Nautilus 2020

[gt350pony66]

Hello friends,
Finally made my way back to the site and a build after a rather rough year. Pretty much all settled in to my new life in Wisconsin...just in time for winter. So, my first build upon my return to the RPF is going to be a 31" Disney Nautilus with full interior (the salon) which my last one did not have. Thanks to many of my good friends here, and a select few I regard as brothers, my skills have vastly improved since the last Nautilus build that ended up in Germany. So this fish is going to be a challenge and a lot of fun to do. After this I'll likely fall back into the more familiar Star Wars stuff. Anyway, I'm glad to be back and here we go...

my new basement workshop

 

[Escape068]

Glad to see your all settled in you new house and workspace. It looks great!! Plenty of room compared to the kitchen table. Looking forward to seeing this build. I've been working on the Polar Lights 1/350 Klingon K'Tinga that I will be poising here soon.

 

[TazMan2000]

Looks like you have a nice little set up there.

TazMan2000

 

[thegnome]

I like the setup

 

[gt350pony66]

Glad to see your all settled in you new house and workspace. It looks great!! Plenty of room compared to the kitchen table. Looking forward to seeing this build. I've been working on the Polar Lights 1/350 Klingon K'Tinga that I will be poising here soon.

Hey there my friend, so glad to hear from you. I've missed you guys and the activity on the site. It's been a more difficult transition than I anticipated but it's coming together. You're right about my new work space, it's awesome. I can just leave everything where it is and don't have to pick up when I'm done. I don't get as long of sittings at the table but then I don't get rushed about it either and slop through things.
So this Klingon ship, 1/350 sounds big, very cool! I'm looking forward to seeing what you're doing. I've got an 18" Mobius or Polar Lights...can't recall which is which, of the Jupiter II, to do as well. Think I'm going to take a stab at that one after the Nautilus. I also have a 1/6 B9 robot with the upgrade set and light and sound package. I may take a few steps back from SW for a bit before I dig out the De'ago Falcon again and hit it with a refreshed attitude.

 

[gt350pony66]

I like the setup

Thanks! I hung a 32" tv from the basement ceiling on a tail-gater tv mount turned upside down that swivels. I can spin it from the gym area to the hobby table! LOL

 

[gt350pony66]

not a terrible lot to show but...I cut out the section of the lower hull fin for the Shapeways upgrade speed screw which is miles better than the stock piece. This kit is virtually ALL rough cast resin. A LOT, of work is required to do these decently. so many of the smaller pieces are so bad they're unusable. Thankfully there's a enough on Shapeways to spruce these up. There's also a bit of fabricating along the way but nothing that's difficult.
I also sliced off the rear hatch bore to make way for the SW parts. Next post I'll take better pics of the new rear hatch, fin, and related pieces, they are very impressive. the designer of these bits is to be congratulated. I also whipped out a pile of LED's for the lighting of the side hull window frames. I only had two yeloglo LED's left that I used for the dragon eye's on the wheel house. So, I used white ones, roughed them with 220 grit and used a yellow sharpie. the light glow for this build needs to be in and antique tone as this fish swam in the 1860's. Actually. there's not really anything new to see here that the other fellas haven't done before, and quite cleverly I might add. This will be my first with the salon interior, but the second with the chart room, main stair case and rear engine room. last time I wasn't posting, but I hope you guys will like what's coming later in this project...it's gonna be fun. Oh, and there will be a sound module with James Mason's famous words from the movie..."When the world is ready, for a new and better life, all this will someday come to pass...in God's good time"

 

[gt350pony66]

Looks like you have a nice little set up there.

TazMan2000

Thanks Taz, I wasn't sure the basement was going to be warm and/or comfortable for this but it's working out really well so far. the work table was left by the previous owners and is almost perfect. though tomorrow I'm going to screw a longer and slightly wider top to it. Maybe even go with a large "L" shape top...I gotta spread out a bit more

 

[Analyzer]

Glad to see you back at modeling!

Looking forward to watching you trick out this one

 

[gt350pony66]

Glad to see you back at modeling!

Looking forward to watching you trick out this one

thanks brother, it's good to hear from you. it's been, "a year" for sure...but things are looking up finally. still got boxes laying about and stuff to put away but I had to get back to the bench in order to feel more "at home"

 

[gt350pony66]

So...I had to enlarge the stairwell hole in the upper main hull so it would at least appear that it could be walked down. extended the stairs downward which will land at the upper area of the chart room. I did some of the chart room tonight with evergreen sheet. first it was plain but then I decided to use the lined sheet to give the effect of decking. I used brass rod to build the railing across, and then a hand rail that goes down to the main floor of the chart room. I won't bother with that short set of steps because you wouldn't be able to see them anyway. I've built the railing behind the wheel and started the railing for the spiral staircase which also wouldn't be visible so I won't trouble with that either. those pics to follow once that's all done.
I had to mock up the salon interior to gauge the room I would have for the chart room. unfortunately the proportions are off a bit but the forward section of the salon can't be seen through the large side iris windows anyway, but its important that the stairs at the main hatch and the chart room below be visible to the observer. I plan to have both iris ports open so the salon can be visible from either side. The good news is, the pipe organ to the rear will be plenty visible. the bad news is, the interior upgrade package is not everything needed. the call it a starter kit. there will be a LOT of fab and scrounge to get the full effect. but its not impossible. The rear hatch behind the dorsal fin had to be sliced off to install the shapeways hatch which is super detailed as well as the fin itself which needed some evergreen to shim it up on either side. I also had to adjust the rear interior wall, which the organ backs up to, in order to make room for the view down the mid ship hatch. the last time I did this build I built an engine room there with several color flicker LED's to get the effect in the movie. I plan to do the same this time for the nifty effect but anyone who is familiar well knows the Nemo's quarters are just aft of the salon, but that would be boring, right?

 

[32buds]

The new workspace is looking really good. So's the boat. I look forward to seeing what you do with her, given the quality of your past work!

 

[Analyzer]

That lighting effect sounds really cool

 

[gt350pony66]

The new workspace is looking really good. So's the boat. I look forward to seeing what you do with her, given the quality of your past work!

Hey, Happy Thanksgiving! And thanks! The reason the quality of my work has improved is from watching what you guys do

 

[gt350pony66]

That lighting effect sounds really cool

Thanks brother, and Happy Thanksgiving. My lighting has improved vastly since the last time I did this kit. Back then I was still using pre-wired LED's and it was difficult stashing all those fat ass wires

 

[gt350pony66]

did a little work to the chart room. not much will be visible from either the main hatch stairwell or the two large eyeball windows at the helm deck, or the forward hatch...but I did a lot more than the last one. the railings of course, a few pipes on the chartroom floor and a chart table. I'm thinking a yellowed 3mm LED in the rear add to the left of the second stair railing and just forward of the chart table will give off enough ambient light to brighten the chart room to glow upward for the observer to see the detail however limited the viewing angles will be. the wheel railing and the spiral staircase railing are a must as pointed out very cleverly by Timey Whimey on his build a couple of years ago. Viewing his fantastic efforts with this kit it what inspired me to do the same.

 

[Analyzer]

Very cool!

Out of curiosity, what scale is this?

 

[gt350pony66]

Very cool!

Out of curiosity, what scale is this?

Thanks! It's funky, 1/77. Trying to find period correct figures is a bear. I emailed a guy at Printle shop on Shapeways and he says he's got some design files but he's gotta look for them. Nautilus Drydocks in FL has a set but they're cast metal, crappy detail and 75 bucks! I really just want a Nemo to stand on the deck about mid ship. But I'll see what he's got and how much. I ordered a set of 1/72 sailors and officers that looked like the correct period, but as I feared, they're too tall. I'll use them for something though.

 

[gt350pony66]

I started some work on the interior, seems like I need to do that first. I made a rear room and used the hatch I sliced off the upper hull. I glued the hatch open and will put the flicker LED's below that. So, when looking down the mid ship hatch to this room I scratched, you will see another hatch going further down witch will appear to be the engine room. something I didn't do on the last one. I shot the salon ceiling piping with the silver paint that Bob Martin recommends for the upper and lower as a base before the rust effect is applied. Anyway, I shot these pipes and some wall panels with this silver, and then brushed rust pastel powder on the pipes, and a gray pastel on the walls. It's not exactly as it appears in the movie but it's close enough an will give the interior color contrast to make it interesting. Another hurdle I haven't figured out yet is, the floor of the salon in the movie is completely littered with decorative area rugs. not sure how I'm going to pull that off yet. But I think I'm off to a decent start but it will be more challenging than the first one I did.

 

[Analyzer]

Thanks! It's funky, 1/77. Trying to find period correct figures is a bear. I emailed a guy at Printle shop on Shapeways and he says he's got some design files but he's gotta look for them. Nautilus Drydocks in FL has a set but they're cast metal, crappy detail and 75 bucks! I really just want a Nemo to stand on the deck about mid ship. But I'll see what he's got and how much. I ordered a set of 1/72 sailors and officers that looked like the correct period, but as I feared, they're too tall. I'll use them for something though.

Maybe something like these (1/76 scale). Around $31

Langley Models

Langley Models

www.langleymodels.co.uk

actually found the same set on Amazon for $17.30 with $4 shipping

Amazon.com