Wonderful New Fish Kit by Michael Fichtenmayer

[Ray Dunakin]

Too cool!

[FichtenFoo]

Check out Paul's review of the sub with lots of pics here: http://roughboy.net/?p=1996

[teejay99]

With possible space issues for the 1/35 figure , perhaps a 1/35 hunchback would work ? Or as marty said in Young Frankenstein ...."what hump?"

Terry

[teejay99]

Then again , the fish could be in sleep OR awake mode !

[FichtenFoo]

With possible space issues for the 1/35 figure , perhaps a 1/35 hunchback would work ? Or as marty said in Young Frankenstein ...."what hump?"

Terry

Marc has those figs standing, but a seat is included as the pilot should be sitting to fit properly and be comfy. A seated 1/35 fig should have no fit issues.

[shropshire lad]

 Cor! It's alot bigger than I thought it would be . The shadow box diorama I've been planning in my head is going to have to be expanded .

 I have been mulling over the posibility of adding a few pieces of ancillary equipment onto the sub , but am unsure if they would add anything to the look of the machine . The possible ideas so far are : a worklight suspended in front of the sub on an arm , likewise some sort of magnetic explosive device that can be attached to the underside of a ship and , finally for the time being , a couple of sets of steam powered (or compressed air )  harpoons slung on cradles , for want of a better word , either side of the sub , a bit like helicopter gun ships .

 A couple of fishy pictures I have found while "steampunkin' " .

  Nick

[RoughboyModelworks]

Thanks for the plug to the site Michael. Since publishing the article yesterday, the site traffic has been up dramatically. I noticed several people have clicked through to your site, so hopefully you'll get a solid lead or two for the next run.

Been collecting images for the airship reference. Originally I had thought of a hot air balloon as in the two images below. I liked the colour pattern of the striped balloon and the general lumpiness of the Munchausen image.





However, I'm thinking now along the lines of a dirigible which would eliminate the need for a flame source to control the balloon and more along the lines of a small dirigible. The image below is what I'm currently considering. I particularly like the outside frame structure, fits well with the entire steampunk theme and with the rigid outside frame, will be easier to display.



Of course, how to make the dirigible itself will be the challenge. At 1:35, I'd like it to be a fabric material... going to take some research to find a suitable fabric, perhaps wrapped around a carved foam core to hold its shape.... being essentially a large gas bag, perhaps I'll farm that out to Palin & Company... 

Paul

[gin sot]

I remember Mad Magazine used to put these recurring spot drawings of a really far-fetched airship in the margins, but the internets didn't find me an image to share.   


However, this article about various artworks and models created by the inmates of asylums turned up, which I found fairly intriguing.  Take a look at this airship:




Apparently, paper ship models were another outlet:

"Ship models made out of rolls of cardboard."

Dr. Marie has many keys, made out of old sardine tins and pewter spoons, and a large collection pipes, some very skilfully carved, which were nothing but unconsidered trifles of wood and metal before demented hands set to work on them. Some of the pipe bowls were parts of lamps in their previous state of existence. The ship model above, made of little rolls cardboard shaped like cigarettes, was executed, in lucid intervals, by a patient who thinks himself pursued by invisible enemies and hears threatening voices behind him. He has also made a balloon, with all its fittings, and a model of the Panthéon out of his cardboard cylinders. Another item in Dr. Marie's collection—a relief plan of the asylum—affords further testimony of the patience, perseverance and skill of which the insane are sometimes capable.

[RoughboyModelworks]

However, this article about various artworks and models created by the inmates of asylums turned up, which I found fairly intriguing.

Oh no... my secret is out... have to run, I see Nurse Ratched heading this way...

Paul

[marc_reusser]

Wow!...that's just looney!



For anyone wanting to build a the fish as a water-line model at a city riverfront, maybe this kit from Mini-Art will help.





http://miniart-models.com/36044.htm



Marc

[gin sot]

If you sawed it off for a waterline model, you'd have the underbelly bits leftover to make another waterline diorama of a turned-turtle, partially-sunken fish submarine.  I could see a neat diorama with horrified spectators and a diver in primitive gear preparing to do a recovery mission.

Think General Slocum meets H.L. Hunley meets steampunk.

Or, if the hypothetical mad industrialist had made a fleet of fish subs, you could do a dio with a properly floating vessel next to a capsized one, with all the attendant chaos.





I still haven't figured out how the pilot is supposed to get into and out of the sub . . . .

[marc_reusser]

Paul,

I think a fabric texture would be too much at 1/35.....old dirigible fabric was not very coarse, its was a tight weave coated with a sealer/finish (If I recall correctly it was this sealer/finish that is thought to have been part of the cause of the spread of the fire on the Hindenburg).

How about sculpting a two half positives out of clay or foam, then making a plaster mold of it, drill the form as needed for vac forming, and then vac form the halves out of .010 or .020 styrene....reinforce seam area, and glue together.
We used to use this process for some product models.    Another option we used to do instead of vac forming into the plaster was to use the molds to lay up the halves in fiberglass.  [If both sides were identical ..and symetrical at top and bottom edges...like your last image, you could get by with only making one half-mold.]


Easier yet would be to sculpt the whole thing out of a really tight cell foam, apply an epoxy sealer/primer coat and then just paint and detail....creates a light weight ballon with hard exterior shell.

These guys carry the foam and the primer, as well as glues and other products
http://www.precisionboard.com/

.....not sure if the do machining...if you can draw the form in CAD as an STL...someone should be able to machnine it for you..at least the rough shape.



Marc

[marc_reusser]

I could see a neat diorama with horrified spectators and a diver in primitive gear preparing to do a recovery mission.

Or, if the hypothetical mad industrialist had made a fleet of fish subs, you could do a dio with a properly floating vessel next to a capsized one, with all the attendant chaos.

[RoughboyModelworks]

Marc:

Thanks for the thoughts. You're probably right on the fabric issue, texture would be too coarse and it would be extremely difficult to get a tight shape without gross wrinkles and seams. I like the idea of carving the gas bag form out of tight cell foam. It could then be covered with panels of glue-saturated tissue or bible paper to represent the panels of material used to form the bag, with slight overlaps to represent the seams, then painted... it's a technique we used in the theatre properties dept. and it forms quite a lightweight but strong, stable structure. The outside frame could be made from styrene, though I'm thinking more towards aluminum, which would probably be the best, with brass fittings and hardware to tie into the whole steampunk aesthetic... It wouldn't be too difficult to cut those forms from thin aluminum sheet. If I keep the proportions similar to the illustration, the dirigible would need to be around 21" long... not too outlandish. Definitely something I'm going to have to draw up first though...

Paul

[gin sot]

There must be a wrinkle in the collective unconscious-- look what just popped up over on the off-topic portion of the Railroad Line Forum:






http://www.seabreacher.com/seabreacher-x