Moebius Seaview 1:350 scale WIP

Modeling Subjects Ships
1

Who is up for some nostalgia?

The TV series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea aired from 1964 to 1968. I was 4 years old at the onset of the show; my brother is two years older than I am. We scarcely missed an episode.

I can still laugh about how my brother planned his day around the airing of each new episode. He was a man on a mission, and I was pulled along by his wake. Even at that early age I laughed about his resolve. Later, as the model kits were released, we both built the Aurora SV kits, and we did so more than once. My brother was in near rapture when they released the flying sub. It was out of this world to him. These were the good old days, when everything was a wonder.

Today, I am setting out to re-build this pretty simple kit. This time though, I am going with the new Moebius release.

How do you take a pretty cool looking sub and make it cooler? I suppose you can add lights and hyper detail the thing. Still, in the end, is that enough? How about putting the sub in a sea going diorama? Now, that would be cool. Well, that is what I am setting out to do with this kit. This will be the challenge of the build because, I have not done a sea going diorama before. As they say though, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

My goals for the build:

  1. Build the kit to a decent quality standard.

  2. Add interior lighting to the main cabin.

  3. Add lighting to the bow light? This is in question because the bow light will be submerged in the diorama. If I can come up with a convincing way to make the light visible through the water, then I will surely add that lighting.

  4. Model the sub in a sea going diorama.

Below: The box art.

Below: How it looks.

Below: This is as simple as it gets.

Below: I did buy one aftermarket item for this kit. Simply put, it is an image of the interior forward cabin. You insert the image before closing up the hull. I had seen a video of someone that used it, and I have to say that it looked pretty dang cool. Looking through the windows it appeared as though there are people in there. For $8, what do I have to lose. And yes, $8 is still too much for a small piece of paper. Lol.

Lastly, during my research on the Seaview kit I found Youtube videos on its larger cousin. Those measure at 33.5 inches long, and a number of people hyper detail them. I had even seen them modified to operate in the water via remote control. There is some incredible work being done on these.

Cool stuff.

More to come…

PS: I hope that it’s ok that I posted this in the Ships Forum.

2

Way to jump back on the horse, Steve! [Y]

That graphic is extra cool. I was pretty much glued to the show too. David Hedison was my hero. I later saw him in The Fly and it scared the heck out of me and I couldn’t understand how he could do that. [W]

This’ll be fun to watch, glad you’re doing it as a WIP.

3

Greg, thanks for all that. By the way…I have that movie and it IS creepy. Especially when he accidentally teleports his pet cat into inner space. You can hear the cat meowing, but there is nothing he can do to retrieve it. Its lost in inner space for all time. How awful. Then of course he messes up his own genetics and mutates into a fly. Crazy.

Thanks…

4

Help me!!!

I will find out the the name of the typographer who designed that title.

That’s my thing…

Funny you mentioned how you and your brother had to be in front of the set at a given time.

Folks don’t realize that now.

5

Very interesting project,will enjoy following along.I also enjoyed the initial movie,my father took me to see that.

6

So true. I remember when VCRs came about and how liberating that was. And now we have DVRs. What I remember most though was having to get up to change the channel. This was before remote controls, or at least it was in our house. They were around, but a pretty expensive adder on new TV sets. Anyway, we’d take turns on who gets up to change the channel. Advertisers had a captive audience because channel surfing was too much work…

7

Hey Tojo, it is great to hear from you. I agree about the movie. It has a pretty darn good story to it. The opening scene with Barbara Eden was kind of odd but the story develops pretty nicely.

I am glad that you will be following along!

8

Oh, gawd, G… I’d forgotten about that. That line haunted me for years and I just now remembered that my best friend taunted me relentlessly by saying it, knowing that it gave me the creeps. [8-|]

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Lol…

10

Oh My !

They made a smaller one ? I am in the middle ? Of my build . Its a monster and the hull is in more than four pieces . Geez . It’s going to look good with LEDs in it though . T.B.

P.S. I was so tickled when they came out with the " Flying Sub " . With a full interior yet ! Neither figure really resembled David Hedison or the Captain . Neat Build though !

11

Yeah mine is the 14" version. So you have the 33.5" version. Those give you a ton of options for lighting, and they are awesome looking when you do. I always wonder how people display those when they are done. The videos show people laying them out on tables and such. Any thoughts on what you will do?

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I have this ;

There are four ships ( seasonal ? ) That I do this with . Once every three months I switch them out . There’s a model of the M.S. ORIANA that I built ( bigger than the REVELL kit ) . A model of the TITANIC ( with All the windows and doors glazed , Portholes too ) The Premium Edition .

Then , there,s the U-47 ( Enlarged and with full detail interior . ) and lastly the Seaview . I am going to " Window " Her in different areas to show off more of the interior . These all make nice night lights ! T.B.

13

These sound awesome. Have you posted images anywhere that we can link to?

14

Hello, I expect to have an update tonight with how things are progressing. In the meantime, I would like to put out a feeler for sources on wood bases. The sub will be mounted on the water dio base, but below that I would like a nice wood base. I found a source in the UK for some, but I really don’t want to order from overseas.

No need to go searching, just if anyone is aware of a good source. In the end I will probably have to make my own.

Thanks.

15

Boy, I am trying to remember how long ago it was when I build a model of the Seaview! It was way back, when the series was on broadcast TV.

16

Don, you and me both!

17

Yes I built the aurora kit with lots of flash on black plastic and always ended up in the pool . But its that console that kept Shorting out in any type of underwater turbulence lol !

18

This Seaview went full circle…

Now that I got my hands dirty with sprue dust, I can give you my first impressions.

  1. There is some flash to deal with but I have seen much worse, I.E. the Mayflower build.

  2. There have been some fit issues, but it may be limited to the one section that I will spend some time talking about.

  3. The ease of assembly is very good.

I started by test fitting the two halves of the hull. Immediately, I had noticed that there was some twisting going on. You press here, and it pops there. You press there and it pops here. It didn’t seem severe enough though that I should do anything other than glue the darn thing. I started at the bow along it’s keel, then over, and all the way back again. I did this in sections to make sure I was getting the best alignments. In the end, it came out pretty good. Phew…

Below: There are some gaps along its keel, and this is the worst of it. No matter how hard that I squeezed on that section I could not close that gap. I will repair that with CA.

Below: Nothing to say here other than to take a gander at the seam. It came together nicely.

Below: Here is where I had some problems. For reference, the piece that is out of alignment is called the upper deck. The sail gets mounted to this, and behind where the sail sits is where the nuclear missile covers are molded. The problem here is, in short, it would not fit into the recess. And, it wouldn’t fit for various reasons.

Below: Here is one of the problems. The recessed corners are not square. I could not account for why this occurred. The rest of the model seems aligned well. I can only guess that this is some sort of defect. I had to notch those corners out so that they were square, and on both ends of the deck had to be done.

Below: The underside of the deck has two locating plugs and they don’t align well with the corresponding notches on the hull. This caused the deck to ride high. So, I had to sand those down until I could get the correct height.

Lastly, the deck was too long! I had to sand the ends down some in order for the piece to fit. What the heck…

The Seaview went full circle for me because I remember having the same dang problem when I built it many many many years ago. I am having flashbacks. [:#]

Below: after all is said and done…it still has a crappy fit. Primarily, this is true at the very ends of the decking. This is unacceptable to me and I can’t leave it like this. So, I will fill and sand smooth the entire deck join.

Overall, I am enjoying the simplicity of the build.

19

LOL… I think that I put mine in the bathtub.

20

You just started and it looks like the Seaview already. Cool!