STINGRAY & Launch Pen 3

[Gimme Shelter]

It's been a long while since I built a sci-fi kit and I'm venturing into the land of Gerry Anderson for the first time ever here - I've always been tempted but felt it better left it to the professionals until now, with their finite detail of the studio models and history behind the making of the Anderson productions; I am no expert and shall no doubt fall at the final furlong when it comes to colour shades and weathering etc.

 

I have some great unbuilt models in the sci-fi stash which include Thunderbird 3, a SHADO Interceptor and the Crab Logger but this kit just grabbed me when I saw it advertised as something that needs to go straight into production, irrespective of what I was already working on - a real queue jumper of a kit. Who could ever refuse a 16 inch Stingray model, 3D stereolithographed printed in 14K resolution? I've invested in a few books for guidance and pre-ordered the April release of the STINGRAY WASP: Technical Operations Manual hoping that the publication shall at least get me half way to a model that resembles the vessel.

 

The kit will need some homemade decals for the P & S side lettering as the printed text is incorrectly placed and in the wrong font, and I think I will drill out the side portholes too to try and add some more accuracy. The rear ashtray shaped propeller is being re-printed in clear by the manufacturer and is due to me next week. I shall also have to improvise for the P & S side protruding windows aft of the fins, and who knows how I shall make the main window glazing panes.

 

I have cut away some of the print pillars on the section that reproduces the cabin interior - its quite brilliant. The model is supplied with beaching skids and the launch pen cradle - I'll make a decision about which to use later on. Perhaps she can be posed on her launch cradle above a resin water base or set into a resin water base with her skis. There is a labyrinth of purpose channelled tunnelling for interior lighting but I'm not sure that's for me with this kit or not.

 

The book:

 

 

The kit as it comes from the production

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, standby for action...... and await success or disaster

[Pete in Lincs]

Crikey! You'll need a strong cup of tea and the IPMS Farnborough brass band playing the Stingray theme tune behind you!

I'm sure that when @Kallisti gets wind of this he'll dive in with info along with a couple of other Anderson fans.

There's plenty of stuff on the tube too. Including this....

 

[psdavidson]

Ooh, Stingray

Nice

[Gimme Shelter]

On 3/14/2025 at 5:57 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

Crikey! You'll need a strong cup of tea and the IPMS Farnborough brass band playing the Stingray theme tune behind you!

I'm sure that when @Kallisti gets wind of this he'll dive in with info along with a couple of other Anderson fans.

There's plenty of stuff on the tube too. Including this....

 

Fabulous video - many thanks for attaching here

[JohnT]

Dont worry about the colours too much.  Several shades of gray will do - out telly was black and white in those days 

 

Great stuff.  Any sign of Troy tempest, Phones and Marina

[Gimme Shelter]

After what felt like hours - probably at least 4, I have managed to excavate the kit from the printed pillars - it looks great - there is a hidden periscope included on the roof of Stingray's cabin which I nearly snipped off - luckily I spotted it just in time - a nice touch. The cabin interior looks ok given that it includes all the basic shapes of the studios model interior - the railings are a tad chunky but I'll address that once I am clear in my head about the level of interior detailing that I want to add. Figures wont be needed as I intend to pose her on her launch cradle above the water in her hangar. 

 

I invested in a belt sander years ago when I was building Randy Cooper's Sand Crawler kit - this came in handy once again and was perfect to sand down all the mating surfaces and remove the excess print surfaces. Its ready for a prime for final clean up, and to pin together. The kit has peg holes to pin the main hull sections together, I've found some 4mm circular pillar plastic poles which will make perfect pegs.

 

The ashtray type propeller is due to arrive printed in clear. The main cabin windows shall have to be home made with clear plastic sheet. Luckily my daughter donated the packaging from her new swimming goggles which will do the trick nicely as its super thin and flexible and very clear. I have no idea how I am going to make the P & S rear bubble windows - I know most secondary schools now have vac-forming machines in their Tech departments so I shall have to make some calls and see who will take the challenge on.

 

Seen below: tidied up, off the print pillars, sanded down

 

 

[Gimme Shelter]

weekend progress once again.

 

Pegged up joints and ready for clamping up.    That's the launch cradle in the background.

 

 

 

 

The printed P&S lettering is definitely going and shall be replaced by decals

 

 

First dry fit of cabin - a nice snug fit which can be removed and make the paint and masking process simpler (I think)

 

 

The double P&S portholes have been drilled out and the first coast of primer confirmed what needs sanding and tidying up post printing

 

 

The ski's were glued in however the skis were perfectly flat and did not follow the curvature/contour of the vessels curved hull when inserted. Working with some 20 minute 2 part epoxy glue and a set of strong clamps, I managed to get the ski's glued in and nicely curved to fit flush with the shaped curves of the hull

 

 

My 1966 Stingray Annual confirms the 3D representation of the launch cradle to be ...... well.... similar.

 

Spot the use of the Ice Hockey skate blade - how very inventive and a nice touch compared to a lemon squeezer!

 

 

Scale: based on finding suitable figures for the cabins seats, a pair 1/72 scale figures seemed to work well - they worked perfectly without the need of any limb surgery at all.

 

These 2 should have been flying a 1/72 Matchbox Buccaneer but have found a very different environment. Using a sharp No. 11 blade to remove traces of lifejackets and face masks, plus a bit of surgery to round off their shoulders and an attempt to add a peaked cap and Phone's antenna, breaths a complete new life and career for these 2 chaps. Maybe a bit more work to do still on them but I think I'm headed in the right direction with them.

 

 

 

 

The kit is supplied with a front screen frame but this incorrectly includes a central upright pillar and if fitted, would then leave the whole of the front curved cabin window too narrow both top and bottom. Using the kit screen frame, I started work on my first attempt to make my own front screen which shall be fitted directly in the space where the frame is intended to fit to achieve the correct look.

 

First, a tracing for the screen and frame contour

 

 

 

The previously mentioned swimming goggles packaging at the ready - super clear and thin 

 

 

 

First attempt test fitted perfectly below however throughout the whole process of working with the cabin part, I became ever more conscious of the 2 raised pin strip lines and shall probably sand these flat and paint the white stripes

 

 

Once I have made good the 2 huge joints between the 3 hull sections and the remainder made good and ready for painting, I'm going to have to put this on hold until that book arrives from Amazon on April 17th as I am hoping the book shall provide accurate detail on the interior and exterior colouring and the rear propeller detail, launch cradle detail etc

 

[Bigturbofan]

Interesting subject John, good luck!

[AliGauld]

Oh Fantastic.

Looking forward to this one.

 

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Gimme Shelter]

Some progress - quite a few hours of sanding down, filling and another sand has almost got me to a point where Stingray is nearly ready for its first coat of paint (hurry up new WASP Book).

 

I am no fan of kit lighting but once I posed Stingray on her launch cradle, I realised that this kit really does have to have interior lighting to make the most of it. 

 

Throughout the whole build process so far, I am constantly reminded of the new endless possibilities that 3D printing brings the modeller however I'm still of the opinion that it would have been more fun for myself had the kit been a plastic injection model, lighter and in more individual parts, decals included and with a beautiful box with artwork rather than a jumble of blocks of resin. I'm sue I shall be pleased with the end result but I remain old school and the dust has been endless from all the sanding down.

 

The more I look at her hull, the more it makes me remember my old Plec's that used to spend hours attached to the front of my fish tank ....

 

 

 

 

still more filling required but I have now perfected a consistent contour of the hull now and overcome the uneven ridges across the hull joints

 

first test fit of the upper cabin and those 2 raised lines have been removed

 

 

The launch cradle was too low for my liking - it's going to be posed on the cradle above a waters surface in its hangar, so I made 4 cuts and added plastic tubing to increase the height of the cradled sub

 

 

I've found that normal kit filler struggles to anchor into gapes or onto the resin surface so I have reverted to using 2 part epoxy resin glue as a filler - the below picture shows the first test fit in the raised launch cradle while I waited for the next layer of epoxy glue to dry on the joints and areas that needed filling

 

 

[AliGauld]

This looks amazing already.

Cracking work.

 

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Gimme Shelter]

5 hours ago, AliGauld said:

This looks amazing already.

Cracking work.

 

 

Cheers,

Alistair

Thanks Alistair. I have not added any recent up-to-date posts as I have hit a dead zone in the assembly. The GA Stingray book release date has slipped - I have mine on backorder but until it arrives, I am reluctant to start work on the interior paint work and detailing.

 

I've been spending my time carefully producing decals for the sub pen wall wall, hull lettering and fin numbering (why has the God of modelling not yet given us the ability to make bespoke white decals easily) and ordering up the interior 12V LED bulbs, wiring and connectors.

 

I've also been modifying the launch cradle to feed power up to the sub from under the intended diorama base stand, and I have made the interior cabin light fittings.

 

Lots of fiddly little jobs that don't really add up to much to report visually for a while.

 

I'm just chomping at the bit now waiting for that blasted book to arrive.

 

John 

[Gimme Shelter]

Some minor progress has been going on in the shadows while the WASP Stingray book makes its way off the print press and gets delivered (GA Store now says 'sometime in May'), so I have diverted most of my time to the Launch Pen 3 hangar part of the kit, now that I am made up in my mind of how Stingray shall be displayed and that I shall be including lights on both the kit and display hangar.

 

 

I discovered Renown Gaming online who produce some great 3D printed trinkets - I ordered up some pipes and vents in 1/72 scale and have made good use of them 

 

 

Here's the updated launch cradle with some 3D printed trinkets added, modified plasticard tubing and light/power plug connector fitted

 

 

The base now has a sealed edge to it, 20mm high. Its been made using balsa, sealed in with PVA glue and clear mastic to make it water tight for the resin. It needs 1750ML of resin - I've opted for AK Resin water. Power will come up from under the base and up through the launch cradle and into Stingray via a connector at the top of the launch cradle.

 

 

 

A blend of Alclad Candy Bottle Green and Ultramarine Blue was used below to make the base colouring of the tank - I'll add a few drops of both into the resin as it gets poured over the next week I've worked out that for the area here, 1 full set of resin can be poured in 1 session @ 375ML which will give me a depth of 2.5mm resin. I'll build it up in 5 layers, each 1 day apart and in a dust free place. Once I've weathered the cradle, I'll fix it to the base and mastic seal it water-tight on.

 

 

I have also been able to make a bit of progress with the interior of Stingrays cabin. A light fitting and roof has been created. The 3D print is very translucent when a 12v LED gets anywhere near it so I have used black to light-tight-fast the interior and worked my top colours up from that. I have also removed the interior well safety railings and started to make new from scratch

 

 

 

I don't think much of the ceiling will be visible but I have made an effort to add detail

 

 

 

new lower well area safety railings

 

 

 

 

[Skiffy]

Excellent work! Those printed greeblies are a great idea.

[Gimme Shelter]

48 minutes ago, Skiffy said:

Excellent work! Those printed greeblies are a great idea.

Thanks - the interior is no longer a big red blob - I have started to detail paint the cabin and shall update the WIP next week after my first pouring of the resin

 

[Gimme Shelter]

On 4/24/2025 at 1:07 PM, Skiffy said:

Excellent work! Those printed greeblies are a great idea.

Thanks - the interior is no longer a big red blob - I have started to detail paint the cabin and shall update the WIP next week after my first pouring of the resin

 

Progress again - the slight roof section is built and wired up with spots

 

 

[Gimme Shelter]

Work starting on the back wall - our office coffee machine has sachets delivered on long girder type plastic strips which never fail to come in handy, be it for detail or just structural material 

 

 

 

[Gimme Shelter]

the base - masked out and ready to start pouring resin, modified launch cradle is now weathered too (height has been lowered)

 

 

rear hangar wall work progresses - I've a number of lights to add into the back wall shortly

 

 

[AliGauld]

Awesome work.

This really is building up to be something special.

 

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Gimme Shelter]

Slowly building up the hangar pen back wall now - it's been a while since I have done any kit bashing and I'd forgotten how much fun it is. The printed trinkets from Renown Gaming are coming in very handy, the vents and pipes are working a treat along with numerous bits from ship kits etc. Still a long way ahead to go but I'm thoroughly enjoying this bit of the build - that will change once I start to paint and mask the contours and curves of the actual Stingray sub model....

 

 

A pair of scratch built spotlights below - these feature on all the photo stills I can find online of Stingrays Pen 3. These will have defused 10mm LED bulbs fitted once rigged up

 

 

8 x 5mm LEDs will be back fitted to the launch / submerging launch wall sequence lights - these have been drilled out below and work has started on the crane section (Airfix Pontoon bridge sections shall be used for that).

 

For ease of transportation, the backwall section has been designed to slot onto the back of the resin water pool/launch cradle base 

 

 

[Gimme Shelter]

Over a week in to May now and still no sign of that wretched book I've ordered so I've stuck to the launch hangar and spent my spare time for modelling the resin base and continued work on the hangar back wall.

 

My calculations were pretty much spot on - after 3 separate nights of individual kit pouring of AK Resin Water kits (375ml each), I am now just one more level (1 extra AK kits worth) of resin pouring away from completing the water base. The fish I ordered along with the vents and pipes from Renown Gaming seem to be working okay so far too - I felt I had to include them as Stingray was pretty much always zooting about the screen surrounded by fish of some sort - or being chased by the Terror type.

 

I have managed also to burn off any bubbles that appeared while pouring the resin, however I noticed 2 white dog hairs trapped in between the 1st and 2nd levels of resin which has really Pi*sed me off. Alclad candy bottle green seems to have worked too

 

 

not the best of pictures below due to a reflection of a picture on my garage wall but this is where it presently is, prior to the last level of resin going down tonight

 

 

Depending on what your are watching the scenes on, and the quality/resolution of the display you view with, the hangar scenes are very brief and seem to have been shot from only 2 angles. Two of the best I could capture below gives a good idea of what I am trying to replicate. The detail around the crane varies - some scenes show the crane extended and some show the aperture below the crane with open or closed gantry doors. I have some old Airfix Pontoon bridge side railings to use for the crane build stage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[silverfox63]

11 hours ago, Gimme Shelter said:

I noticed 2 white dog hairs trapped

Pass them off as tendrils of seaweed perhaps?

[RossFMJ]

1 hour ago, silverfox63 said:

12 hours ago, Gimme Shelter said:

I noticed 2 white dog hairs trapped

Pass them off as tendrils of seaweed perhaps?

Dogfish?

 

Apart from that it's looking amazing.

[Gimme Shelter]

A quick update below - test fits of the Sub and back wall.

 

I have built and fitted the crane too but don't have any photos yet as its setting up against a set square. I have a ton of HO & N gauge scaled fencing and rails being used here, ladder etc. Once the back wall is primed and painted/weathered, I'll go about fitting the railings etc and the signage text.

 

One of the photo stills I took showed a yellow dinghy in the background behind Stingray, so this was added just prior to the last pouring of resin. I have some AK transparent water effects for the water surface ripples to also add to the resin base