Nautilus

Wave
League of Extraordinary Silliness Gentlemen

Stated scale:

1/700

Actual scale:

unverified

 

Overall length:

17"

Material(s):

styrene

Number of parts:

20

Stand included?

yes

Decals included?

no

My Source:

MegaHobby

Cost (w/o s&h):

The Nautilus is assembled and in the putty/sand stage. It went together so fast, I didn't have time to take pictures. The conning tower and screws are painted and will be added after the main body is painted. There's also some interior painting on the intakes, so that area was taped over during airbrushing.


Assembled and puttied...

...and sanded.
 
White paint over white primer
 
 9/10/09 - The body was painted a couple months ago and I've been putting off the fiddly detaily stuff. The main body is overall flat white. Yeah, kinda plain. I added some interest by stippling a mix of acrylic white & pearl over the flat white. It looks a little more like there's water running off the sides.
Is there life after death for an old 10/0 paintbrush with about 5 hairs left? Apparently yes, especially if you need to dot in black paint on 1/700 scale portholes. I used a 5/0 brush to flood thinned black acrylic into the ballast vents. Next step on this is alll that silvery fiddly-gree.
 

9/11/09 - Yes... that silvery filigree work. After a bit of testing various materials and techniques, I settled on using Rub'n'Buff metallic paste applied with a paper tortillon (artist's chalk smudger). After the paste dried I buffed it with a cotton swab or piece of felt. The test piece (below left) has a Euro I gray wash applied to the crevices.


Testing on a filigreed casting.

The material and the applicator.

This was about 10-15 minutes of work.

Applied to one of the 'eye' filigrees at the front.
 

9/14/09 - Another hour and a half or so of rubbing and buffing, and the filligree is silvered. I also used some aluminum plate Metallizer paint on some of the rudder details. Next up is detailing and touching up the silver work.

9/19/09 - Applied a wash of Tamiya acrylic black to the filigree, letting it settle into the crevices and around the edges of the silvered areas. Also ran wash along the ridges at the side hatches. Put on one more coat of white, this time Tamiya gloss acrylic, stippled on with a small piece of foam.

     

Final details on the model are some black chalk shading for the drain stains at the ballast vents, the windows on the conning tower, a silver horse, and... still to come, some 1/700 Edouard photoetch figures for the statuary around the tower and at the stern.