Seaview Model with Flying Sub

The Moebius Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea TV series Seaview Submarine model kit.

From the paint can (to give a sense of scale), you can see this is a large kit. 36 inches long.

The kit includes the bay underneath, the Flying Submarine, and Diving Bell. If you remember the series, one of these was always in trouble, and being tossed around underwater by the monster of the week.

Irwin Allen like to reuse the monster suits (to save money) so the previous week, the same monster may have been seen on Lost in Space.

The kit is molded to perfection. Clean cut details.

Moebius tossed in some extra stuff. You can tell these guys are diehard modelers. Included is a booklet with pictures of the large studio model (from when it was restored), detailing the model and it's history in the movie and TV Series. Very valuable information.

There is also a flyer on how to make your kit an RC model (this refers to a website). A flyer from Amazing Modeler, Moebius' other model kits, and of coure the directions.

Here is some of the detail for the forward bridge area.

One of the control panels. That's a lot of tiny detail painting.

Another one of the side details for the bridge. What do all those flashing lights do anyway? :-)

Moebius has done a super job here. It's really hard to pass on this kit, it just has way to much going for it. The biggest problem you might run into is...where do you put it once you build it?

Make room for 3-feet of TV history !

Did you know? The original movie (made two years before the TV series) starred Barbara Eden, from I Dream of Jeannie fame.

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Below I've mocked up the main parts. You can see it's 36 inches long.

To fit the kit in the box, the sub body is split into two sections, forward and aft.

I started with gluing parts together that I knew I would have to putty and sand.

The tailfins were first. I accidently glued them together, being in a hurry because I was pressed for time, and forgot to add the wires and lights for them. This meant I had to use a Dremel tool to open up the small trenches that Moebius already molded into the parts.

Nothing a little putty and primer can't fix.

When adding lighting to a kit, it's always prudent to keep checking that the lights work as you go along. Always test them.

See those two lines molded into the fins? They almost look like a separation, where maybe they represent rudders. But they're not. Those are seams that need to be filled. There are no rudders here.

Plenty of putty and sanding. This is done several times, until the seam can no longer be seen.

On the first version of the kit, like this one, there's a choice on the windows. Ones that are flush, and ones that have frames around them. I chose the one with frames. Either way, you have to fill the seam around them once the part is glued into place.

NOTE: The newest version of the kit (2016) was revised, and has the windows molded into the hull, so - no seams ! Horray!

At the tail end, and on the nose, you have to fill a small seam where the two halves join together, on the upper decks.

Moebius models has done everything possibe to minimize any seams, and believe me, they have saved hours of work you might have had to do. Yes there is some sanding and putty needed, but far less than there could have been.

They are very clever at hiding seams where they can.

The bay for the Flying Sub. I painted it with metallic paints. For now it's only mocked up to test the way it fits. It will get some lighting eventually.

The interior deck gets it's first color. I chose a medium blue. I didn't want it to be too dark since I'll be adding lights, and I thought this would reflect the lightng better. There's a long way to go for detail painting.

The window section has been added, with the seam filled and primered.

There's still a little bit on the nose to deal with, but the front is smooth now.

Here I have the lights for the comming tower installed. I initially glued it together, then relized I couldn't get my fingers inside to mount the LEDs, so I popped off one side. Then used putty and primer to smooth out the seam on the other side while installing the lights.

Once the CA glue is dry, I will glue on the seperate side and fill the seam.

The rear top fins get glued on. I used a clamp to hold it tight to mnimize any seams, and mine seamed to have a slight bow to it, so it needed the forceful hand to hold it while the glue dried.

I also added the long wires to feed power to the end taillights. Unfortunately, one of the LEDs does not work, but the model work is to far along to fix it, so I'll have to live with it. I may have sanded through the wires covering by accident? while using putty and primer, so just one light will work now. C'est La Vie.

The conning tower (sail?) is made up of 3 parts. Before gluing those all together, I glued the top to one side, then drlled holes and installed the LED bulbs (a green one on one side, red on the other).

I then glued on the other side of the tower on, and used putty and primer to take care of the seams.

On top of the body of the submarine, I marked a spot with a black Sharpie to open up. This will allows the wires from the tower to feed through the top and inside the body. The sail will cover up the hole once it's installed.

It's starting to come together.

The Flying Sub interior, with a red LED added.

The interior bridge of the Seaview has been painted and assembled. While the parts are tiny, I didn't ave any problems putting it all togeher, all the parts fit well.

The inside of the lower nose piece. I added LED for the bottom flood lights

Note that the Flying Sub bay will fit in place either way, so make sure you align it correctly before gluing it down. Note the pins on the bay, and the holes in the floor of the Seaview's bridge interior. I painted the surface flat black since I was using LEDs. It might help with any light leakage (?).

Testing the placement of the upper lights. I added a piece of clear plastic, which I used sandpaper to make it hazy and hopefully disperse the LED light better. One bulb front and one rear seemed to work ok.

There is also a bulb on either side. I used transparent lighting gel material (one red, the other green) after drilling holes in the consoles for the light to shine through.

It's difficult to get the camera to focus correctly. But it looks like I onlyneed two LED bulbs on top to light it all up.

If not for the LED lights, you won't see any of this once the model is finished and sealed up.

I use masking tape to hold the bulbs in place while I see how they all work out.

One 9V battery seems to power them all up so far.

Once all the wiring was done, I mocked up the front of the sub

The interior installs from underneath. I just used masking tape to hold it here. I wanted to make sure it all fit, that the lights worked, and see what it looked like.

I still have to install the front windows.

And then I think I can installed the sail .

Below I've started on the seams, the middle one, and the underside of the nose.

I was surprised how easy the bottom, with the interior, lights and wires, as well as the Flying Sub bay, fit snug with only a very slim seam to fill.

Moebius did some good engineering here.

As always, I test my lighting along the way. Once the model is sealed up, that's it. You can't get to the wiring anymore.

I can't help it. It's just cool with the lighting on. :-)

The seams are filled. What a bear of a job. My fingers still ache from all the sanding.

I fed the wires down through the two pedestals. The rear one uses the wires from the upper sail, the front one has the wires from the nose.The rear wires feed out the rear pedestal and through the front one.

So all the wires end up in front of the nose.

I measured and centered the pedestals, and then traced around them with a silver sharpie. The model is set back some to the rear because I wanted room for a bit of a diorama scene in the front.

I wanted a rocky portion, mainly to hide the pedestals, but also to create a scene with the Flying Sub and a small submarine base.

I used expanding foam, that's sprayed out of a can.

Just spray it on and use your imaginaton. If you don't want it to look to "round" or with big bulbs / bubbles, you can squash them down with a knife or screwdriver. Once I covered the area I wanted, I used a chisel / putty knife to uncover where the pedestals go, and to make cracks to run the wires.

THIS STUFF IS EXTREMELY STICKY !!

Don't get it on your hands or anything you care about.

Always remember it EXPANDS, so allow room for that to happen.

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The masking tape below protects the black base board I used.

(a prepainted shelf from Lowes).

I painted the model outside in the sun. Some will disagree about the color for sure. The bottom is a light grey. The upper part of the model is painted a sort of medium naval blue. I didn't want to paint it grey, or grey blue.

That to me makes the model look like it just has just primer on it.

Due to TV lighting, it's a different color in nearly every episode, so I painted it a color I liked . I was thinking of the way animals are colored, like sharks, mantas, whales, etc.

Note the wiring has been fed through the "rocks".

Here the trenches have been filled and painted. The wiring has been covered.

It's tricky to add foam and paint underneath the model, but with patience, it can be done.

Now it's pretty much done. The Flying Sub has been painted, and

added to the base.

It's a long model, and hard to get in one image.

My original plan was to use some kind of deep sea lab on the base. So I made one out of bits and parts.

My intent was to hide the 9V battery in it, but it just didn't work very well, so I glued it to the base, and ran the wires out the side from under the foam rocks.

I plan on adding the diving bell to the top of the sealab.

There are some other minor odds and ends I might do before it's 100% done.

Overall, the model is great. I had no issues with assembly.

But I really hate putty and sanding, so that was a drawback to me, b ut not a fault of Moebius.

The model includes a tiny 2-man sub, but since there are no divers for it, I didn't use it.

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I know I may have missed a few things, so email me if you have

any questions about the build.

Here is the model on display at a local model show.