Seaview and Flying Sub

Gallery Article by John A Thomas on Oct 27 2009

 

Voyage to the bottom of the sea was one of my favorite TV shows of the mid 1960's. each week the crew had to overcome all kinds of monsters and sea creatures and when the Flying Sub came along I was hooked.

The Kit: The kit is the Polar Lights kit of a few years ago. The kit fit was ok, no interior detail, no decals, the clear windows up front fit was poor. I used some small brass tubes for the periscope.  I painted the Sub Model Master Acrylic Gunship gray.  The fit of the windows was so poor I had to do a lot of sanding, so I painted them over with gloss black.  I gave the Sub a coat of Future for that wet look.  I also used Acrylic Gel Medium for the clear water flowing off the Sub, this worked real well.

The major part of the project was to have the Seaview coming out of the sea at the North Pole.  This required me the cut off the rear part of the Sub and I also had to cut the under side to get the angle that I wanted.

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The Diorama: The Seaview at the North Pole is the opening scene of the Movie and was used in the TV show.

The Water: The water was plaster over a wood base. I made a plaster ramp to place the Sub at the angle I wanted. I painted the water with Acrylic artist tube paint. Future was used to give that real water look.  I used Acrylic tube white and Acrylic gel around the Sub base for the sea foam effect.

The Ice: The Ice was layers of foam with plaster over it.  I painted the ice a very pale blue color.  I when added Baking Soda on top for the snow.

The Flying Sub is an all Resin Kit. I just had to paint it Yellow with black trim.  I used the same technique above for the base and water,

Both of these projects were fun to build and the water technique can be used for all kinds of Dioramas.

Have Fun in Modeling

John A Thomas

Photos and text © by John A Thomas