From the appropriate BtRL .VP (not sure which) extract the maps, the .POF, the .ANIs associated with the Viper.
Find the table info on the ships.tbl, and copy all the viper info into a Notepad. Save it as viper-shp.tbm, making sure to select "All Files" below the save file thingy.
Any .POF files go into /mediavps/models
Any .TGA, .DDS, .PCX, .ANI files go into /mediavps/maps
any .TBM, .TBL files go into /mediavps/tables. You should not use .TBL files, as they will not generally include table entries for other custom ships you may have added. Simply open the table in Notepad, copy the info for the ship you want into another blank Notepad, and save it as "<ship name>-shp.tbm". Then put it in /mediavps/tables.
As for the shields, you need to create a mesh (model), and an ANI. (or use an existing .ANI)