ScottsGT

Yea, I have the 1/350 TOS and the refit from the first movie. Of course it would have to be done with TOS ship.

Ah! I stand corrected! It was you Carl, not Peter. Yea, this is all your fault. …..Now off to build that NCC-1701 blasting the Death Star into oblivion.

Hmmmm…what to do? I want the all yellow advertising model but the modeler in me is pushing me to paint the floats aluminum. Especially when one half is a different shade of yellow plastic. I did polish the plastic. Wow! What a difference it made.

That’s why you bring your own….

DONE! Pics posted in completed section.

I call this one…”Science Fusion”. It has been a real joy working with all the different mediums along with the plastic model kit. I had electronics and soldering, woodworking and finishing, building up a base of styrofoam, clay and finally joint compound used for drywall work. And I discovered the wonderful world of Mod Podge and sand! Sorry about the first set of pics. I needed a dark room and the bathroom was it. Yea, this thing is huge. Everywhere else downstairs is lit up from daylight flooding in. Without further ado, I bring you the Seaview. And my little surprise I’ve been holding out on. I think it was Peter that guessed early in the game I was going to build a Nautilus, but then he threw that idea out because he had seen where I had already built one years earlier. Yea Peter, if it was you, you are the guilty party that planted this seed in my head! Looks like those early nuclear reactors weren’t so safe. As you can see, the crew escaped after the explosion since the lifeboat is gone. She’s been in the bottom a while with all the rust buildup and the screw shaft rusting through and falling off. Here’s a wide angle view sitting on the shelf where it will stay on display. The hanging neon was part of my wiring job I had to take time out from the build to do a few weeks back. The Nautilus was built from very rough 3D print that is 1/125 scale I bought of Etsy. Close enough to the Seaview’s 1/128 scale. But when I say rough print job, it was bad. I had to sand off ALL the detail just to smooth out the print pattern. Covered it with Tamiya putty and sanded it smooth and then primed it. I then added back all rivets using white glue on a toothpick. I sorted through my collection of googly eyes to cut out the clear dome sections for the windows. That bottom hatch on the Nautilus must have been broken off a half dozen times during the building and finishing. Speaking of finishing, the paint is an iron based paint that goes on black and stinks like crazy. Once dry you brush on an acid and it will literally rust right before your eyes. I used it on my first build as well, but not quite as heavy. If y’all want more detail pics, just ask. I can add more if needed.

Kids judging? Off to go build a miniature Bikini Bottom and Sponge Bob to add to the display…. Sounds like a great idea Ernie!

Don’t get your hopes up! I want it to look more like a bar display assembled by a half drunk beer tender than a model build by an all the way drunk modeler. Example, all Beaver pics (Google that very carefully) show floats in natural aluminum. All liquor advertising Beavers are all yellow. Floats, mounts, plane, everything. Funny thing is, my floats are two different shades of yellow. Like they came from two different IM batches. Of course if I paint them, I have to paint everything. So they’ll stay mismatched.

Got bored watching glue dry on the Seaview diorama so I jumped on this quick build as a time filler. Just doing paint work on the engine/prop. The rest will be done like a bar display. I can see how easy it would be to want to go super detail on one of these kits. Not sure how one would go about the windshield though. I guess vacuum form one?

2k is good stuff, but highly carsogenic. Don’t mess with that stuff unless you want to paint like Walter White. Smell on this brand isn’t too bad. Typical lacquer strength on the odor level, but different than all the others.

Ok, update to this thread. I finally had to proceed with this since I needed a flat clear for the flying sub. Here’s what I did. Local auto parts store sells “ready to spray” clear lacquer for around $40.00. Might be ready to spray for automotive use out of a paint gun, but it required about a 1:1 mix with my Mr. Color Leveling thinner to make it through an airbrush. And it could actually go a little thinner than that too. I bought 30 ML or 1 oz. Bottles off Amazon for about $1.35 each. Flattening agent was Mr. Color #30 I picked up 4 bottles at around $2.50 each. Supposedly they come with 10 ML in each bottle, but mine arrived half dried up and apparently others have as well. I guess these are slow sellers. A few shots of Leveling thinner got things back to where they needed to be. I started out slowly with a semi-gloss by adding 2 ML of #30 and topping off the bottle with clear. Next up, semi-flat clear by adding 5 ML of #30 and topping off the bottle with clear. Last, for a dead flat I used all 10 ML of #30 and topped off the bottle with clear. Here’s the results sprayed on some spoons I first painted with a nice bright blue. If you do the math, it can be quite a savings over buying your clear lacquers from MRP or Mr. Color. It was $1.25 per oz. of auto parts store clear which will give you 2+ oz. of sprayable clear once thinned. Mr. Color Leveling thinner works out to about $1 per oz. So that would be $3.25 for two oz./$1.62 for a thinned oz. MRP is $7.50 for one ounce thinned. Mr. Color clear is $2.50 for 10 ML, add in $1 worth of thinner and you’re around $3.50 for an ounce of thinned clear, give or take a few ML.

Now that turned out great! We still need a British phantom in the correct scale.

Oh what a wicked rabbit hole that would lead me down!

Thanks Hubert, but the kit radial is quite sufficient for my ceiling display. Now if I really get interested in building another in detail, I’ll let you know!

Naa, wrong scale.

But you’ll need a T-6 Texan wing to make it right. 🤪 Actually, I might just hit the pause button on anything with a deadline since our weather is changing and I’m about to ramp up yard work, pressure washing, dock repairs and mods, new decking on the front porch, etc…. before the miserable summer heat kicks in.

I just had this pile of parts arrive Thursday. Just opened it all up. It seems a lot of guys bought these with the intention to super detail them out and build a show finish airplane. Then they never leave the stash because of AMS and get sold off. Me on the other hand, it will go perfectly built as the Canadian Mist bar advertisement as it was intended with my man cave decor. I just hope the decals are still good. I might have to get my daughter to cut me out some vinyl transfers if not. About the only detail I plan on is the radial engine. It’s not too bad for a bar display kit.

Gentlemen, this will probably be my last post in this thread. Soak it in, because I’m now at the stage of needing to add my “surprise” addition. If things go as planned, I should be making a post in the completed Wet Builds page within a day or two, according to how things work out. But here’s the diorama base 95% completed. I do need to add some more painted wood trim is all.

Best price I’ve seen on these kits. As we all know, Lightning Deals can go away quickly. Link

Yes, I laugh because I’m about to wrap up the Seaview build within the next few days and I was going to jump on my Revell build of the same subject and throw it in the wet build just because…. Now I do have the Hollywood Zero conversion to go with my second T6 kit…..

Seriously, I had no idea: “Erickson became a recognized expert in the Type and eventually obtained the Type Certificate and manufacturing Rights from Sikorsky. ” Mind blown! I thought all that was left was surplus bought. So there are new productions flying. If I ever get brave enough to tackle one of these, I’m going to have to scratch build one of the MASH boxes that came with the old Revell 1/72 I built as a kid.

Great review Ernie! Can’t wait to see your skills applied to this one.

Funny you say this. I keep a bag of cheap stuff in the garage for oil spills. The kitty gets the good clumping stuff. But when I brought the bag into the house to sort through it for the larger pieces, he was all over it. “Hey Dad! Where did this come from? Can I try it out?”

And some sand…

How about a little paint on all that kitty litter?