Submarine Kitbash Spaceship part 5

 Grey primer - done. 

The engine bells are wrapped in cling film to mask them off.

A commenter on facebook thought the "spare tire" nurnie is too obviously what it is. It was a part I had that perfectly fit the hole I had to fill. I hoped that the grey primer would be sufficient to disguise it but perhaps not. A little more work will be required here.

Thanks for looking.

More soon...

Submarine Kitbash Spaceship part 4

I believe I have completed the surface detailing phase of the project. 

The plain white panels are mostly cut from 0.5mm styrene sheet.

The rest is a lot of flat panel kit parts and a few bits of evergreen textured sheet..

Next step grey primer.

Thanks for looking.

More soon...

Submarine Kitbash Spaceship Part 3

I added a strip around the back edge to give the rear bulkhead a bit of an inset.

The rear bulkhead was then fully detailed out, quite a fiddly process as I had already glued the engine bells in place.

I then moved on to detailing the lower hull at the front.

The large grey part with a round shape with black strip is the loading door. It would open and become a ramp. Its upside down in the picture below.

I am hoping to get this model finished for WASMEx 2026 which is on the 8th and 9th of August and fast approaching. I have a week off work prior to the show in order to to finish up. I still have a lot to do and need to get cracking.

Thanks for Looking.

More soon...

Submarine Kitbash Spaceship part 2

I made four landing pads from some 1/35 scale Maus tracks and suspension parts. They were drilled to take a short piece of brass rod which was then inserted and glued to the bottom of the hull. I also detailed out the bottom cavity in the lower hull.

Some detailing of the front lower hull has been started.

I made some wings and fins from three layers of 2mm styrene sheet. The centre layer has some tabs for inserting into slots drilled and filed into the hull. V-groove panel lines were scribed using an Olfa plastics cutter.

Some small detail was added to the top of the hull.  The black brick like textured part is a bit of an old VHS video tape cassette.

Thanks for looking.

More soon...

Submarine Kitbash Spaceship part 1

I came across this image of a kitbashed spaceship on Facebook made from the two halves of a submarine Plastic model kit. The modeller was Tony Murray 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2043682082594379/posts/3266027093693199

I thought this was a genius idea and as I had the front end of the hull of a large 1/72 scale U-boat  sitting idle in a box I thought I might be able to have a a go at doing something similar myself.

A spaceship that it built from two halves of a submarine kit brings to mind the Prison Barge model, part of the rag tag fleet from the original Battlestar Galactica.

The rear end of the submarine kit hull had been chopped off for another as yet unfinished project and I had never had any idea of what to do with the rest of it, until now that is.

Below is the hull before I cut it up in 2021. The picture following shows what I have left over.

I glued the two halves to the deck section with styrene strips re-inforcing the seams.

The edges were superglued to some strips of 6mm thick foamed PVC sheet. A mounting plate which was a furniture leg mount with a 3/8" thread was added top and bottom of a 10mm thick piece of foamed PVC. Wiring was added for the various lighting systems with panel mount DC connectors for the 12 volt DC power input.

A slot has been left at the front of the submarine sides for a bridge window. This means a cockpit section had to be built and lit. I used the figures from the Haseqawa 1/72 Leopold railway gun kit to populate the space.

The cockpit/bridge was then sprayed with  grey primer and then painted and weathered.

While the submarine parts comprise the top of the hull, the bottom is made from two ABS covers I found in the bin at work. I have no idea what they came from. They had to have a section cut from the middle to more closely match the width of the upper submarine assembly. Leftover parts of the submarine deck were glued over the seam externally with scrap ABS strips on the inside. I added a couple of shrouds from the Pilgrim Observer kit to the rear.

At the front I have added a 1/35 Bradley kit hull to extend out that area a bit.

There were two holes in the side and a large hole on the bottom that needed filling. Foe the bottom I constructed a shallow tray from styrene which houses the bottom threaded rod mount, a DC power input and a push button switch the turn the engine lights on and off. This will eventually get filled with nurnies.

I decided to use the side holes as a sort of EVA bay. It is a tiny area that has been detailed out and provided with a strip of LED lighting. A beam has been placed across the space to mask the LED strip light so you see the effect of the light rather than the direct light itself. 

Because it would be difficult to paint these bays once the top and bottom hulls were glued together I decided to paint them first. Like the bridge they received grey primer and then weathering with an oil wash and acrylic paint dry brushing.

The picture below shows the LED strip light stuck to the ceiling

Picture above grey primer, below with oil wash and dry brushed with white acrylic.

Now the two halves could be permanently glued together.

At the rear, glued to a bulkhead made from 6mm foamed PVC, I have added six 3D printed engine bells sprayed matte black, each with a "eagle eye LED 12 volt light inside.

Thanks for looking.

More soon...