USS Nautilus - final Edition

[drschmidt]

Next, the bow section is glued to the pressure-tight main hull. Sand and clean the adherent and fix both parts using high-strength epoxy. The bow deck is used to align the two sections but mustn’t be glued yet.





With that the main hull is complete:



To support the photo-etched deck and to mount the sail, struts, fabricated from 2 mm GRP sheet material, are fabricated and glued into the associated recesses in the main hull:











Again remove epoxy residues using a soft cloth and acetone. The deck is put onto the hull to check for the correct position f the struts but mustn’t be glued yet.



Side remark:

The photo-etched deck is best removed from its sheet using a Dremel drill with a small cutting disk. Carefully clean the edges using fine grade sandpaper.

[drschmidt]

Put together it starts looking like a boat. Now it gets dirty: Grinding, filling seams and gaps, again grinding. What one invests here in time, care and sweat will pay off twice when the first layer of primer is applied.

[drschmidt]

A few hours later: The whole boat is wet sanded and where necessary, the contours are corrected using 2-komponent polyester putty (usually used for cars). To get the seam of the service hatch as narrow as possible, the hatch is treated with release agent (PVA), putty is applied to the cut for the hatch, and then the hatch is pressed into the soft putty and fixed using the M2 screws. Wet sanding (400 grade sandpaper) and the fit is close to being seamless.





The final part that goes onto the hull is the sonar dome. It is made of two cast PU resin parts.



Clean both parts and glue them together (superglue):



The deck is put onto the hull, adjusted and then the sonar dome is glued to the hull where its position is marked on the deck. Don’t fix the deck yet.



Fill the seam, sand it, done:



Next the hull can receive its base coat.


The sail (GRP) is cleaned and sanded with 600 grade sandpaper before further assembly steps can be started:

[drschmidt]

First the viewports in the sail have to be defined. Nautilus had three levels of these viewports and at 1:87 scale they are actually only 3 x 4 mm large and are separated by only 0.5 mm minimum. The easy approach would be to just paint them on. I decided to cut them out. Mark, drill, file:







For the marking masking tape is a good choice as it can easily be corrected until everything is in the right position:









Centrally under the lowest viewport level a resin detail is fit into a 5 mm diameter drilling. Glue it into place, filling, sanding, done:

[drschmidt]

On it goes with the sail, mast support and bridge assembly:





On the upper rear edge of the sail the fin (photo etched part) is inserted:



The position is marked with masking band end edding and a slit is cut free using a 0,3 mm drill:





The fin is glued into position, the seams filled and sanded flush:





In the area of the bridge the inner edge of the sail has to be removed using Drehmel tool and diamond files. The bridge has to sit flush.





The mast support is a big resin cast part. To reduce its volume, not needed sections are marked and removed using saw and files.







The underside of the sail deck is sanded planar and the seams are cleaned:



The mast support is glued to the underside of the sail deck. Watch for exact positioning:



3 mm diameter vent holes are then drilled into the mast support.



Test fit and set back the inner edge of the sail if needed:



The bridge is a resin cast part. It still need compass repeater and rudder indicator, which are also resin cast parts.




The compass repeater is made of two parts – housing and lid. Both are sanded planar and cleaned. Glue them together using superglue and drill a 0,5 mm diameter hole horizontally through the housing:



Drill a 1 mm diameter hole in the marked position of the bridge deck:



The bracket for the compass repeater is a photo-etched part. Cut free, clean the seams and sand it using 600-grade sandpaper. The bend the wings into right angles using tweezers:





Put everything together with a 0,5 mm brass bolt and fix it with superglue:



Put the compass repeater it into the bridge using a 1 mm brass wire and fix with superglue:



The rudder indicator is again sanded pkanar and glued into position using superglue.
Then the bridge assembly is glue to the underside of the sail deck. Test fit the whole assembly into the sail and make adjustments where necessary.



When everything fits, glue the deck assembly to the top of the ail using epoxy:

[drschmidt]

After everything has been glued into place, fill and sand. Then all parts have to be prepared for the base coat. All surfaces are wet sanded with 600-grade sandpaper. This also includes the control planes.



When everything is sanded, all surfaces are thoroughly cleaned of dust and then degreased using silicone remover.

The parts that mustn’t be painted are masked suing masking tape. Then all parts are fixed for the painting using auxiliary mounts.



I use Südwest Allgrund 2-component filler/primer for the base coat, which I mix with 15% thinner (long). I apply the coat using a Satajet B (1,35 mm nozzle). It is important to thoroughly clean the room in which the paint is applied (here a garage) from dust and to clean all surfaces near the parts that are going to be painted using a wet cloth. The we are ready to go. Important: Use a breathing mask!!! Here the result:



Now the remaining micro pores can be filled and then again everything is wet sanded using 600-grade sandpaper.

[drschmidt]

The sail has been sanded down wet using 600-grade sandpaper. Now the surface details can be applied. First the handrails:



One needs 0,3 mm diameter spring steel wire, 0,5 mm diameter rail posts and a 0,5 mm diameter drill bit:



I chose rail posts for three rails. The holes for the rails are 0,4 mm diameter:



The 0,5 mm diameter holes are drilled into the sail at the already marked positions:





The rail posts are cut into single rail posts:



The heads of these single rail posts are filed flush (good needle-nose pliers, needle files, 600-grade sandpaper and lots of patience!). Then the single posts are threaded onto the steel wire. The wire is angled 90° at one end:



Then everything is put into the respective holes, while 0,5 mm thick styrene sheets serve as spacers:



Fix everything using masking tape:



Now everything can easily be glued into place using superglue (apply glue to the posts and the connections of the wire with the posts. Remove the spacers and cut the wire flush with the last post in the front:





Same on the other side, just one rail post less:

[drschmidt]

On the left and right side of the sail position lights are located. The position lights are cast of PU resin:





Finally a door is scribed on the port side of the sail using a 0, 5 mm thick styrene mask. To scribe the lines, I used a 0,5 mm diameter steel wire:




Now the sail is ready for the top coat:

[drschmidt]

Next are the surface details on the hull. Here it’s mainly about weld lines and rivets.

A few comments about those details: On many boats one sees weld lines and rivets, often very prominent, too often way too big. Here it is often useful to think a bit about the scale o the boat. My Nautilus is built 1:87 scale (H0). I apply weld lines of 0.3 mm width, which would make them 2.6 cm wide on the original. That’s already quite big. Many rivets I had on model submarines would be as big as soccer balls, weld lines as wide as 10 cm. Sometimes less is more.

For the weld lines I use decals with resin relief, so called surface details from Archer Fine Transfers. What they are and how they are applied is demonstrated here:

https://youtu.be/aptnvFeEqio

The markings for the weld lines are applied like as follows: The hull will get a segment weld every 10 cm. This grid is drawn on a straight board.



The boat is put upside down onto the board and centered along the symmetry line:



A vertical marking board is built from spare wood. The board is positioned on the segment markings:



Now the weld line markings can be transferred onto the hull using a pencil:





Additional markings are laid down using masking tape and then transferred using a pencil:





The weld lines are 0.3 mm wide Archer Fine Transfer surface details:



First, the edge of the deck superstructure is emphasized:

[drschmidt]

The weld lines and rivets are applied. Next is the top coat:

[sam reichart]

superb workmanship. what a beautiful model!

[salmon]

I have not commented because I would just be gushing complements. This is amazing.

[crueby]

Incredible detailing, love how you did the lines/rivets!

[drschmidt]

The top coat: The boat is painted in the color scheme that the Nautilus carried during the crossing of the north pole; i.e. a two-tone scheme consisting of grey and black.





I chose RAL 7042 for the gray. The colors used are Südwest 2-component paints. The coats are high gloss, which will make the application for weathering filters and washes easier. The matt tone of the boat will finally be applied using a matt clear coat.





Before the decks can be painted black as well, the hatches have to be assembled. The hatches are cast of pu-resin, the hand wheels are photo-etched parts.

[drschmidt]

The decks are painted black after the hatches have been glued onto the decks. Then the base coat gets weathered. I started with the weathering of the surfaces beneath the waterline. Therefore I applied the method of my US colleague David Merriman:

1.) Mask the waterline using masking tape
2.) Tap on toothpaste with a round brush
3.) Lightly paint over the whole surface with white
4.) After the color has dried, remove the toothpaste with a damp cloth
5.) Tone down the effect using white and black
6.) The algae and dirt at the waterline is airbrushed on using white and green
7.) Remove masking tape

I went for a moderate effect as I depict the boat in a young stage of its career,