# Finally getting around to my 8 window seaview.. a few questions...



## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

I've been a closet modeller for far too long, and if I don;t build something, I'm gonna asplode!

So I did a quick test fit of the 8 window seaview, and seeing the shape lit my fires.

A few questions, as I've looked over other build threads and the instructions...

Is it worth drilling out the openings in the window girders? I've got a 1/32nd drill bit, and know I could drill them out, but from what I can see, once assembled you really can't see them well anyway.

I'm seeing a small bit of warpage in the main hull parts, but I'm guessing that once glued, they'll be fine. Correct?

Test fitting, it looks like there might be a small gap where the top tail fins meet the back of the missle silo body section. Does this match well once glued, or is this one of the areas you need to putty?

Build plans are to build it pretty much as is, but with some cheap led string lights. I'm thinking it might be better to sand the backs of the clear parts to get more even illumination. Has anyone done this?

The front windows look smoother and with less ditortion than on the 4 window version. Is everyone just using the stock windows, or replacing them with thinner clear plastic?

I'm sure there will be more questions as I progress, but holding the shape in my hands takes me back to the thrill of building the old aurora kit back in the 60s again!

55, going on 8.


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## jbond (Aug 29, 2002)

Regarding the girders, I believe on the set the holes are just depressions that are painted a slightly different color, so I wouldn't drill them out.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

After grabbing a few clips from the movie, I think yer right. I started painting and building today.

When a cut and cleaned off the first two parts, I had trouble getting them together. As I read the instructions, it looked like they were supposed to be flush, and one part didn't have any holes for the pins.

I looked at several wip pics from others, and it looked like they should be assembled "forked" in the front, and I just could not figure out hopw they were supposed to be asembled.

I FINALLY noticed a third part had been freed from the sprue, and THAT was one of the first two parts I needed! Then I noticed the angle cut on it and the holes, and it made sense.

Within just a few minutes, I had the whole upper deck cage assembly done. WHEW!

I started looking for details they missed on the kit, and the only thing I don't see on the lower observation deck is the model of the seaview itself.

They even have the fire extingishers on the sides, and even the phone on the wall on the left under the floor support. I'm surprised they missed something like that.

Even though the kit is large, the detail on this is almost microscopic! I'm just amazed what detail they managed to get in there. And then I looked at the spiral staircase.. whoever figured out how to do that in only two parts deserves a medal!

It looks like my budget lighting plan will work fine.

I grabbed an aa battery switchbox from one set of lights, and married that to string of micro leds that were in a holiday ribbon, and they work perfectly together. (There are 36, so I can position them well in the observation deck, and it looks like they'll fit with a little finagling in the tail fins.)

One thing I'm considering is adding a few light behind the exhaust fans in the back, and adding some polyfill and clear beads behind them to simulate the bubble that come out of the engines. They bubbles coming out always picked up the light and looked illuminated to me when I was a kid.

Not a ton of light back there, but just enough to add some interest.

I've been buying all the IA kits since they've been released, and have yet to build up even one. Its nice to start down that road after all these years.

(After seeing all the great stuff here, every time I was going to start a kit, I'd see something someone here did great, and I didn't want to muck up my own kit, making something that looked like crap in comparison.)

Here's to hoping mine doesn't stray down that path...

I'll post wip pics once I have something worth showing.


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## jbond (Aug 29, 2002)

That's a good idea about lighting up the engine tubes; I did something like that with one of the terrible Lunar Models vacuform Seaviews years ago.

Here's what I did with my movie Seaview:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lazymodeler/sets/72157632793606130/

I used warm white Christmas light LEDs, crammed a bunch right over the top of the upper deck and cut a piece of clear sheet plastic and frosted it and glued that to the top of the walls as a clear "ceiling" to diffuse the lights. The warm white LEDs gave me the yellow-orange interior look I wanted.


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## Gary K (Aug 26, 2002)

gareee said:


> I started looking for details they missed on the kit, and the only thing I don't see on the lower observation deck is the model of the seaview itself.
> 
> They even have the fire extingishers on the sides, and even the phone on the wall on the left under the floor support. I'm surprised they missed something like that.


No, I did not miss the Seaview model. The 4 ft model sat on a stand that raised it halfway to the overhead cabinets, and in a kit it would look funky as a raised bump on the counter. Anybody bulding the 1st season version would have to sand it off because they moved the model around on the set. This is why they made etched brass parts.

Gary


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## RogueJ (Oct 29, 2000)

Gary, great kit and you did an excellent job. This is the kit I've wanted since I first saw her grace the screen back in 1961. Nice touch adding the phone. Though I think I'll have to remove it to place the decals. Then I'll add it back.

Thanks for the hard work,
John


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## Paulbo (Sep 16, 2004)

Gary K said:


> ...This is why they made etched brass parts.


:wave:

You always have a well thought out reason behind your decisions. I hadn't even thought about the Seaview model being a blob in the injection molded kit.


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## Gary K (Aug 26, 2002)

Paulbo said:


> :wave:
> 
> You always have a well thought out reason behind your decisions. I hadn't even thought about the Seaview model being a blob in the injection molded kit.


Besides, you need SOMETHING to do. 

Gary


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## Paulbo (Sep 16, 2004)

Lol


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

jbond said:


> That's a good idea about lighting up the engine tubes; I did something like that with one of the terrible Lunar Models vacuform Seaviews years ago.
> 
> Here's what I did with my movie Seaview:
> 
> ...


Yep, yours is one of the web pages I've kept open during my build for reference.  I really didn't find near as many build wip threads on the 8 window version as we saw on th eolder 4 window version.

And I hear ya about the model seaview being so tiny to mold up. Even the phone is barely more than a shaped blob. the extinguishers came out pretty well as did the control console details.

(As far as photo etch is concerned, I'm looking at it from purely a consumer point of view, and the price exceeds my perception of its value to me, all due respect to the work involved in its creation.)


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## jbond (Aug 29, 2002)

I got the photoetch set for the movie Seaview--it may have actually came with two radar antennae; I know I had a leftover that I used for the movie Seaview. The photoetch set was very helpful for getting a good look for the limber holes (and I love that it includes the obscure vents around the keel between the propulsion tubes).


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

I like how the limber holes look with photoetch, but I also just painted them black as a kid on the old aurora kit, so I'll be doing the same on my Moebius kits.

(Actully, on my first aurora kit, I ainted it metallic olive green (and I have no idea why), and painted the limber holes white, because I thought they were windows.

I remember a freind had a backyard cememt pond, and we had fun sinking it and pushing it underwater so it looked like it was under its own power.

That kit later had the entire middle section cut out, and I glued the front and back with fins togther for a mini submarine.

And that same freind had a woodpile, and that kit died a grisly death when we discovered M80 firecrackers.


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## jbond (Aug 29, 2002)

I never blew up any models as a kid but I definitely recall getting the Aurora Seaview into water and noticing that it operated very smoothly and had a real glide factor underwater!


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## Gary K (Aug 26, 2002)

RogueJ said:


> Gary, great kit and you did an excellent job. This is the kit I've wanted since I first saw her grace the screen back in 1961. Nice touch adding the phone. Though I think I'll have to remove it to place the decals. Then I'll add it back.
> 
> Thanks for the hard work,
> John


I wish Frank had extra money sitting around so I could fix the rear half of the sub. Better yet, re-engineer the kit with a removeable upper deck & open limber holes, and release it in 1:96 scale to compete with Revell's giant WWII subs.

Oh well, I can dream...

Gary


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Whats wrong with the back end?


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## Gary K (Aug 26, 2002)

gareee said:


> Whats wrong with the back end?


The most egregious problem is the bullet-shaped propulsion tubes. They *should* be more teardrop-shaped, with the pointy end pointing forward and the blunt end sliced off. The 1:350 Seaview got it better, although it was like pulling teeth to get the Chinese to fix the tubes as much as they did. The fins on the tubes are too pointy, and I could fix them with a tracing I made of one of the 17-footer's fins. The centers of the tubes on the 17-ft miniature are not parallel, like you'd think they should be. Rather, the aft ends are slightly closer together than the front ends. The 8.5-footer appears to be similarly constructed, but unfortunately, we don't have the 8.5-ft model to measure directly, and we can only use photos to make educated guesses about the precise orientation of the tubes. There's more, but these are the most noticeable problems with the 1:128 kits.

Gary


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## Fernando Mureb (Nov 12, 2006)

Gary K said:


> I wish Frank had extra money sitting around so I could fix the rear half of the sub. Better yet, re-engineer the kit with a removeable upper deck & open limber holes, and release it in 1:96 scale to compete with Revell's giant WWII subs.
> 
> Oh well, I can dream...
> 
> Gary


Well, if YOU can dream, so do we.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Gary K said:


> The most egregious problem is the bullet-shaped propulsion tubes. They *should* be more teardrop-shaped, with the pointy end pointing forward and the blunt end sliced off. The 1:350 Seaview got it better, although it was like pulling teeth to get the Chinese to fix the tubes as much as they did. The fins on the tubes are too pointy, and I could fix them with a tracing I made of one of the 17-footer's fins. The centers of the tubes on the 17-ft miniature are not parallel, like you'd think they should be. Rather, the aft ends are slightly closer together than the front ends. The 8.5-footer appears to be similarly constructed, but unfortunately, we don't have the 8.5-ft model to measure directly, and we can only use photos to make educated guesses about the precise orientation of the tubes. There's more, but these are the most noticeable problems with the 1:128 kits.
> 
> Gary


WOW! You really are a stickler for detail. BTW, I can't tell you how cool it is that you posted in my wip thread here.

Out of all the builds you've seen, do you have one favorite? Has anyone done anything that REALLY surprised/impressed you?


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## Gary K (Aug 26, 2002)

gareee said:


> WOW! You really are a stickler for detail. BTW, I can't tell you how cool it is that you posted in my wip thread here.
> 
> Out of all the builds you've seen, do you have one favorite? Has anyone done anything that REALLY surprised/impressed you?


I just figure that if you're going to the huge expense to produce a plastic kit, it might as well be done as accurately as possible - which I think would be a strong selling point. To tell the truth, between designing kits for Moebius & Polar Lights and being a cancer care provider, I haven't had much time in the past year to keep up with Hobby Talk. Anybody who has built a Seaview kit has built one more than I have!

Gary


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

I hear ya.. life just demands way more time tese days, I think. I got hit a few years ago hospitalized with diabetes and I didn't really get back to an even keel for about a year.

My vision still has issues, and I'm juggling 3 damned pairs of glasses to see well enough to build tiny model details now, but life is far too short, and I'd hate to leave my wife with a closet full of unbuilt dreams.

The discussion here seems to really have faded a way a lot from the old days when Moebius was here "officially".

Its still great to see developers here. Hell, when I was a kid doing aurora kits back in the 60's there would have never been any ghost of a chance in hell from corrisponding with a kit developer.

Yer a rock star to me, Gar!


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## Gary K (Aug 26, 2002)

gareee said:


> I hear ya.. life just demands way more time tese days, I think. I got hit a few years ago hospitalized with diabetes and I didn't really get back to an even keel for about a year.
> 
> My vision still has issues, and I'm juggling 3 damned pairs of glasses to see well enough to build tiny model details now, but life is far too short, and I'd hate to leave my wife with a closet full of unbuilt dreams.
> 
> ...


Aw shucks... What can I say?  

Here's something of interest for everybody....

I asked sub expert Dave Merriman what the effect of having the back ends of the propulsion tubes pointed inward would be, and here's what he said:

"The toe-in to the two shafts produces a much longer moment arm between the vessels center-of-rotation (c.g.) and respective drive axis. Much more force is presented about the yaw axis when using the shafts deferentially for turning."

In layman's terms, the Seaview could theoretically make a U-turn faster to get away from the Seaweed Monster - although they never did that on the show. 

Gary


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

So if I do a seaweed monster diorama, do I point the ship away from him now? 

Question: Pictures of people's build ups show a dark brown floor.. but after watching snips from the movie, it looks like either beige tile or possibly even beige carpet.

My wife was off for a few days, so I had no work time, and today I had to cut up half a damned tree, so hopefully I'll get back to work on this in a day (I have a feeling I'll have to cut the grass tomorrow before it gets too high already!)


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## Gary K (Aug 26, 2002)

gareee said:


> So if I do a seaweed monster diorama, do I point the ship away from him now?
> 
> Question: Pictures of people's build ups show a dark brown floor.. but after watching snips from the movie, it looks like either beige tile or possibly even beige carpet.


This publicity shot from the movie shows a lighter brown shag carpet, which was removed for the series. Also of note - you can see the edge of the rear projection screen in the far right window.

Gary


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Ok, so series is dark brown, but movie is ugly 60's chocolate milk shag carpet.

I think I'll have to go with the dark brown as well then. If I paint it this color, whenever I look inside, thats all I'm gonna see!

Thanks for the promo still!


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## irishtrek (Sep 17, 2005)

GaryK is Moebius considering doing a 1/350 scale of the 8 window sub???


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## Gary K (Aug 26, 2002)

irishtrek said:


> GaryK is Moebius considering doing a 1/350 scale of the 8 window sub???


Not that I'm aware of. I talked to Dave Metzner this afternoon, and Moebius' plate is totally full for the coming year. I was shocked by the sheer number & variety of kits - sci-fi, cars, figures, pre-built, etc. I suggested a 1:72 scale Seaview to him, and - well, that ain't gonna happen. Who knows? Maybe they'll consider a 1:350 8-window Seaview further down the road. In the meantime, watch for my LIS Robot later this year (I hope). It's going to be even better than I thought.

Gary


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

I'm REALLY looking foreward to the B9. Is he true 1:6 scale?


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## Gary K (Aug 26, 2002)

gareee said:


> I'm REALLY looking foreward to the B9. Is he true 1:6 scale?


Totally. I purchased period dialites, a spare (untrimmed) bubble made for the show, a torso casting based on the original plaster molds, and other parts, and I had access to many his-res photos of the original Robot. I even got to measure the original - and very heavy - tread section in LA. This kit has had an extremely long gestation period, but the results will be worth it. And before you ask, we're still trying to figure the best way to cast the @#$! bubble.

Gary


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

McFarlane toys had the same isue with the space Mini me figure they released years ago. They managed to get a 3/4 globe without seam lines.

I had a contact with them years ago.. I can try to contact them if you like, and see if he remembers.

Here's a wip finally... the finished control room. I was pretty pleased with the paint job, until I of course took a hi res digital pic, showing off all the flaws. 8(

I decided I wanted a wood look floor, so I used a stiff bristle brush and hand painted it in lengthwise strokes. The effect looks fine to the naked eye. I did the same on the brown walls to simulate panelling, and even managed to add the silver kick panels, but those look like hell to the camera.
I sanded the back of a cut of clear plastic, and glued that in above the back cabinets for lighting. I'm probably going to drill holes in the corridors in front of the watertight doors so I can light those doors and corridors as well.

Once its inside and lit from within, I think it'll look fine. (And its probably worlds better than the original models.)









I haven't decided if I want to put the figures in or not yet. I'll see how the paint on them looks first, but having at least one or two in there for scale would probably look nice.


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

Gary K said:


> The most egregious problem is the bullet-shaped propulsion tubes. They *should* be more teardrop-shaped, with the pointy end pointing forward and the blunt end sliced off. The 1:350 Seaview got it better, although it was like pulling teeth to get the Chinese to fix the tubes as much as they did. The fins on the tubes are too pointy, and I could fix them with a tracing I made of one of the 17-footer's fins. The centers of the tubes on the 17-ft miniature are not parallel, like you'd think they should be. Rather, the aft ends are slightly closer together than the front ends. The 8.5-footer appears to be similarly constructed, but unfortunately, we don't have the 8.5-ft model to measure directly, and we can only use photos to make educated guesses about the precise orientation of the tubes. There's more, but these are the most noticeable problems with the 1:128 kits.
> 
> Gary


So, this seems to be the perfect place to ask this question, as bizarre and useless as it may be. 

I know you've done a TON of work researching the living daylights out of the Seaview models, and whenever possible taken careful, precise measurements and all those lovely plan sheets with the red ink marking variations and so on.

OK. Excellent work and all. What I wonder is, given the (at least) two modifications of the larger Seaview models, re-purposed for different things, how sure can you be that what you measure NOW is what it really was back then, before the alterations?

I think of specific of when a Seaview was altered for Our Man Flint, removing (at the very least) the tailfins and the diving planes on the sail. Then of course there was the horrid chop job when they thought to use a Seaview as the Nautilus for 'The Amazing Captain Nemo' pilot. I'm not sure if they altered any Seaviews for 'City Beneath the Sea' but it wouldn't shock me if they used off-the-shelf Aurora kits like they seemed to do with some Aquafoil shots. 

Given the whole made-by-hand nature, how they had to fool around and cheat like mad with the skegs that joined manta fins to hull to engine pods and so on, could errors end up being introduced? I assume you took out the 'twist' that the skegs went thru for the sake of symmetry, as one example. 

but then I wonder, how much those little distortions, imperfections worked to create the Seaview we saw on screen. ( and lens distortion water distortion light temp color temp blah blah blah  )

I'm just curious. It's a fascinating topic.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Another question: Is there only one standing figure in the kit? Seems I have bunch of seated figures but only one standing.

I was hoping to have a few figures standing on the upper deck, and one standing on the lower deck next to the center control console.

I finally decided to use them not only for scale, but since I bitched because the J2 didn't include figures, that it would be both criminal and hypocritical to not use at least a few.

As it is right now, I put the standing one on the top deck, one seated behind the control console, and one seated in one of the front observation chairs.

I don't think the 4 window kit had any figures at all, so this will leave me some spares for that build.

I would have liked to have a spare standing figure or two as optional for the top sail opening, but ya make do with what ya have.


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## jbond (Aug 29, 2002)

I'm sure my came with several standing and sitting figures.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

I'll check the box to see if there are any standing ones loose in there. They are so small, one could easily be in a crack somewhere.

Also, the standing figures are too tall for the upper deck. When they designed it, they forshortened the height of the upper deck some, and if you put a figure anywhere near the windows, the top of the window comes about to their shoulders.

No real biggie.. I just relocated the standing figure back down to the lower deck, but it would have been nice to have something on that upper deck other than just the handrails in the back.

I've got the holes drilled now for lights in the top section, so now I'm just mulling over the best assembly/paint method. I hate the idea of masking windows that small, but it doesn't look like there is any way to get the lighting in there once its assembled together.


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## Gary K (Aug 26, 2002)

Steve H said:


> So, this seems to be the perfect place to ask this question, as bizarre and useless as it may be.
> 
> I know you've done a TON of work researching the living daylights out of the Seaview models, and whenever possible taken careful, precise measurements and all those lovely plan sheets with the red ink marking variations and so on.
> 
> ...


Trying to recreate an old prop is something of an art form. The process varies on a case-by-case basis, but in general you have to balance studio plans, surviving props, and screen caps. Examining surviving props is a start, but you need to verify them against screen caps in case they've been modified or restored incorrectly over the years. Studio plans of vessels aren't especially reliable, but I've found that plans of the interior sets are often fairly close to the actual design.

Cases where the vehicle was represented by a full-size prop and one or more miniatures represent a special challenge. The worst model in this regard was the Jupiter 2, which was represented by two full-size mock-ups & at least two primary miniatures (not counting the 10-footer) - and all were different. In cases like this I try to select the design features that viewers saw most cleanly or regard as "canon". Everybody regarded the 4-footer as the definitive shape of the vessel, and I added features that weren't necessarily on the model (the rear porthole) or ones we saw very clearly on the show (the landing gear that June Lockhart climbed down numerous times). Before anybody complains, I didn't use the 4-footer's actual crude-looking landing gear because it was barely seen on the show & people didn't know what exactly what it looked like till many years later when photos of the prop surfaced.

You also need to remove imperfections & irregularities in the original prop - sagging warp nacelles, asymmetrical halves of the hand-carved Flying Subs, etc. On the movie Seaview I used my casting of the 4-window Seaview's bow to get an idea of how the manta fins were supposed to look, and then I brought the fins back into level since they were level in the 8-window version. Everything was verified against screen caps, of course.

Gary


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Well, a week of rain, and then a week of vacation away, and I'm itching to get back to her.

I was planning on using a few alternating coats of rattlecan medium metallic gray, and a medium blue to try to get that bluish tint, but I came across some rattlecan automotive medium metallic silver blue that I think will look much better, and be easier to apply. While inaccurate color wise, it'll be close to that "kid vision" I always had of the seaview's color.

I've had time to mull over the lighting, painting and puttying, and I think I have the workflow nailed down now.

I'll do the front wireing, but leave the windows and spotlights out, but close them off with masking tape inside. To block light leak, I'll just use some of that aluminum duct tape from walmart. It blocks 100%, and I like that it will reflect the light around inside as well. Plus it sticks like the dickens.

Once the front is dry, I'll put the wireing in the back half, and complete that build with the exception of the tail lights. I'll putty n paint, and then insert all the clear parts in the front half, and then join the two halfs together.

The only issue I might run into is getting the front dead lights in, but I think I can manage that after the exterior is filled and painted.

Then I can putty the middle seam and then rattlecan paint that as well without worrying about the clear parts getting paint on them. The last thing will be painting the bottom.

I'm not sure I'll stick with the stock base. Fortunately, the light string I have can run battery or ac and has a plug now for either after some modification.

I might go with stock initially, just to put her on the mantel, but I'm thinking either an articulated 1:6 scale figure (or maybe a 18" figure) would be a perfect custom monster I can use in a ocean bottom base. The seaweed guy should be easy, but those amphibians are kind of attractive.

And once I finish the seaview, who knows? I might get the bug up mah butt to do the big flying sub as well finally.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Something about seeing a seaview in my bathtub makes me wanna play with it. My wife actually suggested getting an aquarium big enough for it for display. It WOULD be so cool to have a bubbler under it, but I don't think I want to be cleaning algea off of it every 6 months.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Question(s) to people who've already gone down this road:

I'm seeing some slight indentation on the outside where the internal support ribs are molded. They are VERY slight, but are there if you look hard.

Did you guys have to fill these at all, or were they fine?

Also, are the bottom of the sail planes supposed to be white? (Checking online reference images, but I haven't spotted any yet that show the bottom of the sail planes.)

I've now glued the front two halves together, and am sanding and prepping that for putty on the forehead area now. The seam isn't as bad as some I saw, after some hand sanding.

I used a combo of regular model glue and superglue, so I could continue working faster.

I'm still unsure where I want to run my lighting wire down through the bottom. I know I don't want it near the front at all, so it'll either be in the middle or towards the back.

I'm thinking of just using the stock bases initially, and not glueing them in, and then doing up something fancier down the road once I mull it over. I'd kind of like a custom base similar to the old aurora kit, or possibly later add a custom 12" figure of one of the undersea beasties rocking the ship.

If I could figure out a way to do a bunch of tentacles, I keep seeing a mental image of a bunch of them wrapped around the sub.

Maybe I'll save that idea for the 4 window version though.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

I finally figured out a way to post a pic of the rattlecan color I located. I think it was at autozone.

Plan is to paint it with this, and then hit it with a dull coat to knock the gloss down.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

I've got the forehead area filled, and am moving foreward with the build.











A little research online, and yep, the bottom of the sail planes are white. The molding of the parts is of course perfect to simply spray paint the bottom parts.

I'm VERY pleased at the color choice now, and am glad I held off till I found something that made me happy. Its a tad darker than the cap color, but the metallic flecks really pick up light well to add dimension to the surface.










Lighting plan is to get the lights and windows in the top, and just accept the minor seam in the front, since its barely noticable. I'll revisit that plan and see if I want to hand mask the deadlight sides, and fill that seam and paint it. Depends on how much it stands out.


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## Fernando Mureb (Nov 12, 2006)

gareee said:


> Something about seeing a seaview in my bathtub makes me wanna play with it. *My wife actually suggested getting an aquarium big enough for it for display*. It WOULD be so cool to have a bubbler under it, but I don't think I want to be cleaning algea off of it every 6 months.


Wow! Really?Lucky guy, you have a very gentle and tolerant wife. :wave:


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## Fernando Mureb (Nov 12, 2006)

gareee said:


> I've got the forehead area filled, and am moving foreward with the build.


I saw a giant below the Seaview! 




gareee said:


> A little research online, and yep, the bottom of the sail planes are white. The molding of the parts is of course perfect to simply spray paint the bottom parts.
> 
> I'm VERY pleased at the color choice now, and am glad I held off till I found something that made me happy. Its a tad darker than the cap color, but the metallic flecks really pick up light well to add dimension to the surface.
> 
> ...


Nice pictures. Thanks! :thumbsup:


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Fernando Mureb said:


> Wow! Really?Lucky guy, you have a very gentle and tolerant wife. :wave:


Fortunately, shes a fan geek as well, so she likes to share in things I like as well. 

I just looked, and seems Admiral Nelson went walkabout from the lower deck.. and I can't seem to locate him anywhere. Grrrrr!

I'll check to see if the 4 window version included people, and if so, I'll use the last standing figure to redo him.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Seaview gets some color, and a test fit. I'm really digging the metallic color choice. I did a test adding a dullcoat, and it lightens the color up slightly, which is perfect before weathering. It also reduces the "metalflake" appearance a little as well.​This is just the color coat, drying, and some add ons for the pic. The sonar dome is a different color, and the outer hull airlock doors will also be a darkish silver as well.​


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## jbond (Aug 29, 2002)

Looks kind of like the old Roy Grimmell Aurora box top painting...


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Thats what I was shooting for.. that slightly dull metallic blue, the color it might appear to be when seen in underwater shots.

Its a hard balance.. I wanted it somewhat blue, but not so intense that is screamed out at you. I've seen it done in a flat pale blue, and that just didn't look quite right to me.

Plain gray just looks too "military" to my eye, and I figured nelson would use some new alloy on the Seaview's unique profile.

In bright sunlight, it stands out almost too garish, but indoors, it looks exactly as I hoped for.


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## Fernando Mureb (Nov 12, 2006)

Man, you work fast, don't you!

There's no visible presence of particles stuck on the paint. Do you have a homemade hobby paint booth?


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Nope. That was just rattlecan outdoors. We have two cats, and doign things indoors always ends up with hair on them, so I try to do whatever I can outdoors. I also rinsed it with water first, and used a blow dryer first to try it, and then let it sit in the sun for about 5 minutes to make sure everything was dry.

The filler on the forehead is fine, but the nose area could have used a bit more. I'm considering sanding that some, and ading more body filler, but I'm afraid that might cause more problems than solve. I have to take 3 days away becase my wife's off, but I hope to work on her again this weekend.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Work today was some detailing, inner masking to reduce light bleed, and some lighting tests. I'll have 1 small red led on the inner nose center, three above/along the girder cage, one above that lighted seat alcove, and one above each inner airlock door corridor. I was just taping and holding things in place, so no way I can take pics yet, but it looks just as I'd hoped. 










Here's the top front hatch detailing, 










And one of the sail door's detailing. There will be lights in the airlock doors, as well as the window above the lower sail doors.

Question: I just noticed my front clear searchlight has a bubble molded in it. Are they all like this?

The bubble of course lights up inside when I put a light behind it. Not sure what to do about it. 8/

I also did not paint the interior of the front halves to block light bleed, so I'll have to eight duct tape or insert an aluminum foil tube to keep the front from having too much light bleed.

I'll take a pic of the lights I'm using as well so you can see what I'm working with.


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## Fernando Mureb (Nov 12, 2006)

The details are nicely done!

Those pictures allow us to see that the paint made the hull seem like the real thing.

I'm not sure, but I guess you are the first that came up with that idea of lighting the windows on the airlocks. Great!:thumbsup:


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Beats me.. I know subs are supposed to be stealthy, but I have a feeling someone would see those huge windows and that big front searchlight before seeing airlock windows.

I figure I have a bunch of light inside this thing, might as well use as many as I can.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

After seeing Fernado's lighting for his Voyager build, he inspired me to show off my dirty little wireing secrets as well on my build. I wasn't sure anyone would be interested, but now that I think about it, I couldn't find anyone else's scratch seaview lighting pics either, so I'm winging it.


I JUST got my final interior lighting done today.. its quite stressfull, so I'm taking post time to decompress befroe continuing with the top sail light positioning.











As promised, here's what the lights look like. The red led is masked to reduce how much light it puts out, and also to reduce the apparant size of the light itself. It will be barely visible once assembled, and casts just the right about of red to the interior mix.











​ 
The lights came from a led ribbon. A cut of the red is shown here, for the red led strand donor. I added a double AA battery holder, so I can eithe rplug in the ac power adapter, or run off rechargible aa batteries. Depending on display area, a wireless display might look better.












​ 

Yeah looks like hell on the inside, but the lighting came out exactly as I'd hoped, so I don't care!​













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A test shot of the lighting, outside the shell. I ended up using two lights over the back alcove, because one didn't pop it enough.​​



 










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Here you can see the airlock lights, and a bit of the fake ceiling with the leds showing through. The ceiling is cut from a styrene for sale sign, and painted silver on top and bottom to eliminate light bleed through.​​
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A test fit inside the hull. The back alcove shows up perfectly!​​
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And yep, already removed that upper level hair!

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​​​​​A shot looking down.​


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

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The back map area.. yeah that painted kickboard looks like hell.. until you realise its less than a millimeter high!​










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And a shot what it looks like from a bit of a distance. Hot glueing in these lights was VERY stressful, and is probably the hardest part of this build. Hopefully the topsail lights will go in and come out just as well.​​​​​​​​​​


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## Fernando Mureb (Nov 12, 2006)

Hey, you shouldn't never have thought of hide this amazing build from us, ok? 

I for one, will have another invaluable reference source when I decide to tackle my seaview. :wave:

Here you have another good reference (unfortunately in japanese).

http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/goo_goo43/MYBLOG/yblog.html?m=lc&p=1


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## Y3a (Jan 18, 2001)

If it is the same as on the 4 window Seaview, the clear front glass may be a lens to make the insides look even better.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

That japanese build has some great pics! I never saw that anywhere when the old tv version was released.

I'm sure once the wondows are in it'll look better, but keep in mind I'm getting really closeup images with my galaxy s3. Even the smaller recent pics you are seeing are about twice the size of real life. (At least on my 28" monitor).

To the naked eye, I can't see half the issues my camera can see. As a result, I'm actually using that as additional refernce during the build, sto see things my eyes cannot.

Speaking of which, imagine the rear topsail running light clear part flipping 4 feet across the room on a beige carpet. (Its like a millimeter wide, and a eighth of an inch long! And me actually finding it after 20 minutes of hunting with a worklight.

One of the running lights dropped right at my feet, and after 20 minutes of hunting for THAT, I gave up, and just used a cut of the rear light to replace one of the running lights. I was actually even finding grains of cat litter from the cat, but not finding that damned running light!

In the past I'd be anal and using a magnifying glass for much of the painting, but I realize now, that if you can't really see sme things anyway, that investment doesn;t really pay off.

I was diagnosed diabetic a few years ago, and while I've pretty much beaten it, the big loss was my eyesight. It changes perscription over the course of the day several times, so I can't just even get perscription glasses. Instead, I have 4 or 5 pairs of reading glasses, and I swap out as needed.

Thats really slowed down a lot of my hobby work, because swapping galsses all the time is a HUGE pain in the rump.

Besides, the way I see it, my doc has no idea why I'm even alive because of my hospitalization, so who am I to bitch about failing eyesight? I'm just happy to still be around for goodies like this seaview model, and the upcoming B9.


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## Fernando Mureb (Nov 12, 2006)

Diabetes, though requiring care, does not present greater problems if the affected person use the medications judiciously. I'm sure you'll still build many kits until you reach age 90. :wave:


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Fernando, believe it or not, I don't have to even take meds for it anymore. I went from a blood sugar level of 1628 (usually over 300 will kill ya) to only taking a pill in the morning, and watching what I eat.

The docs were stumped, and I was a sideshow freak, because everyone wanted to see the guy who survived those high levels.. none of them had ever seen anyone even close to that high before.

I didn't sustain any real physical perm damage except this oddball vision thing, so I can deal with it, though it can be maddening at times.

Back to the build, I've been pondering ho to do the tail lights. the strings I have had an led every 6 inches... but you need 7 or 8 o fit hidden inside the fin channel.

I did some experimenting on a donor led strong (I bought like 30 of them in red, blue, or white on clearance at walmart after the holiday for $2 each!) and found a way to accompish the tail lights, I think.

I considered fiberoptics, but I don't have any thick enough around, and since I live in the boondocks, I have to make do with what I can find locally or wait.

My solution will be to take 2 pairs of the led strings, and dremel the one that will hide inside the channel down. I can get them small enough to fit inside the channel. I can also dremel the lit one down to about the same size as the bullet lights.

To kill a led, I can hit it with a heat gun til it burns out, and the wiing stays intact. I can kill the lids that will be in the channels, and dreml the tail light ones down to either replace or fit inside the bullet light caps. (I already drill those out hollow.)

I'll only need to solder these additions inline, and I should be good to go.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Change of plans. I really hte cutting and adding solders to whats working perfectly right now, so I ordered some fiber optic wire for the tail lights.

It looks like you can either use 2 mm or 1mm x2 side by side. Does anyone know if 2 mm will fit in that channel? I'll be able to anser that in a few days, but knowing in advance never hurts.


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## nautilusnut (Jul 9, 2008)

Garee,

Beautiful build! I noticed this in one of your earlier posts- 

"I'd kind of like a custom base similar to the old aurora kit."

I did a similar thing with my 4-window SEAVIEW. I cut a piece of plywood in an irregular shape and covered it with a piece of pink insulation foam also cut to shape. I then mounted the two kit stands in the appropriate spots. I covered the whole thing with wall joint compound, brushing the "rocks" it with a wisk broom to add "rock strata." Then painted the whole thing with dark acrylics to look like the ocean bottom. (The real one!) The Flying sub has it's own rock base that holds the battery for the lights and can be moved to different spots.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Thanks for the compliments! I'm trying not to muck it up.. LOL! its been a passion of mine since the 60's, so I want to do her justice.

And yep, thats somewhat what I'll be doing for my base. I want that jaggedy stalagmite kind of look the old aurora base has. I found a great way to quickly dremel pink insulation foam for a 1:1 scale samhain real ghostbusters headsculpt I did.

You glue the layers together with spray glue thats "foam safe" in the rough shape.

Put one of the wire wheels into the dremel, and go to town! It "carves" the foam VERY quickly, and because it works so fast, getting an uneven natural appearance is easy to do. (I was carving the stem on the top of his pumpkin noggin.) I went from cuting the blocks to glueing to being done carving in under an hour, and people thought I spent days on it!

I coat my foam with a mix of white glue and joint compound.. its kind of a home made gesso. You can buy both in large quantities cheap at home hardware stores like Lowe's or Home Depot. You can also use both for monster mud, for larger dioramas, or outdoor "stone statue". 

This site has some great recipies and advise for making paper machete clay, and home made cheap gesso:

http://ultimatepapermache.com/paper-mache-clay

Here's that stem I carved.










Actual sculpt time for it was about 10 minutes.


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## nautilusnut (Jul 9, 2008)

*Finally getting around to my 8 window seaview.. a few questions... Reload this Page*

Excellent advice on the foam and coatings. I'll try that myself soon!


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## subtoair (Feb 19, 2012)

Your Seaview is looking fanastic! Gareee I always like the looks of the 8 windrow seaview.beautifull Work! That mountain your making out of foam is really wild, I really like it.I will be following your post.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

I'll post some pics on so foam bits I'm going to test one soon. Looks like my fiber won't be here till Monday at the earliest. 8(


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## solex227 (Apr 23, 2008)

Your 8 window is looking great !

solex227


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Thanks for the compliment!

I was lucky today, and my fiber optic cable came in. I figured I'd knock out the topsail lights in a half hour. at the end of the day, they are ALMOST done. :sigh:










The drilled edge channels of the control room seat, for wireing.​







​Here you can see my custom bottom spotlight channels, donated by a clear pic, and painted silver on the outside. The make the leds look like they are actually inset, with a mount.​​​







​​​annnd... a working front spotlight! Again, a bic pen cut channel to keep the light from looking like an led in a clear lens.​​​​​







​​​​​You can tell from the lens flare here where the light actually is. In person, you can actually see the light channel.. my camera just gets blowout.​​​​​​​







​​​​​​​The bottom floodlights installed. The have a silver inside edge, hopefully looking a bit like 60's headlights. I dremelled the lens pegs down, and coated them with several coats of futer floor wax to clear them up. it worked, because they even cast a circular "spotlight" on the table below them!​​​​​


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

A quick test on blocking the unused interior leds (this is a $2 christmas ribbon string) the final blocking is actually black electric tape, with a clear shipping tape overlay.. since electric tape comes undone, and shipping tape sticks to itself like a royal pain in the rump!​







​and the interior lighting of the topsail. I figured this would take a half hour.. and 4 hours later, it still isn't done. Lots of trial and error, seeing where to position lights, and how many I need.​​​







​​​and a test assembly. there's even a light on the inside of the top deck next to the ladder.​​​​​​​​


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

and a side view, showing the hatch windows, and running lights.​







​And a shot of the main hull interior, just because it looked cool, and I could!​​​Tomorrow I hope to finish the lighting, and possibly get most of the rear assembly done. With luck, I'll have everthing done but the base!​​​


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

This was my first attempt at getting the warped back end off the deck down to line up. This failed, so I used a heat gun and pressure. It was 3/8 too high, and would have looked like hell if I puttied it.​ 








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After MUCH finagling and messing around, i finally managed to get the topsail assembled. The lights at the top were interfering with the top cap fit, and getting everything lined up an glued together gave me a headache.​ 










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Just before I glued the back half of the hull on, I had an epiphany. I didn't want the nuclear missile being launched all the time, but I hated not also using it. The missle hatch is molded though, to completly block and light coming out if theres an led there and its closed! So I drilled a hole large enough for the led, tinted it yellow/orange/red with gel medium and paint, and then secured it in with some of that aluminum ac tape. Its VERY sticky, so that led is going no where, and I put a small cut of electric tape behind the led just in case the insulation on the wires wore through over time and shorted. Scary thing is, it works perfectly!​​













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Trying to get the top of the top sail down, I had to dremel the interior corners some. I considered just painting more white down to block this, but I think instead, I'll add enough paint to block everything but a sliver on the inside edge. To the eye, it looks like inset edge floor lighting!​​​​













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Happy Memorial day! Both halves are now glued together. FINALLY! This is taking FAR longer than I planned on, and its nerve wracking trying not to mess anything up.​​​​​​














​​​​And while I'm looking for another tiny dropped part, and who shows up, but my original Nelson! I'll pop him into the nose since it looks a little too unpopulated. Wonder if that missing running light will ever show up?










A test of the missile plume with the lights. it works great! Ideally, you'd want another white led right at the base of the missile, but since this is a removable option, I'll have to settle for this. I used a dull coat on the clear plume to make it look more like smoke.​​







​​And after putty, sanding, putty, sanding for what seems like days, some paint to check the seam. I'm not 100% happy with it, but I'm wondering if I'm being too picky. I might just lay down another coat or two of paint and hope it smooths that out some.​​ 




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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

BTW, these are from the last few days. I ran into huge problems with the bottom. I can't get rid of the seams, and even worse, grabbed a bad can of paint. It refused to dry completely and even worse, left a lot of texture on the bottom.

After what feels like 2 days of sanding, filling and repainting, shes looking MUCH better. Not perfect, but worlds better than the mess I had.

I was so upset about it I didn't take pics at all.

Oh, before I forget.. don't glue the masts on the topsail until you are done. I've snapped two off now, but fortunately didn't loose them.

I can probably finish her up in a day or two, but haven't even started the base, which will also take several days.depending on how things go, I probably won't have build time till next Monday.


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## Fernando Mureb (Nov 12, 2006)

Gareee,

GREAT work on every sense, my friend. Congrats!:thumbsup:


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Hopefully you can see the metalflake here. It looked SO sparkly outdoors I had to try a shot. Thats not dust.. its metalflake light reflection!









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Here are the body holes drilled for the engine lights. Engine lights, you say? The Seaview's engines didn't light up!

But,m every time you saw the seaview, you saw bubbles coming out of the engine tubes.. I'm hoping some polyfill sprayed with clearcoat till it forms droplets will simulate that bubbled effect a bit.​​










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Some weathering on the hull now. It looks more realistic, plus it hides issues.​​​










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Topsail weathering.​​​​










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This is my tail light solution. two strands of 1.5 mm fiber optic with sanded flared ends. A insulation cut from an old rca cable donor superglued to the led gives me a fiber optic mount, and that then gets hot glue for durability. That then gets painted black to reduce interior light leak.​​​​​










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One of the engine leds sticking out of the hull hole.​​​​​​










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And how the engines look inside. AC aluminum tape and black paint reduce light leak, a sanded cut of packaging plastic blocks actually seeing the led and diffuses the light, and the propeller is then glued to the plastic diffusion disc.​​​​​​​










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Annnnnd how the lit engine pods look. The only thing I wish was that I could have found a striped grate to put behind the diffusion discs to give the illusion of machinery behind the props. I looked, and couldn't find or think of anything that would work.​​​​​​​​


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

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And the front windows installed. Because of the thickness, you see a ton o distortion. Anyone following this to do their own build, I'd recommend using some cuts of a plastic package instead of the stock lights. You'll see more of your interior detail that way. You can also see the insert searchlight led now. (That section is still incomplete)​


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## Fernando Mureb (Nov 12, 2006)

This is the first Seaview with the propellers lighted, I guess. Very interesting approach.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Not canon, but if they were doing it today, they'd be backlit.  I had spare lights, so why not?


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Has anyone sourced a replacement glass or plastic sphere for the nose spotlight? When I asked for a replacement, they said all of them had the same issue due to the way they were manufactured.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

This is why I can't have nice things.​Cat.​I think shes salvageable. And I was literally 5 minutes from being done, with the exception of the base and weathering. Electronics still work, and I managed to seperate the tail fin with broken fiber optic in it for replacement.​I was SO fuggin close.​I did manage to find a replacement for the spotlight bubble issue... clear 6MM glass spheres or marbles. I'll get a bag, and if anyone needs one, they can pm me for them, since I'll have like 49 extras.​


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## Seaview (Feb 18, 2004)

My condolences, I had the same tragic experience years ago from the same cause.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Thats actually encouraging. How did repairs go?

Other than one missle tube handrail, I have all the parts. Seams though are probably going to look like hell for a while though. I'll do what i can, but going all over again filling them and painting everything all over again takes so much friggin time, with little payoff.

I'm working from the front back, and already have half the damge repaired. (Just a few hours work, actually.)

I think 2 or 3 more hours, and I'll have everything as good as it'll be for now. She still looks great to the casual observer, but I of course see the issues that this created.

I have a few spare leds hanging out of the bottom, and though not again canon, I might do a small custom flying sub for one of them. I never opened up the minisub hatches, but if I had, I could have easily added a light to it. Maybe a small undersea lab somethere on the base?


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## Fernando Mureb (Nov 12, 2006)

Oh man, that hurts me. Ok, I'm gonna send you a special recipe from my grandma about cat barbecue. 

Kidding, kidding. I love pets and have a dog.  

Hope you get the ship done again soon. :wave:


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

I'm usin the oppertunity to improve a few minor nits that were bugging me.

One thing I learned, is using superglue has some advantages and disadvantages.

Since the plastic isn't melted together, you can pop parts apart, even once securely glued! In this case, its made repairs quite a bit easier. If I've used regular glue on the top tail fins, there is no way I could have separated them to replace the fiber optics that shattered.

The downside of course, is you have a less durable bond.

I think I improved the middle seam on the left side, which had been bugging me. the bottom however still looks like @$$ to me.. probably because I've looked at it so much now.

The seam along the nose bottom is more pronounced now, and I really do NOT want to fill it again, and then try to get that edge blend effect again. I think I can live with it.

For other's reference, there is some "disc" shaped flashing inside the top tail fin parts. You DO want to scrape that out, because it reduces the chance of a flush fit.

I had a thought after lighting the engines that I wanted some greebel shadowing inside them. Since one engine was completely apart, I popped the second open
(thanks to using superglue) and am adding some greeble clear sprues inside. You won't be able to see anything specific, just some geometric shadowing behind the propellers.

I'm pretty sure I'll be completing her today, so I can start on the base tomorrow. I'll try to post a video carving the base foam to show how quickly it can be done, and what detail you get from the technique.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

The polyfil looks just like smoke!



















You can't really tell from the pic, but since I had the engines apart again anyway, I added some inner greebel discs behind the propeller scrim. it looks like there's more going on back there now.



















Still a few little detail parts to add.. specifically, the spotlight cage, the radar dish, and the flagpole. (And I have a surprise done for it!)










I took advantage of light leak, and with some additional paint on th efloor, ended up with what looks like floor lighting.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Lets move outside to pop the color, shall we?










As you can see, outdoors the blue really stands out a lot more. Indoors, it looks like a faded silvery blue, pretty much exactly what I wanted. The color is a bit too hot in the outdoor pics, but it reminds me of the box art.
































































Seaview Blue Vs the Cat Who Shall Go Nameless... the culprit who smashed her a week ago.

Though it created some overall issues, it allowed me to make some improvements, so its all good.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Whats that behind the topsail, you ask? (Big Grin!)










The flagpole looked so naked on all the other models I saw, I had to add an american flag! BUT.. I also wanted to thank Moebius for creating something I've wanted all my life, so flying below it?

A flag with the old Moebius "Aurora" logo. They look a tad messy in the pics, but the length of the american flag is 3/8"!

Work still to do:

Find a use for the three leds coming out of the bottom

Get a 6mm glass ball to replace the clear plastic original spotlight part, which has that big bubble molded into it.

Weather the rest of the model.. the topsail is already weathered, as is the back top deck, but the rest is still perfectly clean. Too clean!

Do the custom base. The bottom will be a 2-3 foot long cut of insulation foam sculpted as a ocean bottom base, with more insulation foam cuts sculpted to give it that "aurora spiky base" look.


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## teslabe (Oct 20, 2007)

Excellent work getting back together, I'm hard pressed to tell where it was damaged......:thumbsup:


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Thanks! The side seams actually came out better after the repairs, but the bottom nose seam is on the ugly side. There were some seams that probably should have been filled for accuracy's sake, but since there were no panel lines at all, I kept some of those to add some surface detail.

(I also did some unusual things, like I painted the read fin bottoms white, but pained the top section metallic ice blue even on the bottom edges.) The bottom edges are probably supposed to be white, but when I did the test fit, I really likes the retro 50's kind of look it had, so I decided to keep it.

Since my 60's Aurora seaview was metallic olive green, this is still MUCH closer to the original... LOL!


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## Fernando Mureb (Nov 12, 2006)

Gareee.

You built a masterpiece!! :thumbsup::woohoo:


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Thanks, Fernando!

Now, readers, please indulge me in some OT posting. When looking for references for a sea creature (specifically, the two stalk eyed furry looking thing also from Lost in space.. anyone have reference pictures of him??), I stumbled across some concept artwork for a reboot that sounds like its still aparantly percolating.

I REALLY liked the new ship designs, so I downloaded them, upscaled them, and posted them on facebook to share.




























I'd be in for models of all these!

(The top two are 1920x1200 desktop wallpaper sized, BTW)

Back to my model progress...I've got weathering done on her now, and am sussing out how large I want the base. I've mentally had a few different base plans in mind, but I'll probably go with the eaiser of the two.

(if I had the time and patience and space, I'd do several large tentacles to wrap around the ship, and have her tilted nose up about 30 degrees.. .but with the size of the model, the tentacles would take me forever, and the final display would just be far too huge for what space we have here.)

So I'll do the afforementioned aurora tribute stalagmite base.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Annnd, some pictures of her weathered up. (I used black mixed with transparent gel.)

I still haven't weathered the bottom, but I'll probably use the airbrush for some of that. I did some base planning today, and since it was great outdoors, took some weathered pics. The color in the top mantel pic is pretty how she looks most of the time. For some reason, my camera really pics up the blue when shes outdoors, but to the eye its about 30% less intense.










You can barely make out the red emergency light in the control room here.
















































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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Oh, and that nice glass table I was taking pictures on? It literally asploded the other day! Seems that its very common for glass safety glass table tops to literally explode into shards for no actual reason. Its the expansion of the glass in the sun, and how they are made. I was sliding it over a foot or so to put an umbrella in it, and it just went Bang! And I heard cracklin sounds for about 5 minutes.

Thank god that didn't happen when I was taking those last pics!

I started the base the other day, hopefully a bit of an homage to the old "spikey" aurora stalgmite bases. Plan is to do it from insulation foam, attache the rocks with glue and spackling putty, and then coat it with gesso, and then paint.

I've got some small aquarium plants I can pick apart to add some vegitation.










Here the Seaview's base is starting to take shape. The green gumball machine cap might end up being a lit undersea base/dome. Still unsure about that. There will be a lot more shorter ground rocks as well as one thats higher than the sub itself. There will be two rocks in the center with V cuts for the sub to rest on, and to hide the wireing. Carving foam is such a dang mess though!​







​They look a little fuzzy close up, but once the gesso and paint is applied, it'll just look like rock texturing.​​


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## Mr Morton (Feb 10, 2013)

Asploded? Thought that you had to sit on it for that to happen!

Tempered glass can be funny stuff. Had a Pyrex baking dish do that last week. It was standing on edge and spontaneously shattered. I think that pressure from being on edge and a little thermal stress from the air conditioner blowing cool air on it and it stressed relieved itself suddenly and violently.

Hopefully, Admiral Nelson specified a different glass for Seaview's observation nose!


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Yeah I googled it, and if you hear crackling after the asplosion, the glass has overheated, and the crackling is it still expanding. You'd THINK as a safety measure, patio glass tabletops would be made to withstand heat outdoors.

One freind said their's popped while they were using it as a lunch table, and all the plates n such hit the floor.

I've got more rocks carved now, and the "cradle" ones as well.


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## Alien (Sep 5, 2001)

Looking fantastic Gareee, I really like your base.

Exploding glass tables seem to be pretty common. A couple of years ago one of our consumer affairs TV shows did a big item discussing the problem. There were lots of stories which was surprising for a country of only 4 million people an no real extreme temperatures. 

Alien


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

I still haven't figured out how to replace the tabletop or build a new one.. i DO know I don't want another glass top.. I don't trust them now.

I just ordered the 1:128 flying sub kit.. I figure it comes with the diving bell and minisub as well, and its only $12 plus shipping, so I'll be able to easily add those items to the display. Not sure if I'll add the flying sub, since this vesion doesn't have the bay, but I might anyway. I can probably use one of the lights for the FS, one for the minisub, and one for the diving bell. I'll mask the last light off, since it won't be used.

I also ordered one of those ocean lights.. you are right, Alien: they don't contain water at all, and I can use rechargible aa batteries in it so it won' need a cord, since it will be hanging above the diorama. And if I add the 4 window version, it should cast enough water effect for both models.

This way I no longer have to be concerned about scratchbuilding the minisub or diving bell... just upgrading or accurising the kit versions once they arrive.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

I got in that underwater light projector Alien mentioned, and it works REALLY well! The only downside for my build is the lights are blue leds, so there a bit too much blue going on. For gray builds, it makes a sweet addition to an underwater display.

You could even plug a old cellphone in running a loop of the ping sound or bubbles into help sell the entire display. (The speaker dims the leds slightly if you go from a low volume sound to high using just the pings, so you'd definitely want to mix in underwater bubbling sounds.)










I've got a base color on the rocks now.. I decided it was probably going to be easier to paint them before glueing them down. I'll do the detail work on the top of them, and when I glue them down, I'll blend the bottom rock seams with spackling putty, and then paint those seams.​ 
Oh, NO! Some sea creature snuck in there and is attacking the ship! Battle Stations!​


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Finally managed to get some of the highlighting done today on the base.


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Some highlighting done today, as well as final rock placement. A bit blown out by the flash, but you can see the carved detail now. I still need to add a dark wash to get rid of those light unpainted crevasses, and to add more depth to the rocks.​


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## subtoair (Feb 19, 2012)

Very well done on the ship and the stand! The mountain range really adds to the seaview.A nice carved display stand can really add the extra detail to the model,outstanding job gareee!


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## gareee (Jan 1, 1970)

Thanks. I need to start glueing the mountains down, and filling the seams on them. I decided it was easier to paint them first and then repaint the filled seams than to try to paint them all once they are glued down. I ended up with 22 carved rocks of some type, plus the carved base.

I LOVE insulation foam!


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