I
built this Viper strictly OOB, except for some Eduard photo-etched interior bits
and TwoBobs decals, which is mostly just for the tail anyway. AF 910379 of the
79th FS is not exactly unique since the kit comes with decals for this bird, but
I did like the unique demarcation of the upper fuselage colors and I’m a
sucker for unique tail art, in this case a faint tiger head applied in chalk
during deployment to Saudi Arabia in 2002. During this time period, the aircraft
was tri-colored, had a tinted front windshield, clear rear and no bird slicer
antennae on the nose.
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Besides
tinting the front windshield a yellow gold, I raised the front flaps a few
degrees to match how they look when parked. I used the opened up gun
compartment and front radome, but I cemented in the engine. I also
painted the battery red (vs. kit instructions blue), added red to the
flare dispensers and painted the leading edge of the front flaps a darker
color underneath as per many photos I found in Jake Melampy’s “Modern
Viper Guide”, which I found indispensable during the assembly.
The
build went fairly smoothly and the only difficult part was in and around the
front intake which took a lot of putty and sanding to look just right. There’s
also a huge gap between the HUD display and the nose of the aircraft, but I used
masking tape, white glue and a wet cue tip to fill and smooth out the
imperfection with pretty good results. I hope you like it.
Chuck
Sawyer
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