TIGER RAY

Tiger Force Sea Ray

This vehicle is based on the 1989 concept art shown in some Hasbro promotional flyers but never released in stores. The pictures looked awesome and I knew the first time I saw them that a custom was in store. To prepare for this one I picked up a badly discolored Sea Ray, a set of repro Tiger Rat stickers, and some extra spray paints and masking tape.

First thing done was to completely disassemble the vehicle, remove all the old stickers and give all the parts a good cleaning. The missiles, guns, and lower black parts were already the right color so I set them aside. All the other parts were base coated white and then the mid and rear portions had yellow applied over this, leaving the front half of the cockpit white. A stripe of khaki tan was applied down the center of the cockpit where the white and yellow meet and that completed the cockpit painting.

After the paint had hardened for a few days, the striped were added by loosely fitting the two wing sections together and taping off all the stripes at once so they lined up. The two wing sections were then taken back apart and painted separately. Once the wing stripes had been added the vehicle was reassembled and the access panel behind the window was then masked off so the stripes would line up with the stripes on the wings. This part was then removed again to add the stripes, and the painting was complete.

For the stickers I used a reproduction sheet for the Tiger Rat, a little trimming here and there and the project was finished. Its a shame that Hasbro didn't release this vehicle back in 89, it would have been a cool one to have.