Planning a new 72ns scale NAUTILUS

[modelnut]

Think I will finish this one --- I have a new diabolical plan!

Since I am fairly certain that I will carry this plan to completion, I think I will need a few things.

Furnishings for the pilot house and Salon in 72nd scale.
Fittings aproppriate to a Victorian ship, cleats and bollards maybe.

It would be great to find a figure and furnishings to duplicate this:

(Borrowed from Mike Crisafulli's excellent site!)

And I will need a couple of Victorian gentlemen and one harpooneer to put in the Salon windows!

Can any of you suggest where I might look?

-Leelan

[hakkikt]

Aaah, how I like that

Aaah, how I like that picture : )

For Victorian ship fittings, you might find something useful in the few 1/72 kits of old ships that are around. Not my line of interest, so I cannot point you in a particular direction.

As to figures, the German company Preiser produces an incredibly wide range of figures in a lot of scales, 1/72 among them. I would be very surprised if you dont find there what you are looking for - but be prepared to spend some time searching.

Harald

[modelnut]

Yeah. I'm finding that out.

Yeah. I'm finding that out.

Nobody has "Victorian" fittings, only modern. And the vendors I have found don't know from scale. They have the item's dimensions but it is up to me to decide which is right. But I don't know how big a binacle is supposed to be, so how do I know?

Guess I will have to snoop around and try to find actual measurements of the real deal and then figure out what they would be in 72nd.

Maybe I will wait until I have a hull to put them in . . .

Should know more in a week.
Might even have a camera so I can take pictures.

-Leelan

[modelnut]

After rereading the text it

After rereading the text it occurred (sp?) to me that Verne tells us what color uniform and clothes everyone on the NAUTILUS is wearing. He proudly states that their clothes are made from fibers that hold sea creatures to the sea floor and dyed with extracts from the murex snail. The only colors you get from that snail are blue and purple depending on if you expose the dye to the sun (saw that on several History Channel programs recently.)

Oddly enough, they get this right in the movie, "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen".



-Leelan

[boss subfixer]

Hey Leelan did you by

Hey Leelan did you by chance check out "Cast your anchor"? I'm not sure if their stuff is the right era but they seem to deal with the age of sail.

Here is the link from the vendor page,

http://www.castyouranchor.ca/

[modelnut]

Thanks, Don!

I had come across

Thanks, Don!

I had come across them but hadn't had time to search their site. In fact, I had almost forgotten them. The easiest vendor I have dealt with so far has been Squadron. I have some 72nd scale figures coming from them. Ships-n-Things has nothing in my scale, nothing but a propeller.

Where have all the R/C sub vendors gone? I had several sites like Thor bookmarked that just don't exist anymore. At least not so I can find them.
Have they all gone under?

-Leelan

[modelnut]

I have a good base

I have a good base for the hull in hand. It will take a bit of work yet but I am confident I can get it going AND carry it to completion. The diabolical plan is going to work!
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Now I have to think about how to construct the pilot house and the Salon.

?

What is a good, strong, solid adhesive with which to assemble a structure out of plexiglass? One that won't craze and fog the vital transparent qualities I need?

Do any of you have a suggextion?

-Leelan

[hakkikt]

So you are using plexiglas

So you are using plexiglas for the hull? Nice : )
What will you make the bow and stern of?

The only thing that I remember about plexiglas glues is that they are specialised products that glue acrylic glass and nothing else. So you might get problems with hull ends made of other substances.

[modelnut]

After two failed attempt to

After two failed attempt to scratchbuild a hull (or was it three?) Fate has smiled on me with the rerelease of a 1954 model that's been retooled:

http://www.megahobby.com/productimages/hwk/HWK70816.jpg

It use to be a vacuform kit and now the hull is injection molded --- much stronger.

The kit is almost exactly in the right proportion for my needs. I just have to lengthen the hull by about an inch.

The plexiglass will be used in the Salon windows and the pilot house. That's the only place I will need it to be transparent. Might use it elsewhere but not in the hull.

I will build the cradle today and start on the kit's nose job.

Wish me luck!
-Leelan

[hakkikt]

Ah, great minds think alike!

Ah, great minds think alike!
I have been nursing the idea of motorising a Zeppelin as a steampunk submarine for a long time. The streamline is too good to miss, and if you turn it upside down, there is already a conning tower in front. Revell's 1/720 Hindenburg comes to mind in particular, but I have not been able to find it over the last year or so.

How big is the kit that you have in mind?

[wingtip]

did i miss something?

when did

did i miss something?

when did the project go from being a new nautilus build to a zeppelin?

[hakkikt]

when did the project go

when did the project go from being a new nautilus build to a zeppelin?

If I understood modelnut correctly, the idea is to use the streamlined hull of a Zeppelin as a basis to model the original Jules Verne Nautilus (which in contrast to the sea-monster Disney version is described as having a cigar-shaped hull).

[modelnut]

You got it, H.

The funny

You got it, H.

The funny thing is that the model is not an exact representation of the Graf Zeppelin. The GZ is supposed to be 775 feet long and 100 feet in diameter. That gives a ratio of 7.75. The NAUTILUS is supposed to be 70 meters long and 8 meters in diameter with a ratio of 8.75. Turns out that the model is almost 8.75 comparing length to diameter.

What is way too cool is that the model will be closer to 68 scale instead of 72 --- that's the scale of the 31.5 inch Disney/Goff NAUTILUS that I have had waiting for years!

Everything is coming together . . .

-Leelan

[hakkikt]

This is the Hawk/Testors LZ127

This is the Hawk/Testors LZ127 kit, right? 1/245 scale, length 38.5' (98 cm)?
At that length, is the hull in 2 pieces or cut up like that of the Revell Gato?
If the model is halfway good, it should show the Zeppelin's framework structure through the "skin" - do you plan to keep that or get rid of it? might be a lot of work.

-Harald

[modelnut]

No. Any skeletal details you

No. Any skeletal details you want on your zeppelin will have to be painted on. (Remember the pictures of the finished kit are around sixty years old.) The facets are there of course. But they can be covered with a skim of putty.

Oh! The hull comes in two pieces, left and right. I wish they were top and bottom though. That would make converting her to R/C so much easier.
The crappy part is that the GZ is not symetrical around her central axis. She is bowed in the vertical direction. I suppose that is for aerodynamical reasons. Put a big fat fly in my ointment though.

I glued the hull together yesterday and puttied over the gaps where the stabilizers were supposed to go. I hope to build the nose extension tonight. When I get some pictures I will be sure to post them.

-Leelan