Pirate Raider

This is the Temporal Rift Pirate Raider model. It’s in scale with the Revell Starfury kit. It is the first Babylon 5 Garage Kit I’ve dared to make. I have quite a collection of resin B5 kits, but I’ve balked at working on them because I wanted to be able to do them justice. After the Raider, I think I’ll try some of the others.

The kit itself was very simple. It was one big triangular hunk-o-resin, a front and rear canopy piece, exhausts and guns. I washed the pieces and noticed that the resin was quite brittle. It’s amazing how different resin kits can be.

I like the panel lines in the hull but they weren’t very deep and I knew that my painting would surely fill them in. I used a metal tool and spent a night or two digging them much deeper. I slipped here and there, but managed to sand most of the boo-boos away. When I was done, I had dug nice deep canyons.

I glued the canopy together. The front and rear pieces needed a bit of putty. I pulled out my Magic Sculpt ® putty I picked up at ImageNation Expo 2001 and tried it. This was my first attempt at a serious application of this stuff. I was amazed at how well it went on. I smoothed it to the perfect shape and when it was dry, I wet sanded it to even greater perfection. A chorus of angels sang over the plastic.

The exhausts were stuck on without incident, but there was a burglary involved with the guns. When it came time to affix the guns, I discovered I had lost one of them (losing parts has been a recent problem of mine). They weren’t that great anyway (a couple of air holes and simple construction), so I went ahead and scratch-built the protruding barrels and drilled them into the wings. Not a bad job, if I say so myself.

I searched the net for reference pictures of the Raider (a.k.a Zephyr 109 Light Fighter/Interceptor )and could only find a tan/brown scheme from the show. The box art showed a bizarre camouflage design which I don’t remember ever having seen before. I opted for the ubiquitous tan design.

I was going to do a monochromatic scheme but then I ran across a couple of Raiders from Wonderfest and other model shows on the net. That did it. I had to do more with mine if I was ever to get into Modeler’s heaven. I mixed the paint from my collection Liquitex Basic acrylics. Yellow Oxide was the base dark color, and I added a bit of titanium white for the lighter panels. I used frisket and blue tape for the masking. I painted the leading edge steel, masked it off and then used a dark sienna for the stripe-swirls.

I sealed the paint with Future and then worked on the panel lines. I mixed a thick dark brown glaze/wash from my limited oil paints and attacked the panel lines. Since they were good and deep it was an easy job. This technique has become one of my favorites lately. After the oil was partially dry, I wiped it off with a Q-tips and soft clothes. This leaves the paint in the crevices.

I painted the exhaust area by hand; dark gray with appropriate fine dry brushing on the aft engine plane. I weathered the model by airbrushing black soot streaks.

I drilled a angled hole in the bottom of the ship to accept a thin brass rod for a base giving it an in flight banking pose. I’ll eventually put a plaque on the stand stating it’s the Zephyr 109 Light Fighter/Interceptor? but I haven’t done it yet, have I?

This was a fun little kit to make, a fine foray into the Babylon 5 garage kit world, that strange yet wonderful world of poverty and pop culture!