After a week away at an awesome writing retreat, and then returning to a 9-5 gig last week, the modeling time has been limited, but I still have made some progress.

The engine intakes for the Viper are a separate assembly just behind the cockpit.  The kit instructions would have you install them before painting, but there is no way I’d be able to maintain my sanity and mask these things with the fuselage getting in the way.  Therefore, this assembly has been primed and shot with gloss white.  I used strips of tape cut to about an 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch in length to mask the interior, following the jagged edge of the louvers.  I’ll then shoot the metallic color on the intake louvers (they actually almost look like fan blades, but that doesn’t make any sense with the geometry of the housing; like Sci-Fi is supposed to make sense!), and then strip all of the masking and mask off this entire assembly and attach it to the fuselage.

Priming and sanding also continues on the main fuselage.  Holy cripes does this kit have a rough finish.  Every surface has a rough texture, the cut-outs along the fuselage side have craters running along them that shouldn’t be there, and there are just odd plastic protrusions and dips everywhere you look.  Clean-up is turning out to be as much of a chore as a resin kit would be.  But, it’s better than no kit at all, and it’ll clean up nicely in the end.