Salzo Battlestar Galactica
TOS Viper Fighter.
1/12th Scale 31" long


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It's that time again...

Greeblie Time!

Greetings you merry mob and welcome back for another round o' silliness.
So to the job at hand.
Greeblie detail plates required for the bulkheads at either end of this set up.


Yeah, that lot should help.

Call it a small homage in my own way to those giants at Apogee, ILM and others if you will.
After all, if Airfix and Tamiya parts were good enough for their greeblie bits and bobs then more than good enough for me.
Except here I have a lot of resin castings duly ripped off from kit parts.
Close enough methinks!

This pile mainly consisting of Airfix 1/24th Merlin engine parts.
A smattering of Tamiya 1/12th Lotus bits.
A meaty morsel of cast copies drawn from the Fine Molds 1/72nd Millennium Falcon parts.
And a few 1/72nd Gato submarine bits thrown in for good measure.

Not to say there aren't a few parts that will come from elsewhere but onward!

So then, a few lumps of 2mm acrylic saw up and a greebling we do jolly well go.


Chuck in some brass wire and the like.


And give it the grey primer treatment.


A decent start so moving on to the rest.










So that sorted.
On to the launch tube base, rail flats on, greeblie bits likewise so grey primer time!










Sweet.

And the long haul of powder shading goes on.
Could have airbrushed but to be honest I find I have better control using powders.
Just a purely personal thing you understand.

The said powder for this turnout being a mix of 70% graphite and 30% (more or less) Aniline black powder.
As a side note, Aniline black is usually used for colouring paints or resin and the like.
It gives a good solid black if used alone and once on and sealed it's a top notch piece of work.

In use though it's potentially nasty stuff as it's a seriously fine powder and can be harmful,
so inhalation is a no-no for definite.
Respirators on at all times, gloves worn and hoover to hand is always a good bet.

Back to the matter at hand,
Powder applied with a small brush and once done and excess removed,
In with a 2" paintbrush to blend.










And continue untill done.
Which took a fair while i'll admit.
And done it was with some drybrushing in multiple shades of grey to round it off.




















So then, last bits for the baseboard 'fore we start the back wall thing.
Well the rail plates got a little bit of a polish thanks to some SnJ metal powder that got the living daylights buffed out of it.


Then came the problem of the pipes.
I wanted to have them in a dark colour rather than the bare plastic white.
Now I couldn't paint them as the formers they run through are by no means a loose fit.
No point painting them if half of it would get scraped off during insertion.
So what to do?

Well while buffing up the rails a little thought crossed my mind.
Poor soul had a lonely walk but anyways.

What if I took this idea and expanded it to the pipes?

Well this might well be old news to some folks and i'll happily assume i'm not the first nutter to try it but...

First came the lightly sanded down length of pipe...


Then the can of graphite powder...


A well old can, had this in excess of 15 years.
Talk about value for money in the weathering dept.!

Taking a soft old cloth, dip in the can and start rubbing it all over the pipe.
The result...




And continue on to the rest...


Now I know you'll be asking, doesn't it just come off?
Well it will come off but only if you sand it off.
I know because I tried it.
This stuff was on to stay which suited me just nicely.

Insert pipes and have a final look see about like ya do.










True the pipes have picked up some marking being turned while jammed through the formers but it's different so nay prob.
Which pretty much leads me to call this a win for our side.
Or a win so far and that'll do for now.

More next update gang so you goodly folks and folkettes go easy out there.


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