1/32 Mobius Viper Build log from beginning to end.

It begins. The bare naked model

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Rear section primed and sanded

Nosecone primed and sanded. Getting rid of the seam down the whole fuselage can be a pain. Fortunantly I was able to use alclads microfiller to fill in the seam line.

Everything painted a base coat of white. 

Stripe Pattern masked off. I like working with lacquer paint. It dries fast and hard. and you can easily write on it with a soft graphite pencil to mark off strip pattern lines and can erase them when your done without having to worry about ruining the finish.

If anyone is curious. This is how I broke down the parts for painting. The instructions say to glue the upper engine cowling directly onto the body. I didn't like that approach. and glued it together before attaching it to the body. While it doesn't slide perfectly on. You have to be willing to bend the plastic a little to slide it around the intake molding on the main body, The plastic, once glued together with some good cement was more than flexible enough that you could just slide/snap it onto and around that part. 

Stripes painted on

Decals applied

Okay this is where I first screwed up. but don't worry I applied a good solid topcoat and the black paint was airbrushed on with water based acrylic. I was trying to go for some subtle weathering around the intakes but got a mess. Thankfully I was able to just wipe off the acrylic paint.

The bad weathering wiped off. It left some residue behind but I don't mind. I wanted a grungy fighter anyway.

Chipping detail applied. Just some basic sponge based chipping applied.

Finally I further dirtied up the intakes with some black oil paint and did my best to add some streak mark effects. It ended up a little dirtier than I intended but I kind of like it. Looks like it's seen some serious action and flown through a few fire balls.

Comments and constructive criticism always welcome. Should I have left it clean? Or do you prefer it dirty?