Moebius Flying Sub finished at last...

[Carson Dyle]

You know who builds this kit? Old guys, but sometimes the old stuff is the coolest.

I grew up watching the Irwin Allen stuff on TV, and although I now find most of those shows painful to watch I’ll always have a fondness for the designs.

There’s something about the Flying Sub that (to me, at least) demands a clean, gleaming, hot-off-the-assembly-line New Car finish, studio scale accuracy be damned. Anyway, that’s the effect I went for, and I’m reasonably happy with the results.

It’s been said a million times before, but the folks responsible for bringing this kit to market did a fantastic job. Here’s hoping they’ll one day bring the same skills, talents, and expertise to bear on the Spindrift. You know, for us old guys.

In one of the coolest model-related moments I’ve ever experienced I recently had the chance to show famed Irwin Allen production designer Bill Creber my model (Creber designed the Flying Sub). I tried hard not to geek out on him, but it was tough.

Creber isn’t really into the whole model-building “fan” thing, but I think he got a kick out of seeing the model all tricked out with lights.

Interesting bit of trivia; Creber originally designed the Flying Sub “upside down” so as to mimic the droop of the Seaview’s forward dive planes. Irwin Allen liked it better flip-flopped, and the rest is history.

 

[MooCriket]

So cool!

 

[Cottonball]

I'm likewise an Irwin Allen fan. The Seaview and Flying Sub have been favorites of mine since I was a little tike. Your build does Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea proud! Beautiful!

 

[Alan Cross]

Great build. Really nice job. And what a pleasure to be able to spend time with the original designer!

I love the color of your base. Is that the base that comes with the kit? Or did you trade it out for something better?

Thanks for sharing!

Alan

 

[spatcave]

Sweet build! I was torn between picking up the Flying Sub, or the Lost in Space Chariot, but happened to stumble on the Chariot at my local hobby shop during a 20% off sale. My next project will be the Flying Sub, followed by the Seaview.

I hope I can come close to the quality of that build when I work on my sub.

Really great job.

 

[BrundelFly]

Nicely done!

I bought the interior kit too with the pilots.

Does VOO DOO make a Light kit for it?

 

[Carson Dyle]

Is that the base that comes with the kit? Or did you trade it out for something better?

I made the base from scratch out of MDF, painted with Tamiya Coral Blue. The clear, old-style "Aurora stand" that came with the kit looks cool, but once you cram a bunch lights inside the model it becomes fairly heavy. Last thing I need is for the thing to topple over on me (and in Earthquake country, that's a legitimate concern, knock on wood).

As for the light, yeah, I know Randy at Voodoo makes a kit, as does Gil Hernandez at Gilusions/ Just an Illusion. I used bits and pieces of both kits, along with some stuff I threw in myself...

 

[IEDBOUNTYHUNTER]

looks great,


Al

 

[boomerang]

That is just way too cool. I love that design. Nice anecdote about it being "flipped" by Allen! Would it have been just a touch closer to being actually able to fly using the original concept? :confused

 

[propologist]

get him to sign something for you ?

 

[phase pistol]

Awesome!!! :cry

 

[3d-builder]

This finished up stunning, the depth in the paint is beautiful
the build is clean and beautiful!!!!thumbsup

 

[kdawg1]

Wow that paint is awesome what type of paint did you use? One other thing how do you guys fill the seam between the two halves of the hull? Do you build it first then paint or is it just a super fine fit that the seam disappears!

Fine job on this one I love it!

 

[Carson Dyle]

Wow that paint is awesome what type of paint did you use?

After futzing around with a few different Tamiya brand shades of blue and yellow I settled on TS-15 "Blue" for the accents and TS-47 "Chrome Yellow" for the hull. I can't speak for other brands, but in the Tamiya line these shades came the closest to matching paint chip reference of the studio miniature. Close enough for me, anyway.

That can of TS-34 "Camel Yellow" came in handy as a primary coat for the intake discs, affording a subtle, slightly darker yellow shading within the recessed areas.

The only drawback is $. Those little Tamiya rattle-cans aren't cheap, and I went through nine cans of the yellow alone (yellow being a notoriously difficult color to get complete coverage with). If I had it to do over again I might have my local auto paint dealer mix something up; given the subject it probably would've been cheaper.

One other thing how do you guys fill the seam between the two halves of the hull? Do you build it first then paint or is it just a super fine fit that the seam disappears!

Yeah, I WISH the seams just "disappeared." :lol

There were a fair number of seams and gaps to fill on this thing. I use Evercoat Easy Sand for this purpose. It's a two-part polyester auto body filler that dries very hard, super fast (depending on how much hardener you mix in) and, as the name suggests, it’s easy to sand.

Here's a good example of where body filler came in handy.

After sealing, sanding, and priming the gap at the upper nose, I decided to do a little re-contouring of the leading edge of the lower hull to create a slightly sharper profile. Intersecting strips of styrene formed a “dam” for the putty. By the way, Bare-metal Foil came in real handy when it came time to mask the search lamps in between primer coats.

The putty was then sanded down to a sharp edge, and the process repeated for the other side (sorry for the blurry image).

 

[steve36uk]

Aewsome work there:thumbsup

 

[VOODOOFX]

WOW! Rob what a nice build up, great job!

 

[JackFrost]

Fantastic job man, The yellow is flawless, one tough color to get right you did great with it !!

 

[Carson Dyle]

Thanks.

Here's one more, just for fun...

I had the model sitting atop a light table at work, and I thought it looked kinda cool.

 

[rocketeer25]

Excellent work! :thumbsup

 

[Rylo]

Really nice work! :love