SONIC VIPER 1990

The 14th figure in the Cobra Re-Color Project is the Viper from the Sonic Fighters line. According to the filecard, this batch of Vipers are outfitted with unstable weapons prototypes to field test on the battlefield. So in effect these guys are Vipers that work for the R&D department of Cobra risking their butts to further developement. With this in mind I wanted to use either Tele-Viper colors or Techno-Viper colors on the Sonic Viper. While I was never a fan of the violet purple that came about in later years on Cobras, I loved it on Techno-Viper. I thought it very fitting since he managed to match both Dr. Mindbender and Tele-Viper, the two main technical oriented Cobras of the time. Its for that reason that Techno-Viper wasn't repainted in this project and why his color scheme is available for the Sonic Viper.

I tried the Tele-Viper colors first since it would be as easy as changing all the red parts and his thigh pockets to purple. While this tied in well with Tele-Viper it looked rather bland, oddly much more so than Tele-Viper himself. It also looked too much like a normal 1986 Viper, and had more of a squad leader appearance. After that I moved on to the Techno-Viper colors and could tell right away it was going to be much more distinct and eye catching. Painting the Viper in these colors changed his appearance dramatically from the original 1986 model, so it was obvious he was a different type of Viper with a different battlefield role.

I tested a few arrangements of details until I found something that worked for this figure. At first the knee pads were silver, but it looked wrong so I made them black instead. I considered making his sleeves dark purple like Techno-Viper, but since his helmet was dark purple already he needed some violet up top to keep things evened out. To keep the violet pants from being too overwhelming I made the pockets dark purple to darken things down a bit.

The helmet looked kind of dull with the silver visor and black goggle lenses and right at the last moment I decided to make the goggle lenses yellow like the eyes on Techno-Viper. Since I painted in the yellow eyes on most of my Techo-Vipers years ago to match their card art, this little touch really tied the two helmets together. The Cobra logo was intended to be red initially, but the silver one just fit so much better for the final effect.

So here he is, ready to risk some fingers testing unstable weapons prototypes.

Figure: Sonic Viper 1990
Scheme: Engineering
Notes: A front and rear view of Sonic Viper and a group shot with Techno-Viper (with yellow eyes added). The camera reacted badly with the violet paint and made it look pinkish in the pictures.