I made a top down game using DirectX two years ago. A couple of things you can do are:
1) Just attach the 2D image of the viper to a face on a cube and rotate the cube. That way you don't need multiple angles drawn of a viper. The opengl code handles it for you.
2) My source code is freely available at the following site. It was my first try at DirectX programming and I used it to help me get into the game industry. which I have since left to return to the better paying and more stable field of electrical engineering.
http://mods.firstones.com/sector87/
