A complete 1987 Sea Ray vehicle.
One sheet of repro Tiger Rat stickers.
Krylon Fusion satin white spray paint.
Krylon Fusion sunbeam yellow spray paint.
Krylon Fusion satin black spray paint.
Krylon Fusion satin khaki spray paint.
Automotive masking tape.
Automotive masking paper.

This vehicle was inspired by the Hasbro concept art for the new Tiger Force vehicles that showed a Sea Ray as part of the 1989 series. I always thought Tiger Force had a very cool appearance with its vehicles and the Tiger Ray artwork was no exception.

I knew right away I had to have one when I saw those pictures so I bought a complete Sea Ray that was badly discolored and went about making my own Tiger Force version. The missiles and guns are already the right color, so they need no painting and were set aside. The black parts on the underside also didn't need paint. The vehicle itself was completely disassembled and cleaned.

After each part was cleaned and stickers removed, all the blue parts, and the black tail fin were painted with Krylon satin white. This gives a nice bright foundation for the yellow paint that follows. When applying the yellow I left the front portion of the cockpit unpainted so the white undercoat remained and then I painted a single strip of Krylon satin khaki down the center of the cockpit were the yellow and white overlapped.

After a few days dry time, the stripes were masked off using the concept art as a guide and painted with Krylon satin black. I used the same type of paint for every color since some brands react badly with others and cause lifting or crinkling of the paint.

Once the stripes have had time to dry, the stickers were applied using the same concept art as a reference. The mouth and some of the Joe stickers with the red white and blue stripes had to be trimmed and reshaped a bit to achieve a good fit.

I was quite pleased with the end result and had to wonder why Hasbro didn't come out with this vehicle back in 89.