal, to make it stronger.

Put a piece of thin plastic sheet, out of a box a toy came in, over top of it.

Got the trusty Daffy blow dryer.

And melted it over the lens the best I could. It's not perfect, but close. Gluing it down was tough, had to cover the top with paint because of the glue marks.

Like I said, horrible kit, great fitting until the end. Allot of it probably my fault, but I'll never build one again. It'll be finished later today, then far up on the shelf she'll go.