ROCK-VIPER 1990

Figure number 15 in the Re-Color Project is the mountain climbing Rock-Viper. This figure had a pretty fitting color scheme for a mountain trooper from the start, and would have looked pretty good on a member of the Joe team, but for a Cobra it just didn't work. Cobra never bothered with camouflage on any of their other soldiers, so it looked out of place here and needed to be changed to something more in line with the other ground forces. Its not like the camo would matter anyways when his whole platoon is shouting Cobra! at the top of their lungs.

Since the Rock-Viper was essentially a Viper with mountain gear, he was given the Original Cobra color scheme or Blue, Black, and Red. The figure I had to work with had been given a chunky coat of enamel paint, so there was plenty of sanding to get this guy into something resembling a useable state. The figure was also missing a head so one had to be located elsewhere.

Once this was taken care of, I started by giving the figure a coat of navy blue, with black for his boots, gloves, and web gear. Since this figure doesn't have a body armor vest for the typical black with red shoulders Viper look, I made the chest panel between the shoulder straps black and added red to the chest pockets. The padded gauntlets look so much like standard Viper gauntlets that they had to be red, and the boot padding was painted red to match. The visor was painted silver as is standard for troops in this color scheme, and the bullets on his chest were also given a coat of silver. The belt buckle was going to be red but it didn't look as good and since the buckle doesn't have a Cobra logo on it anyways, I went ahead and changed it to silver.

For the final touch his facial hair was added in brown so it would stand out from the black chinstrap. I was originally not going to add the facial hair but since its sculpted onto the figures face, it looked funny without it painted. A Cobra logo in red will be on his sleeve at some point when I get more decals, but I didn't want to hold up the project over that one detail so I have decided to go ahead and publish him now.

So here he is looking a whole lot more like a Cobra should.

Figure: Rock-Viper 1990

Scheme: Original Cobra

Notes: A front and rear view of Rock-Viper, and a group shot with Viper for comparison.