Wish I had known about that stuff five years ago, but then again since I've been living in France I found it is hard to get anything for models here so what I did was customize a nozzle on a hot glue gun to push the glue out of a pointed tip in small portions allowing me to put as little a possible. But IM so far your Viper looks awesome I love the flickering effect you have going for the engines.
Surface-mount chip LEDs like you see on LED tape would probably fit between the side panels and fuselage, and then you'd be able to position the LEDs directly behind each of the panels.
Thanks...I agree. I've successfully used chip SMDs on later projects. This Viper was done well before I discovered those. They definitely would work here.
I am currently working on this classic and had a few questions. First off, if you were lighting this model today would you use SMDs or go with the same setup you had in 2014? Secondly, I wanted to know why you went with the cool white for the thrusters? I personally feel that the orginal series viper thrusters were a warmer white as that would have been the technology at the time. Do you still prefer the cool white or would a warm white led make sense today. Finally, thank you for posting these very informative videos and for the modeltrainsoftware.com recommendation.
I find it funny this is molded directly from the old Monogram model I had in the 80's. It is identical in every way, right down to the support positions to assemble it.
It's been quite a while since I've built this model so you may have to scroll through to make sure I didn't miss anything. The cockpit was lit with 3mm LEDs and the engines with 1.8mm flickering LEDs. Another alternative to these choices would be SMDs for the cockpit, which weren't available at the time. The Mega and chip sized SMDs, warm white, would be good choices as they are flatter and smaller. As for the engines you might want to see if 3mm flickering LEDs can fit instead of the 1.8mm because they'd be brighter. I couldn't find 3mm flickering LEDs at the time but they're definitely available now. You can find most of these at evandesigns.com, formerly modeltrainsoftware. Another site is lighthouseleds.com. Hope that helps.
Hi…sorry this build was over 7yrs ago. If I recall i used 1.8mm flickering LEDs and a 3mm LED for the cockpit. They were all fed into the power source and switch. Hopefully that helps. If u follow along the video it should be pretty straightforward. Thanks
@@InterstellarModeler One thing I've noticed since I saw Galactica for the first time that while I liked the ship designs and exteriors, I never really liked the interiors. They really didn't push much in terms of design and going out there in layout. Star Trek was much better at this; 2001 was and still is the king of realistic/futuristic tech that doesn't cut corners and LOOKS plausible. Ironically, our present is more like the original Star Trek and 2001 is AT LEAST 20-30 years BEYOND our present technology! We don't have HAL-9000's and we didn't end up building nuclear-powered manned spacecraft, either, or any interplanetary vehicle near as long as the Discovery 1. My elementary school had TRS-80 computers so I recognized those RIGHT AWAY in the the original Galactica TV series! 😂 The Galactica bridge computers WERE TRS-80's!!! The monochrome green graphics reminded me of videogames that were available on the TRS-80. The Colonial Viper cockpit is VERY old-fashioned and has conventional cockpit instruments. It looks more like a 1960s Vietnam-vintage fighter cockpit than an advanced aerospace superior fighter! It doesn't even have a Heads Up Display and those were pretty standard by the end of the 1970s in every tactical aircraft design that debuted after the late 1960s. By the time Battlestar Galactica premiered, they had been flying the F-18 prototype for a few months and that had a cockpit that is still the standard for today but was probably at least 10 years more advanced what I saw in the Viper cockpit. Yeah, they still had people who were good at designing exteriors for these things but they really needed someone connected with the aerospace and kept up with it to sell these things or at least come up with a cockpit interior that didn't look like it was cobbled together with spare parts from a desert graveyard for decommissioned planes! (There were points of the Viper that are just bad design... The big two I saw -- 1) a HUGE blindspot to the rear; basically no rearward visibility. 'Razorback canopy' designs like this are absolutely awful for visibility and they pretty much phased those out of frontline operations in World War II and bubble canopies on all the major fighter designs on BOTH sides except for older planes were refits/redesigns/model upgrades were not practical. Again, I know they were limited by tech and construction considerations. It's easier to build flat-sided vehicles than rounded objects and flat planes are less likely to reflect/cast blue spil. 2) The lack of a HUD and constant staring down into the cockpit to line up the target crosshairs. That's considered a big No-No. Anytime you have to LOOK DOWN into the cockpit is taking your attention from looking around and being visually aware of your surroundings. Statistically, over half the time pilots got shot down was because they were distracted and weren't even aware someone had snuck up behind them!) I know they were limited by technology in some instances (that's why no bubble canopies, flat panes/no glass in the canopy to prevent glint and blue light spill) but in other instances they were behind the times. Now, if they were going to do this, they would probably have holographic displays and some kind of helmet targeting sights/VR set-up for the pilots.
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Thank u very much for the information I will let u know how the model turns out
Dale Yorke u You’re welcome. That’s awesome. Yes would love to see the completed ship. Thanks
Great build.I'm going to have to check out that website for the prewired leds
Wish I had known about that stuff five years ago, but then again since I've been living in France I found it is hard to get anything for models here so what I did was customize a nozzle on a hot glue gun to push the glue out of a pointed tip in small portions allowing me to put as little a possible.
But IM so far your Viper looks awesome I love the flickering effect you have going for the engines.
Thanks for your kind comments. Interesting tid bit about the hot glue gun. Necessity is the mother of invention so they say. Thanks again.
Surface-mount chip LEDs like you see on LED tape would probably fit between the side panels and fuselage, and then you'd be able to position the LEDs directly behind each of the panels.
Thanks...I agree. I've successfully used chip SMDs on later projects. This Viper was done well before I discovered those. They definitely would work here.
I am currently working on this classic and had a few questions. First off, if you were lighting this model today would you use SMDs or go with the same setup you had in 2014? Secondly, I wanted to know why you went with the cool white for the thrusters? I personally feel that the orginal series viper thrusters were a warmer white as that would have been the technology at the time. Do you still prefer the cool white or would a warm white led make sense today. Finally, thank you for posting these very informative videos and for the modeltrainsoftware.com recommendation.
I find it funny this is molded directly from the old Monogram model I had in the 80's. It is identical in every way, right down to the support positions to assemble it.
Have you ever tried Vallejo paints? They are top notch.
Yes I started using them last year....and I quite agree.
Terrific
Thanks!
Can u tell me please the lights you used to light this model I have this viper model and I will like to light it just like you
It's been quite a while since I've built this model so you may have to scroll through to make sure I didn't miss anything. The cockpit was lit with 3mm LEDs and the engines with 1.8mm flickering LEDs. Another alternative to these choices would be SMDs for the cockpit, which weren't available at the time. The Mega and chip sized SMDs, warm white, would be good choices as they are flatter and smaller. As for the engines you might want to see if 3mm flickering LEDs can fit instead of the 1.8mm because they'd be brighter. I couldn't find 3mm flickering LEDs at the time but they're definitely available now. You can find most of these at evandesigns.com, formerly modeltrainsoftware. Another site is lighthouseleds.com. Hope that helps.
Could you post the wiring diagram that you used?
Hi…sorry this build was over 7yrs ago. If I recall i used 1.8mm flickering LEDs and a 3mm LED for the cockpit. They were all fed into the power source and switch. Hopefully that helps. If u follow along the video it should be pretty straightforward. Thanks
The lighting looks terric on those engines and the interior looks awesome
Thanks...it was just what I was looking for
Could you post the wiring diagram that you used?
I have never worked with LEDs before and could use the help.
Michael Jaskolski I posted it on my google+ page. I hope it's what you had in mind. Let me know and I can easily email it to you as well. Thanks.
Where did you get the cockpit decals ?
There are a few sources....paragrafix.biz, culttvman.com and hdamodelworx.com. Just search for photoetch Moebius Viper. Thanks for watching
I was wondering , is there a ref book available?
Not that I'm aware of but there are plenty of pictures on line which you can use as a reference for painting at least.
@@InterstellarModeler One thing I've noticed since I saw Galactica for the first time that while I liked the ship designs and exteriors, I never really liked the interiors. They really didn't push much in terms of design and going out there in layout. Star Trek was much better at this; 2001 was and still is the king of realistic/futuristic tech that doesn't cut corners and LOOKS plausible. Ironically, our present is more like the original Star Trek and 2001 is AT LEAST 20-30 years BEYOND our present technology! We don't have HAL-9000's and we didn't end up building nuclear-powered manned spacecraft, either, or any interplanetary vehicle near as long as the Discovery 1.
My elementary school had TRS-80 computers so I recognized those RIGHT AWAY in the the original Galactica TV series! 😂 The Galactica bridge computers WERE TRS-80's!!! The monochrome green graphics reminded me of videogames that were available on the TRS-80.
The Colonial Viper cockpit is VERY old-fashioned and has conventional cockpit instruments. It looks more like a 1960s Vietnam-vintage fighter cockpit than an advanced aerospace superior fighter! It doesn't even have a Heads Up Display and those were pretty standard by the end of the 1970s in every tactical aircraft design that debuted after the late 1960s. By the time Battlestar Galactica premiered, they had been flying the F-18 prototype for a few months and that had a cockpit that is still the standard for today but was probably at least 10 years more advanced what I saw in the Viper cockpit.
Yeah, they still had people who were good at designing exteriors for these things but they really needed someone connected with the aerospace and kept up with it to sell these things or at least come up with a cockpit interior that didn't look like it was cobbled together with spare parts from a desert graveyard for decommissioned planes!
(There were points of the Viper that are just bad design... The big two I saw -- 1) a HUGE blindspot to the rear; basically no rearward visibility. 'Razorback canopy' designs like this are absolutely awful for visibility and they pretty much phased those out of frontline operations in World War II and bubble canopies on all the major fighter designs on BOTH sides except for older planes were refits/redesigns/model upgrades were not practical. Again, I know they were limited by tech and construction considerations. It's easier to build flat-sided vehicles than rounded objects and flat planes are less likely to reflect/cast blue spil. 2) The lack of a HUD and constant staring down into the cockpit to line up the target crosshairs. That's considered a big No-No. Anytime you have to LOOK DOWN into the cockpit is taking your attention from looking around and being visually aware of your surroundings. Statistically, over half the time pilots got shot down was because they were distracted and weren't even aware someone had snuck up behind them!)
I know they were limited by technology in some instances (that's why no bubble canopies, flat panes/no glass in the canopy to prevent glint and blue light spill) but in other instances they were behind the times.
Now, if they were going to do this, they would probably have holographic displays and some kind of helmet targeting sights/VR set-up for the pilots.
I love the flickering led but can't seem to find them anywhere. And idea where I can get them?
Try modeltrainsoftware.com. They are 1.8mm flickering cool whites. That's where I bought them from. Thanks
+Interstellar Modeler thanks! I ended up finding 5mm ones but they may be too big/bright. I will look into those.