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The
canopy was sanded to remove the molded seam and then polished with successive
grits of Micro-Mesh up to 12000. The canopy was then sprayed with Tamiya clear
yellow to give it that golden EMI shielded look and dipped it in Future for a
nice shine and to restore clarity.
The
Viper was painted with MM enamels over Floquil grimy black preshaded panel
lines. The main painting was followed by an oil wash in the panel lines and some
pastel chalk weathering. A coat of clear, gloss lacquer was applied to smooth things
out in preparation for decal application.
I wasn’t
too fanatical about reproducing a specific C model but my Viper is intended to
portray a mid block 30 variant. Trying to do a Block 40 or 50 would have
required a lot more work than I wanted to do.
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I used the kit decals for the
placards and data and Two-Bobs Montgomery, Ala. ANG Viper with the cobra on the
tail. This design really appealed to me. The kit decals went on well despite
their thickness (when compared to the Two Bob’s set) and a little Micro-Sol
helped settle them down. The Two Bob’s decals went on with no problem. They
are very thin and I only needed a stronger dose of Solva-Set to get the
‘Montgomery’ banner on the vertical fin to settle.
As usual the
most time consuming part was the ordinance. I was conflicted during the whole
build process as to what this bird would carry. I finally settled on the four
AIM-9J’s in the kit and some 500lbs iron bombs. These needed a bit of work to
fill the ejector pin marks that were all over the missiles. The kit includes two
2000lbs GBU’s and Sparrow missiles but these don’t look too good. The
instructions also show these not being used for some strange reason. I suppose I
could have robbed my Academy Hornet for extra ordinance but I wanted to use what
was in the kit. I did modify the 500 pounders with fuse extenders. I only put
two on each MER because I read somewhere that they weren’t carried on the
inboard station of the pylon. The fuse extenders were made with plastic rod. The
sidewinders were painted and the decal stripes were cut from extra color decal
sheets I had.
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This model
took much longer than usual to complete; right around 6 months. I took a break
now and then during the build to help keep from getting stale on it. In the end
it was worth the wait. It makes a nice addition to my F-15, A-10 and F-14 models
(all in 32nd). Now I have to get that Academy Bug done and I’ll
have a rounded out collection of modern US combat aircraft.
Jeff
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