Next up we have the Mobius Models Flying Sub kit, from The 1960s television show Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. This is probably one of the most iconic and well known fictional vehicles from all of science fiction movie and TV history. Who does love a nuclear powered sub that flies!
This recent model release marks a huge improvement over kits that have been available over the years. At 1/32nd scale, it is much larger. It is also based off entirely new scans of the original studio models, its contours and details differ from previous models It is much more accurate. Even the box art is more accurate to what we saw on screen.
I did a lot of preparation and planning for this one. I really wanted it to turn out well. Lighting is of course a must. There is a lighting kit specifically for this model, so I got that. But I quickly realized it wasn't enough. More LEDs would be needed, a lot more. I acquired warm white surface mounted (SMDs) from Evans Design.
The upper and lower hull halves in this kit are about the largest pieces of molded plastic I've seen. Fortunately the quality is quite good, although I think the kit over all would benefit from having more separate (smaller) parts for more detail. There actually are not a lot of parts to this thing.
I also used a photo etch set. Basically, you cut away all the details, and open up for light, all the control panels and replace them. with photo etched (PE) brass. The PE kit comes with decals for the control panels that go over the PE, letting colored light through in all the right places.
It I had to do this again I think I would not use many of the decals, or at least not the entire decal. I could have painted, or made and painted, better control details.
I used metal tape for light blocking on the backside of the panels. This give complete light block and reflection for addition light where it's needed. It was overkill. I actually ended up using and blocking the LEDs more selectively, indivually.
Here's a wall from the sub with the PE covering the cutouts and the initial paint. Looks good.
Here's a wall panel more or less done, with the decals. Again, I wish I'd just painted the PE.
A note about colors, particularly of the walls and such... The studio sets no longer exist so the show itself is the only available reference. Viewing stills, one quickly realizes that the on-screen colors are all over the map. This was the very early days of color television. Control over what things looked like on screen were not refined. It's also clear that they were not always consistent, and changed things, for specific scenes in order to highlight plot elements or actors. We are kind of on our own for colors. I used a combination of what looked right to me, and what paint I had on hand were possible. You will definitely see models painted a little differently.
Read though all the posts on this project here!
No comments:
Post a Comment