Cetacean - The Man From Atlantis submarine - Completed

Re: Cetacean - The Man From Atlantis submarine - Help

Thanks, LMFAOSchwarz :) Yeah I guess the rear is important as the ship doesn't have much going
on. Single tone paint, no decals, nothing to wow anyone. It did leave an indelible imprint on my
imagination as a kid, though. And I remember saying to myself how incredibly slow that ship moved.

I must admit, however, that I never knew it was this bare until I saw the studio prop photos
on the web.





001-1.jpg
 
Re: Cetacean - The Man From Atlantis submarine - Help

Is it just me, or does the Cetacean remind anyone else of a Capsella toy on acid? ;)

Good grief, your scratchbuilding skills are excellent to work in this small scale. This little model is going to be very cool when done.
 
Re: Cetacean - The Man From Atlantis submarine - Help

Thanks, JMChladek :)



001Sportingnewpaintjob.jpg

Sprayed on some test coats of the dark gray color.





003Waitingfortheglasstobecomeclear.jpg

Glassed the windows with glue. Waiting to dry and clear up.




004Nowclear.jpg

Dry and ready for light leak test.




005Lightleaktest.jpg




006Tunnelcradle.jpg

Working on the landing strip cradle.
 
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Re: Cetacean - The Man From Atlantis submarine - Help

Cool project! I guess the designer watched 2001 A LOT. :)

How thick is the plastic?
 
Re: Cetacean - The Man From Atlantis submarine - Help

Wow! When I was a kid I SO wanted a model of that sub. I remember making it from LEGO blocks, but it didn't look so hot making 4 spheres from square blocks.
 
Re: Cetacean - The Man From Atlantis submarine - Help

Thanks, Nazgul! The ping-pong balls are about 1mm thick. Lee S, thanks, same here - I used to haunt the shops as a kid hoping to find one. A Tamiya or Hasegawa kit certainly would've made my eyes light up. Cool Lego builds you have there! :)
 
Re: Cetacean - The Man From Atlantis submarine - Help

Cool project! I guess the designer watched 2001 A LOT. :)

How thick is the plastic?

I don't know if 2001 had much to do with it. While I don't doubt there was a bit of a Discovery influence, I think it was a byproduct of the ship's design rather than being the first influence. During the 1960s and 70s, a lot of work in deep diving submersibles revealed that a perfect sphere would be best to handle the pressures at extreme depths. Research subs like Alvin and Turtle have pressure spheres for the people, but extraneous bits are placed outside to give them their squarish looks (and the sphere can be jettisoned in an emergency if a sub gets stuck on the bottom). There have been a few sub proposals which looked into placing everything inside a set of stacked spherical pressure vessels like the Cetacean, but the limitations were (and still are somewhat) in machining or casting a set of spheres big enough to do it. There can't be any flaws in the sphere.

One of the reasons why I don't believe we ever saw something as big as the Cetacean done in real life was the advent of ROV technology in the 1980s and 90s. Once Bob Ballard saw the ROVs mature, he became a proponant of them as it meant he didn't have to spend hours in a tiny craft like Alvin diving on a hot smoker or a wreck, or risking life in potentially very dangerous areas. I've seen a couple proposals for sight seeing subs using giant clear acrylic spheres casted and mounting seats, giving people the chance to experience a full view of sea life and they look a little like the Cetacean (paint them gray/black and they would likely be a dead ringer for them).
 
Re: Cetacean - The Man From Atlantis submarine - Help

What JMChladek says rings true. I remember those spheres seemed to evoke a sense of realism with me, as it seemed to jibe with what I was learning in school at the time about diving bells and all that undersea stuff.

I love how the dark paint seems to automatically give the model a sense of "weight".:)
 
Re: Cetacean - The Man From Atlantis submarine - Help

Thanks, guys! : )


005Afterfiling.jpg

Couldn't leave the windows well enough alone. Re-did the windows and it ate up a lot of build
time. I hate this itch of mine to keep re-doing things. It's just like dancing the cha-cha - one step
forward, two steps backward. :sick



002Roundwindows.jpg




005Drilledhole.jpg

Built that detail on top of the conning tower with some apoxie sculpt and styrene. I have
absolutely no idea what it's for and I wish I knew.



003Stuckpinend.jpg




004Readiedhole-1.jpg



007Saildetail-1.jpg




Styrenefixture.jpg

I really need to get the lighting done to be able to affix the passageways permanently and seal
up the shell. Made some styrene fixtures.



LEDlight.jpg




Wiringtheegg.jpg

It felt just like wiring an egg.




Windowmaker.jpg

I just realized I can't use the window maker for the headlamps as I still have to attach the cones.



Cuttingglass.jpg

So I cut up some plastic "glass" instead. But for the windows I'll definitely use the window maker stuff.



Glasson.jpg
 
Re: Cetacean - The Man From Atlantis submarine - Help

Aw, man! The closer I got to the end, the more I kept thinking, "Don't leave me hanging!"

The Man from Atlantis was my favorite show at the time, and being an avid swimmer from early childhood, I got pretty good at the dolphin swim even sans webbed fingers. (You know you were thinking of the show when you watched Olympic swimming.) And I was fond of saying "Elizabeth" underwater.

This is an amazing build. (OK, builds.) When I saw the pictures of the holes in the ping pong ball, I couldn't help but smile. I am in awe of all you scratch builders. I can't wait to see the finished ships.
 
Re: Cetacean - The Man From Atlantis submarine - Help

Big MFA fan here, this is an amazing project, kudos for your ambition, can't wait to see this finished!!!
 
Re: Cetacean - The Man From Atlantis submarine - Help

Thanks MFP2020 - in my case I couldn't move forward at all swimming that way :) Thanks Chrisall!


Headlampglass.jpg

Plodded on with making glass for the headlamps.



001Appliedwindows.jpg

Didn't like the way the window-maker "glue" looked lke after setting. They "climb" towards
the edges. I ended up cutting more clear plastic pieces as they looked more realistic. So many times, though, these tiny pieces would jump out and no matter how hard I look I couldn't find them they just vanish and I'd have to make a new one - so frustrating. At least now it's over.



006Smile2.jpg

All the glass pieces for the headlamps and windows done.



005Smile.jpg

The windows not reflecting light looked really clear.



Stillworks.jpg

Ok, lamp still works - just had to check haha. Worried about Murphy's Law. Three more LEDs
for the front ball. Two for the sidelamps and one for the windows.
 
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Re: Cetacean - The Man From Atlantis submarine - Help

You know, crackerjazz...you could've sanded the insides of the "glass" with a fine grit sandpaper (if I'm correctly understanding your objective!). That would give a nice distribution of light...it's worked for me in the past in giving a even opaqueness to clear pieces. :)
 
Re: Cetacean - The Man From Atlantis submarine - Help

Windows.jpg

I hear you, LMFAOSchwarz, those prop windows are not clear at all, or they would show as black areas.
They could, in fact, be sanded clear parts. Initially, it looked like silver paint to me, but then that
would have the opposite effect of blocking the light. I wanted to get a more realistic look than the
prop - after all, real windows are clear. But after hearing you mention that - I do think I'll go for
the sanded windows.


Soldered.jpg

Soldered in more LEDs.



3lights.jpg
 
Re: Cetacean - The Man From Atlantis submarine - Help

Hmmmm, I think it's time to break out the DVD's for a MFA marathon....:love

Edit: well, actually, a marathon for ME is the TV movies & the first ep of the series... it kinda went the way of Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea's later seasons after that...heh heh.
 
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Re: Cetacean - The Man From Atlantis submarine - Help

Yes, Chrisisall - better plots would have saved the show from dying so quickly.



001Sealedupfrontball.jpg

After battling with the fixtures in the main ball I finally got it up and running. Sealed it up. I'll be
simplifying the wiring outside the ball as it's easier that way.



003Fixture.jpg




004Insertfixture.jpg




002Windowlights.jpg

Tested lights for windows.




005Lightup.jpg

Tested lights for body. LMFAOSchwarz, the sanded windows do work in distributing the lighting
more evenly, thanks.
 
Re: Cetacean - The Man From Atlantis submarine - Help

No sweat, crackerjazz: I wouldn't steer ya wrong!:)
Anything to make this cool lil build better!:cool
 
Re: Cetacean - The Man From Atlantis submarine - Help

Glad to see movement on this one. I was afraid the project had died. Looking real good.
 
Re: Cetacean - The Man From Atlantis submarine - Help

01Moreglass.jpg

Thanks guys :) Hi ArcLight, the bigger one I've put on hold - the Christmas ornaments are too
big to make a 38-inch. I have to source spheres of the right size. But this ping-pong Cetacean
should see the light of day. Attached windows of other ball.



02Wiring.jpg

Started grooming the wires.



000Drilledholes.jpg




001Threadingthewiresthrough.jpg

Threaded wires through.



002Decapitated.jpg

Wanted to take this last decapitated shot before I finally close up the body.



003Longwaytogo.jpg

Sealed up. Test-fitted the deck. Hope to post more progress shots soon.
 
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