uhu02's Colonial Viper MKII- Build Thread

mtrappett

mtrappett

Senior Member
Mar 3, 2013
373
813
Santa Clarita, California
Hi all,

I have always loved the design of the Viper from BSG. I couldn't resist having a go at building the model from uhu02. I wasn't able to get all the stages of the build so far because my poor old Kodak camera had to be fixed.

Those jet nozzles are tiny!!

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I love this one for sure I have to build this model sometime. You are doing a crisp and clear job on this model.
 
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Chuffy70 said:
I really must get round to having a go at this...looks a great build, but too small for me... I'll go bigger!

Keep at it!
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The Viper is about 1/50 scale. I enlarged it to 1/32 and had almost no problems aside from the nose piece. In hindsight I guess that the sizing issues were caused by the Gimp printer driver because I had similar trouble with later builds (Wall-E). I enlarged the part three times and it still came out too small. That almost drove me crazy because the maths was absolutely correct and there was no reason why the part should not fit. Today I use a different program for printing (Corel) or turn everything into a PDF.
 
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Revell-Fan said:
The Viper is about 1/50 scale. I enlarged it to 1/32 and had almost no problems aside from the nose piece. In hindsight I guess that the sizing issues were caused by the Gimp printer driver because I had similar trouble with later builds (Wall-E). I enlarged the part three times and it still came out too small. That almost drove me crazy because the maths was absolutely correct and there was no reason why the part should not fit. Today I use a different program for printing (Corel) or turn everything into a PDF.
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I get the bloke 'Mark' at my local print shop to do the math - I give him A3 sheets - he gives me lots of lovely parts! :cool:
 
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You are off to a GREAT START on this project! I am looking forward to seeing how your build turns out!
 
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Chuffy70 said:
I get the bloke 'Mark' at my local print shop to do the math - I give him A3 sheets - he gives me lots of lovely parts! :cool:
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You are so lucky to have a local print shop. The closest I have is a Staples Print it yourself center....
 
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I wouldn't worry much about the interior (under the skin panels). I have looked for years and can find not official drawings of what the artist intended under the skin. Not like "Last Exile" where every tube for the Claudia Drive is drawn, with skin panels on, and off. I have yet to see anyone to try to make a respectable model of that. It seems a lot of people think UHU had some connection, but some of his parts are, well, if, greebled, could be made better and are made up. It's a fantastic model, but the interior under the skin is entirely invented by UHU. There is nothing to back this up, absolutely nothing. I just say this because on the show they show them repairing wiring, cables, tubes, and there is none of that or even representations. You do end up with an incredible fan made model. I have seen some meshes that capture the body better, but there are enough Viper models, and this one ranks very high. You're going to bang this one out.

If you have never seen the series "Last Exile" you have really missed out on an epic anime series. :)

Last Exile Vanship :

a1.jpg
 
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zathros said:
I wouldn't worry much about the interior (under the skin panels). I have looked for years and can find not official drawings of what the artist intended under the skin. Not like "Last Exile" where every tube for the Claudia Drive is drawn, with skin panels on, and off. I have yet to see anyone to try to make a respectable model of that. It seems a lot of people think UHU had some connection, but some of his parts are, well, if, greebled, could be made better and are made up. It's a fantastic model, but the interior under the skin is entirely invented by UHU. There is nothing to back this up, absolutely nothing. I just say this because on the show they show them repairing wiring, cables, tubes, and there is none of that or even representations. You do end up with an incredible fan made model. I have seen some meshes that capture the body better, but there are enough Viper models, and this one ranks very high. You're going to bang this one out.
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INDEED! There was a series of books in comic book format in the making regarding the tech of the classic BSG ("The Colonial Technical Journal"). This was supposed to fill in the gaps and make you understand how things work in the BSG universe. Despite the fact that comic books in general are known to be non-canon this was supposed to be "half-canon" because the series was very well researched and made (they used then state-of-the-art computer images of models created solely for this series). Unfortunately it never came into being because the publiher Realm Press was eaten up by another before one single page was printed and the project was shelved. This was a shame because I'd loved to get my hands on it. However, fortunately the creators Mike McAdams and Ken Thompson Jr. decided to share a few preview pages they have made to the public. One of them was the interior of the Viper Mk I:

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This might be the only (half-)official config of the innards of the beast (alas, it's the Mk. I and not the Mk. II). :)
 
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micahrogers said:
You are so lucky to have a local print shop. The closest I have is a Staples Print it yourself center....
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We used to have quite a few print-come-stationery shops in our city centre, but the home printer, I'm guessing made most of these shops redundant over time.

I did print my own years ago, had a lovely Canon A3 & A4 printer, but that broke down - I am on my third Canon now which is just for worksheets and my self-employment bits and pieces...although I'll never have another Canon when this one departs, too temperamental!

I count myself extremely lucky to have two printers within walking distance, but I use Jarrolds, a local family run business, which ran an extremely large print works within the city of Norwich - they dated back to 1770, until moving to Norwich around 1823.

Sadly, nearly all of the factory has been demolished, just their department store and the stationers next door to the main shop

Feel for you @micahrogers
 
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I have an Epson 13" x 19" printer I purchased when it first came out. I've had to take it apart a few times to fix, but theorhetically, there's a roller attachment, and it will print at 13" wide till the tink runs out. I got it on sle doe $169, and the last year they sold it, it cost over $600 dollars. I always print my own stuff. I use Pigment Ink exclusively. If you ever want to see good recommendations for printers to go www.inkproducts.com They will show you printers that they sell O.E.M. ink for at ridiculously cheap prices. ;)
 
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zathros said:
I have an Epson 13" x 19" printer I purchased when it first came out. I've had to take it apart a few times to fix, but theorhetically, there's a roller attachment, and it will print at 13" wide till the tink runs out. I got it on sle doe $169, and the last year they sold it, it cost over $600 dollars. I always print my own stuff. I use Pigment Ink exclusively. If you ever want to see good recommendations for printers to go www.inkproducts.com They will show you printers that they sell O.E.M. ink for at ridiculously cheap prices. ;)
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Sounds like a bargain! I'm in the UK - so I'd have to find a similar company here if I went down the ink route...cheers for the heads-up

I think this Viper might use up a goodly amount of ink!
 
The template for UHU02 MK-II Viper is only 6 pages of parts. So, it is not that bad.
 
The link I posted gets their ink one level away from the patent holder of all printer inks, which is Dupont. ;)
 
mijob said:
I love this one for sure I have to build this model sometime. You are doing a crisp and clear job on this model.
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Thank you so much! This one has turned out to be more challenging than first thought. I like this model from uhu02, I feel he really put his heart and soul into it. I would totally recommend it.
 
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