flashlight Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 Three weeks of this GB have already passed by and there are still three months to go! Plenty of time for another project. Again I will do something I have never done before and completely different from my recent two entries to the SSDGB. Having built objects that fly high above the salty sea I'll now build something that dives deep down into the salty sea. This is my new project: the Japanese research submersible Shinkai 6500, which is able to reach the depths of 6500 m. Box contents. Seems to be an easy kind of kit. Instructions, decals and a nice fact sheet with description of the instalments on the real thing. Haha - talking about 'easy' - lots of detail painting ahead... ..and white all over! Someday I'll break the spell and I'll get a nice and smooth white finish! Some interesting informations provided by Hasegawa (I hope it's okay to post this, if not, please tell me and I'll remove this immediately). It will be started soon. Please @TonyOD add this to the build list, thank you! 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faraway Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 26 minutes ago, flashlight said: and white all over! Someday I'll break the spell and I'll get a nice and smooth white finish! White ? Why did it have to be white ? (apologises to Raiders of the Lost Ark, and something about snakes) Jon 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bertie McBoatface Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 Now that's an interesting submarine to work with. Good choice 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoftScience Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 this is super cool! I look forward to seeing the project develop. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyOD Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 Well that's an interesting subject alright. Reminds me of something I'd see on The Man From Atlantis back in the 70s! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 9 hours ago, flashlight said: Instructions, decals and a nice fact sheet with description of the instalments on the real thing. Haha - talking about 'easy' - lots of detail painting ahead... Some interesting informations provided by Hasegawa (I hope it's okay to post this, if not, please tell me and I'll remove this immediately). It will be started soon. Please @TonyOD add this to the build list, thank you! I don't believe a single word, they are really looking for Gojira! cheers, Pappy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashlight Posted February 1 Author Share Posted February 1 Okay, the dive has started! I kindly ask our host @TonyOD to turn it to green in the build list, thank you! Did not do very much though, I just cut off and cleaned the two main parts of the hull, placed the front bulkhead inside and the diving panes to the back. I also glued the two parts, that form the front of the hull, together (lower left in the pic) and I glued the rudder parts together. That rudder cries out for filler and sanding paper to get rid of the seam and the circles! This is something like a snap fit kit, it seems like you wouldn't need any glue. That's it for now, next steps will be filling and sanding the rudder and painting and installing the thrusters to the inside of the hull. Thanks for looking! 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bertie McBoatface Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 Snap fit or not, I'm sure you'll turn it into a masterpiece. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandboof Posted February 2 Share Posted February 2 Looking very neat Martin H 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashlight Posted February 2 Author Share Posted February 2 @Bertie McBoatface, @Grandboof Thank you very much indeed! Work of today, again not very much. I sanded off the circles and filled the gap on the rudder and assembled and painted the vertical and horizontal thrusters. The instructions wants these to be painted in blue FS35622, which seems to be like Duck Egg Blue. The colour is not in my inventory, so I took RLM78 and mixed it with a little bit of pale green to give it a slightly greenish tint. Don't think that this was necessary, but well... Next I painted the details on the rear bulkhead black and dark aluminium. That was about it for today. Here she is, everything dry - er - snap fit. Looking good already with those tiny propellers and the blue spots! The rear bulkhead, won't be seen very much of it, it will mostly be hidden by the big propeller once it is installed. Thanks for looking! Comments, criticism, advice and encouragement is highly welcome! 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bertie McBoatface Posted February 2 Share Posted February 2 She is an elegant beast, isn't she? I've been asking myself 'would I be happy going four miles down in one of these?' A real one, obvs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashlight Posted February 2 Author Share Posted February 2 1 minute ago, Bertie McBoatface said: She is an elegant beast, isn't she? I've been asking myself 'would I be happy going four miles down in one of these?' A real one, obvs. Yes, elegant indeed! I think that I would be happy and fascinated by all the things and strange life forms you might see in the light cones of the search lights down there in the pitch black night! Must be very interesting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patmaquette Posted February 2 Share Posted February 2 I'd be worried about the outside pressure. 680 atmospheres (or thereabouts). That is incredible engineering, isn't it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashlight Posted February 2 Author Share Posted February 2 2 minutes ago, patmaquette said: I'd be worried about the outside pressure. 680 atmospheres (or thereabouts). That is incredible engineering, isn't it! Incredible indeed! It held a world record for manned research submersibles till 2012, then outperformed by the Chinese research submersible "Jiaolong" which could go down to nearly 7.000m. Unbelieveable! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliGauld Posted February 2 Share Posted February 2 Ooh I'm liking the look of this so far. Looking forward to further progress. Cheers, Alistair 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashlight Posted February 3 Author Share Posted February 3 Hi everybody, the dive continues. Today I had a good progress with a minor setback. First work in the morning was the assembly of the main thruster. Now all the components that should get white paint on were done and I took out the airbrush. This time I used Gunze Off White (gloss) and it went down beautifully! Did I break the spell at last? We'll see. After this I sprayed the rudder and the sonar tower with glossy Gunze Orange. I put all components away so that they could dry without catching too much dust. In the meantime I assembled the sample baskets and painted them, and I also painted the two manipulators. In the evening I took out the parts of the hull and the orange parts and saw that the paint worked very well! The only thing - and that is the minor setback - I noticed that I had created two nice teardrops of white colour on the upper half of the hull where I obviously sprayed too much colour without noticing it. No big problem, I sanded them off and I will redo the paint tomorrow. The manipulators still need some colour and a touch up of the seamlines. Next steps are repainting the upper hull, and the detail painting will start, this is going to be much fun! If all goes well I might close the hull tomorrow. That's it for now, thanks for looking! Any comments, advice, criticism and encouragements are highly welcome! 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bertie McBoatface Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 1 hour ago, flashlight said: These things are just the entry fee to modelmaking. Brace up and haul away, shipmate! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashlight Posted February 4 Author Share Posted February 4 Ahoy there! Alright, she is buttoned up now. First I fixed the paint problem. While the upper half of the hull was set aside to dry I prepared the view ports and started with the detail painting on the underside of the hull, where I first masked everything off and sprayed the area of the ballast in dark aluminium. In the afternoon I brush painted the black areas on the underside and then I did the detail painting on the sonar compartment. Later in the evening, after giving the upper hull enough time to dry I glued all the hull parts together. The fit is not so good in some areas, we'll see what I can do about it. I also attached the viewports. After this I started the detail painting on the upper hull. This is where I am now: Next will be getting rid of the nasty seams on the sample baskets, installing the baskets and manipulators, then painting and installing of the cameras and searchlights and painting and attaching the ballast parts to the underside. Then only a few small part will be left to be attached after the decals are applied. Of course the detail painting will continue, there is still much left, after all the black spots there will be a lot of details to be painted silver. That's it for now, thanks for looking! 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andwil Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 Fantastic looking model of a fascinating subject! AW 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashlight Posted February 4 Author Share Posted February 4 Just now, Andwil said: Fantastic looking model of a fascinating subject! AW Thank you very much for the very kind comment, AW! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandboof Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Nice detail work . This gets better and better Martin H 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bertie McBoatface Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Yes, it's looking better with every update 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashlight Posted February 5 Author Share Posted February 5 @Grandboof, @Bertie McBoatface You are too kind, gentlemen, thank you very much for your comments! Good day, all! Today I continued and finished the detail painting, I had a lot of fun doing this. I also applied the decals. These were a bit on the thick and stiff side and they didn't react very much to decal softener, but they turned out quite well. After this I painted and attached the rest of the parts and now I'm glad to say that she's finished. Doesn't she look funny, my little toy? I'm thinking about applying a panel line wash, but I'm not so sure about it. Maybe I just want to keep the toy like character of this model. I'll add her to the gallery tomorrow. Thanks to all who followed, commented and encouraged me and of course huge thanks to our brilliant hosts @TonyOD, @Col. and @Bertie McBoatface! 9 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bertie McBoatface Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 She's a pearl of great renown. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bianfuxia Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 Nice work! When I built this recently I decided against too much weathering, partly for the toy issue you raised and also because I think from what few pics I found online that they kept it pretty clean. After all it's a one-off expensive research vessel not an airliner that sits outside for weeks on end. I'm sure they clean it carefully after every dive! You can get a good Trumpeter kit of the Jiaolong, too. I built that recently also and they're fun to sit together on the shelf. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now