Papa

This is a card model available for download from ecardmodels.com.  It consists of an introductory page, 2 pages showing how the pieces go together (but leaving out a lot of detail) and 7 pages of parts to cut out and assemble.  This is the only model of the Nautilus I have been able to find that is true to Verne’s description in the novel.
So here we go:

Thanks as always for taking a look and hitting the like button.
 
I forgot to mention when I discussed painting the body that I also have the Splash Paints "Pink Base".  So, I'll put a coat or two of that on top of the light gray primer, and then proceed with the Rossa Corsa red.  That is the same sequence I followed for the Ferrari 330P4 that I built but did not log here.
 
Prior to painting the outside of the body, I wanted to spray the headliner area.  And since I was doing interior colors I decided to just go ahead and build the entire interior.  For the interior, I used Vallejo Model Air beige, followed by a light mist of Tamiya "Dark Yellow" to tone down the beige a bit.  I tried to apply a bit more of the dark yellow to the carpet and headliner areas.  Then I also applied some microscale clear satin finish to the seats, doors, and back panel...basically anything that is leather instead of textiles...to try to show that difference.
 
I bought the Vallejo paint for some other project a while back and never used it, so this was the first time using any vallejo paint.  I liked it pretty well, though it did form a glob of partially dried paint in the built-in dropper and since I was lazy and dripped the paint directly into the airbrush, I ended up with that partially dried glob clogging the airbrush a bit, which was annoying but not not a big deal.
 
Anyway, here are the pictures of the assembled interior.   As usual I did not bother taking an in-process pictures.
 

If you see any black flecks as are visible here, these are just some debris from the foam trays. Parts with this are just blown clear before assembly. Here are the cam and gear which are simply fastened with four small screws.

The cam drive gears are now selected and assembled as shown. You'll notice the mounting pins are machined to accept the gears. The gears must also be fitted in the orientation shown in the manual.


Yes, you see that correctly....a metallic red prop! Whilst I understand that it's better to include a machined metal prop as there won't be any balance issues, I might well have selected a different colour to anodise it. Still, this is a display model and it does looks strangely attractive when fitted. Here you see the prop and the front crankcase with the bearing, collar and prop hub parts.


Now it's onto the rocker arm assemblies. It's here you'll find the only plastic parts of the engine, seen here in black. The quality is still excellent and these parts aren't at all fragile. 


We turn our attention to the five cylinder head assemblies. Lots of screws to use here and you can see the exhaust ports and valves here. The valves do actually work too.


The rocker arms are now fitted to the top of the valve assemblies, and little reproduction spark plugs added. You could choose to paint the insulators in white, but I opted to leave in natural metal.


The cylinder blocks themselves are now fitted to the completed cylinder heads.

Mike - I am really enjoying these kits.  I have vivid memories of building kits in the 70's and 90's and spending a lot of time and frustration trying to get things together.  I've been watching your builds and have been really impressed with how you solve whatever building issues come up with your kits.  There are a few downsides to the great engineering.  The tight tolerances make cleaning paint off joints really important, and I have created my own gaps and filling by not doing this well enough.  The other big gap is between my skills and getting the full potential out of the kit, but I'm getting better with each one I build.
 
Some more progress on the DH9.  This model has a lot of decals.  Not as many as DocRob's AEG, but still a lot.  I've been plugging away and have most of the applied except for one side of the fuselage.  Overall, they have been going on well.  There have been a few challenges, especially the roundels where there are some ~5x5x4 mm small nacelles sticking up under the edge of the decal, which I've had a really hard time getting the decals to settle over.  They seem too big for the decal to fully conform to.   I've got some splits in the decals and a few place where I cut them and am touching up with paint.  The tamiya blue matches well and I'm pleased with the lower ones after touch up.  The upper roundel has a white stripe around it.  I'm going to try to touch that up tonight.  There was a gas cap on the side of the fuselage that was almost as big, and I was able to get the decal to settle over it with 6-7 applications of softener and heat.  Not sure it would have worked with the bigger bumps.

Thanks everyone for the comments and the likes. Javlin - special thanks for the compliment about the woodgraining, which is something I put a lot of time into.
 
The cockpit is starting to come together.  This part is always slow for me.  The parts fit great with no paint on them – WNW kits have amazing tolerances.  Wood graining takes four coats of paint (basecoat/oil streaking/clear tint/clear flat).  The streaking is brushed and adds extra thickness. When two wood grained parts get attached to each other, there can be 8 layers of paint in between (4 on each side) before cleaning. In the past when I haven’t paid enough attention to scraping paint, I’ve had fit issues getting the fuselage halves together.  Tamiya has a clear flat base that I might try adding to the clear yellow or orange tint to see if I can drop a layer (and save time – for parts where I have to paint the two sides separately, it can take a week of painting to get the parts wood grained).  So far, so good, but I won’t know for sure until I button up the fuselage, hopefully this weekend.

Excellent work Greg  -  those  should  weather  really  well.
 
OC.

This actually comes with a roof which I won’t use 

Getting some paint in the Fowler 

I really have to get into the shipyard/workshop and clean and rearrange things real bad.  But before I Could do that I first had to find a place for glory of the seas. So what I decided to do was build her her own shelf in the library.  I first removed The Charles W Morgan and put her on top of the great republic’s case. I then went out to the Wood shop and made a new shelf, brought it in and placed Glory on it.   I also installed a light to highlight her there.   I really want her in a case, but I just don’t have the room.  Here are a few pics of her in her new location in the library.  
 
Rob

Greetings!
Work continues on the main dock.

The knots in the boards were randomly placed after the boards were glued to the beams. When all the boards are down, they will be given a wash with A/E to darken the knots. I decided to lay the planks to the red line (see photo, last post). I put together a scale 40-foot flat car and the trucks run quite smoothly over the tacks with the wood placed so. I also like the look of the track "buried" in the deck. Here are a few photos.



And finally, the main building on the foundation beams and the deck. Some wood scraps were used beneath the foundation and the various platforms to get them all at the correct height.







I need to straighten the rod at the top of the cupola as it seems to be off in one axis.
Next up,  2 small sheds and the saw shed.

jeff
 
 

I broke down and ordered the larger astronaught figures from Shapeways. It sounds like the order was processed and they were shipped out a couple days ago, so I should be getting them soon.
 
Meanwhile, I looked further into the interior details of the moonbus and looked a what appears to be a cargo door on the sides of the interior. Reviewing the film, I finally learned that these are storage drawers for navigational and survey charts. As far as I could tell, these should only be on the port side. Opposite that, there appears to be a computer terminal. However, in the kit, both sides have the same pieces representing the storage drawers. 
 
I thought about modifying the starboard side piece to make a computer terminal. But, given that this is my first plastic kit in many, many years, I thought I'd better leave well enough alone. I was already making enough modifications. I did want to detail what I had though, so I measured out the molded recesses for the drawers and used my Silhouette Cameo 3 vinyl cutter to cut some pieces for the drawer faces using matte white adhesive-backed vinyl. I also measured out pieces for the drawer handles, which appear to be at the top edges of the drawers. For these, I had some metallic vinyl that worked well.
 

Since the drawers were all labeled in the film, I figured I should label these, but given their small sizes, I figured I would just do some "faux writing" on them using a ultra fine black marker.
 
I 
I know the handwriting looks like handwriting, but inside the model and at this size, I wasn't too worried about it.

You can see that I've painted and detailed the cockpit a bit. The cockpit chairs were originally smaller and with no armrests, so I replaced them with the spares I had from removing that extra row of passenger seats earlier. I later decided to go over the control buttons using a chrome paint pen. This made them reflect the cockpit lighting a bit, causing them to stand out more.
 

You can see here some blue lighting leaking under the control panel. I fixed the light leakage, but I was originally experimenting with putting one blue LED under the panel, but it seemed too much blue initially. I may revisit the idea later, but for now I'm more interested in intensifying the red lighting to balance out the overall look of the model lighting.
 

Finally, here's the current state of the lighting with the light leakage under the control panel fixed and the pilot figures test fit into position. I had to cut off their legs to simplify their fit, as I'm not using the original chairs or figures. Also, the arms have not yet been attached. But, you can get a pretty good idea of the overall appearance of the model with figures and lighting.
 
Next, I'll be cementing the nose permanently into place and finishing the pilot figures and cementing them into place as well. Still some exterior details to do, plus I still have to make a final call on the interior walls, and the addition of cargo and a few other internal details I've been thinking of as well.
 
 

That’s a keel clamp to hold a ship model under construction.  I will probably just get some brass pedestals but I do like launching way mounts.   

So  I had a  go  at some  wool  smoke  -   I  added  a  small   blob - ball type   bit  on the  breech  and   tried a bit  coming out of the muzzle,   but I wasn't  convinced  as it just  looked like  wool,  so  I  removed  the  muzzle  bit  but also had to  cut away  the  bayonet  (not a  problem as  some  did not have their bayonets  fixed)   I also  cut away  at the  smoke  on the  breech  till there was only the smallest  bit  left,   this  is  about as far  as  I would  go   -  just cant make it  life like.
 
OC.

Morning all,  think I found out the secret  to getting a  nice flat finish  with my  Lucky Ultra Matt   varnish,  after a   thorough  shake  (my arms are still  shaking now  lol)   I  put a  small  amount  in a  dish  then  after  loading the  brush  I  removed most  of it  against the  dish  wall,  then  I  removed even more  on some  tissue,   then when I ran the  brush  over the figure  it was  like  just adding a  slight  wet  finish  in a  really thin  layer   -  yep  it  seemed to have worked.
 
And  long last  a  few  pics  -  sorry for  the poor  quaility   quick  shots  in the  kitchen.
 
OC.

Finished.  Just need to add 2 name boards and decide how to mount her.

Thank you all for the nice comments. 

Finished.  Just need to add 2 name boards and decide how to mount her.

Finished.  Just need to add 2 name boards and decide how to mount her.

Finished.  Just need to add 2 name boards and decide how to mount her.

Finished.  Just need to add 2 name boards and decide how to mount her.

Finished.  Just need to add 2 name boards and decide how to mount her.

I managed to get the port side pram hung from the davits.  

The rigging is about done. Next up are davits and the boats.  I learned the hard way on the Morgan that installing davits before rigging is an invitation to break the davits.  

I managed to get the port side pram hung from the davits.  

I managed to get the port side pram hung from the davits.