# HELP! Jacques Cousteau's Calypso (Revell 1976) advice, please...



## danko (Jan 18, 2006)

Hello,
First time poster, first time I've built a kit in 16 years!
When I saw this kit on Ebay, I couldn't resist it - a 1:125 scale model of Cousteau's famous boat. The thing is, I'm worried about mucking it up. Can anyone offer me any advice? Have you built this kit before? Are there any good tips for realistically painting boat models of this size?

All advice very much appreciated!

Thanks!

Danko


----------



## fluke (Feb 27, 2001)

Howdy and welcome Danko! :wave: 

Cool kit indeed!....It has been years since I have built that kit. 

Didn't that model come with a full color booklet? All I can say is that kit came with some very nice box pics so use them as a painting guide and maybe get a hold of some VHS or DVD from the show? 

I can not remember where on the net I saw it but one dude did what I always wanted to do...he detailed the bridge, opended some of the doors, added hallways to the upper decks and lit the dang thing! with the LED options out today that would be easy and very effective.


----------



## PhilipMarlowe (Jan 23, 2004)

I had one of those too, I kept the diving saucer for years till it finally disapeared. it was a cool kit, besides the _Calypso_ there was a helicopter, and a couple of mini-subs.


----------



## danko (Jan 18, 2006)

I hadn't even thought about LEDs! That would be fantastic!
There is indeed a booklet, but my main concerns are...

will 1976 revell plastic take to new tamiya acrylic paint? and should I prime?
How do I acheive a wood effect on the deck and how best can I give it a realistic weathered look?


----------



## beck (Oct 22, 2003)

i would ( as always ) definately prime . the tamiya paints should do fine . 
and here's a method for wood decks i used on one of those big Revell Constitution kits ( it was recommended in the instrxns ) .
first paint the deck flat black . then give it a coat of whatever brown ya want it to be ( deck tan works well ) .
then take some fine sandpaper and lightly sand until the black just begins to show through 
this works well IF the grain detail is raised . 
on the other hand , if the grain is set in you can paint brown first . do a wash and dry brush with lighter browns . 
happy modelling ! 
hb


----------



## danko (Jan 18, 2006)

Thank you so much for all the help so far. This will sound dumb, but what do I use to prime?


----------



## beck (Oct 22, 2003)

i use krylon grey primer . available at Wal Mart for @ 3 $ a can . 
shake well and spray light coats . 
hb


----------



## fluke (Feb 27, 2001)

I still have one of the kits Sharks in one of my small parts drawers.

Now I want one.


----------



## danko (Jan 18, 2006)

They're on Ebay for round $60. I was more than happy to pay that.


----------



## MangoMan (Jul 29, 1999)

I also built this kit as a kid, then had to have it when I found a sealed kit on EvilBay. I built it pretty much straight out of the box. I used inkjet decals for the portholes and door windows, which really made the kit pop.

I used Rust-o-leum's "Fusion" plastic primer in white. I love that stuff. Then it was just a matter of using whatever was in my paint collection.

All in all it was just as much fun to build it now as it was back then. And, although I'm not the greatest of modelers now, my skills have definitely improved since I was 10! :thumbsup:


----------



## danko (Jan 18, 2006)

Mango, that's fantastic! Really helpful and scary to have something to live up to!
What are inkjet decals?


----------



## scotpens (Sep 6, 2003)

danko said:


> Mango, that's fantastic! Really helpful and scary to have something to live up to!
> What are inkjet decals?


I assume he means decals that you create yourself on a computer with graphics software such as Illustrator, InDesign, QuarkXpress, Photoshop or whatever, then print out on clear decal film (available at many hobby and craft stores) on an inkjet printer. The Bare-Metal Foil Co. makes decal film for this purpose in clear and white, and in types designed for both inkjet and laser printers.


----------



## danko (Jan 18, 2006)

Will the decals that came with the kit no longer work?


----------



## scotpens (Sep 6, 2003)

danko said:


> Will the decals that came with the kit no longer work?


It's possible that 30-year-old decals may be so brittle and yellowed as to be unuseable. I would cut a small piece of non-essential decal and apply it to a piece of scrap plastic to see whether it remains intact. In any case, it's a good idea to scan the sheet and save it as a hi-res, full-color (CMYK) TIFF or JPEG image file to use as backup if you want to duplicate the decals. (If you don't have the equipment, the software, or the skills, a local print shop can do it for you.)


----------



## MangoMan (Jul 29, 1999)

danko said:



> Will the decals that came with the kit no longer work?


The decals that came with my kit worked just fine. I just wanted to add a bit to the kit.

I use the SuperCal decal system. If you look closely, I also made decals for the green-words-on-white part of the stand.


----------



## beck (Oct 22, 2003)

beautiful BU Mango ! i didn't realize it came with all those cool goodies .
hb


----------



## scotpens (Sep 6, 2003)

I always especially liked those futuristic-looking Diving Saucers — even though they look like they run backwards!


----------



## ChrisW (Jan 1, 1970)

Nice work Mango - I can almost hear John Denver singing on the wind...


----------



## fluke (Feb 27, 2001)

ah yes.....that was an awesome show and I can still hear Mr. Cousteau's narrations.....



........as the Calypso and her crew head north to the great Pacific Ocean to study the rare three finned happy fish... Phillipe is taking some time out to water ski behind the Calypso....Uh oh....a great white shark has made his presence known to us but Phillipe is not concerned for he knows that the .....what......Phillipe is now skiing on on ski....it appears that the Shark was hungry but Phillipe is strong and holds on for he has dealt with these great beast of the sea before....oh oh...now Phillipe is no where to be seen.....


Be with us next week when the Calypso heads to the dark waters of Bellefonte to study sightings of swimming rats with gills.


----------



## spe130 (Apr 13, 2004)

Saw a sad article a few days ago on Yahoo News about the poor Calypso rusting away during a legal fight over her ownership. She needs a total rebuild from the hull in.


----------



## fluke (Feb 27, 2001)

What a shame! It should be fixed up and put on display as a museum ship.

Now that John Denver song is stuck in my skull....Good tune at least!


----------



## fluke (Feb 27, 2001)

_Calypso_ was originally the minesweeper *BYMS-26* (British Yard Minesweeper) built for the British Royal Navy by the _Ballard Marine Railway Co, Seattle, WA.,_ in the US. As hull number _J-826_ she was launched on March 21, 1942, and after acceptance and commissioning by the UK was assigned to the Mediterranean. After the war she became a ferry between Malta and the island of Gozo, and was renamed _Calypso_ because, according to Homer, Calypso, a nymph, lived on the island of Gozo. The Irish entrepreneur Loel_Guinness bought her and when it was doing service as a Maltese ferry, and leased it to Cousteau for a symbolic one franc a year. Cousteau, who restructured and transformed her into an expedition vessel, to provide support for immediate oceanographic analysis and diving and filming.

A barge accidentally rammed _Calypso_ and sank her in the port of Singapore in 1996. It was raised, and towed to the Maritime Museum of La Rochelle in 1998, where it was intended to be an exhibit. But after languishing and rusting at La Rochelle for six years, _Calypso_ sold to Carnival Cruise Lines for the symbolic sum of one Euro. Carnival has stated that they intend to give the vessel a 1.3 million dollar restoration, and then likely moor it in the Bahamas as an exhibit. See this cyber diver news page for details of this plan and developments.


----------



## scotpens (Sep 6, 2003)

spe130 said:


> Saw a sad article a few days ago on Yahoo News about the poor Calypso rusting away during a legal fight over her ownership. She needs a total rebuild from the hull in.


_Calypso_ was a converted wooden-hulled minesweeper of WWII vintage, so it's not surprising the old tub is deteriorating. Still, it's unfortunate — she ought to be preserved if possible. Here's an excellent reference site:
http://home.wanadoo.nl/renewesterhuis/History_of_BYM/index.html


fluke said:


> ah yes.....that was an awesome show and I can still hear Mr. Cousteau's narrations.....


I guess all of us smarty-pants kids who grew up watching Cousteau's adventures did imitations of him. From a bit my brother and I used to do (of course, you have to imagine the cheesy fake French accent):

_We had dived to a depth of fifty meters when we realized, to our great horror, that we had forgotten to put on our aqualungs. We immediately began choking and gasping for air, but before we lost consciousness, our cameraman managed to capture this rare film footage of my son Philippe being devoured alive by the great tiger shark._

Poor Philippe (who sadly died in a plane crash in 1979). I wonder how many times he was eaten by a shark in spoofs by precocious 14-year-olds!


----------



## docplastic (May 10, 2003)

From the Shameless Commerce Division: The story of Jacques Cousteau and Revell is told in "Remembering Revell" by Schiffer Books. There's a photo of Philippe Cousteau standing next to Royle Glaser (Revell Pres.) with the Revell model of the PBY in which he died. Both the Calypso and PBY are great models, but were not good sellers in the stores.


----------



## MangoMan (Jul 29, 1999)

Maybe someone'll be brave enough to make a kit of Calypso II??


----------



## scotpens (Sep 6, 2003)

MangoMan said:


> Maybe someone'll be brave enough to make a kit of Calypso II??





> . . . this is a 217-footer with a monorail fore and a catamaran aft propelled by a mixture of diesel, electric and wind energy. Her 86-ft. turbosail uses wind to turn the propellers.


Er, exqueeze me — _monorail_?? I assume they mean mono_hull_. And the tall "turbosail" doesn't supply power to turn the propellers — that would require a windmill coupled to a generator. The airfoil-like structure actually creates propulsive force aerodynamically, much like a traditional sail.

Picky, picky, picky. Anyway, it's an interesting craft — will the full-size version ever get built, much less replicated in model kit form?


----------



## Brent Gair (Jun 26, 1999)

Though not of any usefulness, I have to add my trivial brush with greatness.

As a teenage student pilot in 1976, I was taxiing for takeoff when I was asked to hold short at a runway intersection. I had to wait for Cousteau's PBY-6A to takeoff and it was just becoming airborne as it passed a few feet in front of my Cessna. I still remember it clearly because it was such a perfect day and it was the only time I used Runway 13 (strange thing to recall after 30 years).


----------

