Revell 30th Anniv. Raider

[David_in_Fremont]

Hello all..

I've never tried anything but airplanes since I took the hobby back up again but have been accumulating some other kits like armor and now I find I have a few Sci-Fi kits as well. I figured this one would be a good first choice since it is fairly simple. I've been doing it mostly as an experimental platform to try out a few things, so no attention whatever has been paid to 'accuracy' compared to the old TV show. I'm going for a much more worn and weary effect plus trying to make it a bit more sinister looking. We shall see...

First up, I hate raised panel lines! (It's an airplane thing..) So even though I hate scribing I decided this needed to be done.

[David_in_Fremont]

On to the 'simple assembly' then, right?

The fit of this kit is... uh... not good. Gaps and what abound! You know it's bad when the revised instructions tell you to remove the locator pins from the upper and lower hull parts. Can't put 'em together with the pics intact!

So I started improvising to get the gaps closed up as well as deal with the remnants of the original release. Remember? This thing used to have little 'missiles' that would shoot out the front! Those holes need to be closed..

[David_in_Fremont]

Strip styrene was used to close the gaps that were all around the exhaust area of the engines:

The holes on the bottom where the 'launcher buttons' used to be were filled:

Milliput then filled in all of the smaller gaps...

After much sanding it was finally ready for a coat of primer!

[Mike]

Cool! I've got one of these in the stash, courtesy of Mr Reeves (they weren't released in the UK). Think I'll tackle the Viper first

[David_in_Fremont]

Now, here's where I fall back into 'airplane mode' when it comes to the paint. Since I want to beat this up a bit, I pre-shaded the panels. I also painted the canopy gloss black, then tried using liquid masking to cover all but the framing. I'll discover a bit later just how badly I stuffed that up.

On with the first coat of gray. Tamiya SKy Gray lightened up with some white:

I then went over it all with a lighter shade and a third time with an even lighter, but just in a some areas. A bit 'jet-like' but I kinda like it. Weathering and a flat coat should knock that down a bit. I also started on the louvered engine areas using some Alclad II:

That up there was using 'plae burnt metal' but it came out looking very gold in color. So I misted 'steel' over it:

[David_in_Fremont]

After all this, I removed the liquid masking. Truly stuffed it up!!

I had to go back over the whole area with the base color. I had tried to use masking tape but there are soooo many little angles and whatnot that it was out of the question, so brush painting it is. Not at all happy with those results but it'll do. On the flip-side, I decided to mask and spray the stripes, and they came out really well! I didn't think the kit decals would stand up to all the raised areas they'd have to conform to. Besides, I wanted to give it a go just for fun. Some other little areas are being accented as well at this point:

The thruster ends of the engines were gone over with Alclad II jet exhaust also.

That brings you up-to-date! It should be ready for a gloss coat and weathering really soon. I'm thinking of trying to mask and spray the pentagonal Cylon markings as well but I'm not sure if I'll be able to do that well enough....

Thanks for looking!

Dave

[sciford]

After all this, I removed the liquid masking. Truly stuffed it up!!

I had to go back over the whole area with the base color. I had tried to use masking tape but there are soooo many little angles and whatnot that it was out of the question, so brush painting it is. Not at all happy with those results but it'll do. On the flip-side, I decided to mask and spray the stripes, and they came out really well! I didn't think the kit decals would stand up to all the raised areas they'd have to conform to. Besides, I wanted to give it a go just for fun. Some other little areas are being accented as well at this point:

The thruster ends of the engines were gone over with Alclad II jet exhaust also.

That brings you up-to-date! It should be ready for a gloss coat and weathering really soon. I'm thinking of trying to mask and spray the pentagonal Cylon markings as well but I'm not sure if I'll be able to do that well enough....

Thanks for looking!

Dave

Looks like you've done a great job there with that kit! Yeah, a lot of the styrene sci fi kits were notorious for gaps and other bad fitting parts. Well done!

[David_in_Fremont]

It's update time!

This is very nearly finished now, really just a flat coat to go and I can call it done. I'm a little bummed about these pictures because they don't really do justice to the weathering I've done, especially the wash which the camera simply.. er.. washes out.

So while it looks lightly weathered here, in person it looks pretty gnarly and beat up! Just what I was looking for, really. I'm kinda psyched!

First wash:

After some other weathering was applied ad the guns installed:

really kinda like that view across the rear surfaces.

It might get a flat coat tonight. Then i really need to get serious about two very large jets I'm supposed to be building!

[AnonymousDFB1]

I like that David, very nice work on the paint. I think your persistence has paid off. Well done.

[periklis_sale]

nice work there mate!!!

[David_in_Fremont]

Finished!!

[David_in_Fremont]

And the bottom..

Thanks very much for looking!