Scratch-Built Pulp Submarine

[Schweizer]

I'm putting together a water-line submarine.  It's not based on any real sub model, I'm just playing with the archetype.



The base for the sub is half of a UPS mailing tube.  I cut it in half long-ways.  I also cut a plastic Easter egg half that's the same diameter as the tube longways and glued the two parts to the end of the tube, though only one of them by the time I'd taken this next pic:



I used a couple of paper-mache boxes from Hobby Lobby for the two square parts, made the tower from scratch with card stock paper, and used some plastic needlepoint backing for the gridded walkway.  I grabbed a round needlepoint backing for the top of the tower, and used chicken wire for the rail around the top of the tower.

More pics to come as construction continues!

[rjandron]

Looks like you're off to a great start! Can't wait to see more.

[argsilverson]

Nice great start.
A good use of parts!

Can't wait to see it finished.

[keeper]

Great work so far.  Keep it up!

[gamer Mac]

Looking good so far.
Should the conning tower not be in the middle though? It looks a bit strange at the back.
What kind of game is the sub for?
What country is it for?
When I was building mine (http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=9739.msg111912#msg111912) I found loads of photos surfing the web for reference.
German U boats are quite distinctive, shape of the conning tower etc.
Looking forward to seeing your progress.

[Doomhippie]

Definetly some sinister country in Europe...
Or maybe an evil genius with a Captain Nemo attitude...

[Malamute]

Looking good. Funnily enough a friend of mine wa sonly saying yesterday how he felt like scratchbuilding a sub. You have just shown us the required parts

[Chairface]

Fantastic! Completely inspirational and achievable.

[Hitman]

Nice work...simple, yet effective. Thanks for sharing!!

[Schweizer]

gamer Mac,

The sub isn't built for any game in particular.  I got started doing miniatures as a way of making my own reference for comics, and it quickly became my hobby.  I've never done any wargaming or RPGs, as I've never had the opportunity, but I love making the models and painting the figures, ostensibly to make dioramas with them someday, and I definitely lean towards the pulp stuff.

Almost everything I do has to be historically accurate, so when I do these miniatures I try to give myself a free hand and sort of make it up as I go along.  As such, I ended up putting the tower much farther back than they actually are, but that gives me plenty of space on the front walkway for extra troops/action.  It's not for any real country, but would probably lean towards a pulpy Eastern-European/Pseudo-Germanic militant faction, something with a secret Island base.

Seeing yours and the midget sub elsewhere on the board were what inspired me to make mine.

Here are another couple of pics.



I've put all the railing on, and the rivets (done with dabbs of puff-paint), and three hatches.



The hatches are made from two wooden disks (a small one atop a larger one), with a couple of different sizs of aluminum tubing to make the hinge.  More pieces of chickenwire were used, as well - a scrap for the handle, and another to create a bar with which the inhabitants might pull themselves out.  Again, puff-paint for the rivets, and the rounded part on the top is the tip of a Faber-Castell Pitt pen, cut off with a jeweler saw.  The little exhaust ports off the back of the sub are what was left of that part after cutting off the tips; I hated letting them go to waste.

I'll be attaching wheels to the hatches, but I'm not sure exactly what those wheels will be made of.  I expect I'll use the steering wheels from matchbox cars (seeing as they're 99 cents).

I'll probably get to painting it tomorrow, or maybe Tuesday.  So far, it's a quick project, it's just finding time to work on it in between other stuff.

[Chairface]

 

Its gorgeous! Tell me more about this puff paint!

[Schweizer]

Puff paint, also called dimensional paint, I think, is fairly thick, and like caulk or some types of glue dries in the same form as it's laid down.  It's pretty low-brow as far as art supplies are concerned, usually used to write names on T-shirts, and is probably most often used in conjuncture with fabric crafts.  I thought of using it after trying Elmer's glue to create rivets with no luck, and figured I'd give puff-paint (which I remembered from elementary school) a whirl.  I've used it on a few projects, with great success.  On paper models, I also use it to seal seams and cracks, and fill in anywhere where metal parts don't quite meet up.

This bottle (Polymark) was 99 cents in the Wal-Mart fabric department, and of the few brands I've tried it is by far my favorite.  A bottle will last quite a while, working at a small scale.

[BigMecha]

pretty snazy!

where do I sign up for one? 

[Hauptgefreiter]

You're building a great model there, but like gamer Mac I'm not quite sure with your design of the conning tower. And here I don't mind the position at the rear (although it would place the command center in the engine room, IMO), but its size. I believe it's too long, raising the Center of Gravity too high for your sub to be seaworthy. My proposal would be to add something to make the hull wider, maybe some external ballast tanks or engine pods. But that's just my opinion 

[Schweizer]

You're right - I didn't start looking at photo refs until I was making the details (hatches, etc) and it ended up being about thee times taller than it should have been.  I thought about giving it wings, ballast tubes, something on the sides, but it seemed like cutting into the sides to make the openings would be too much effort for what is supposed to be a simple, fun, few hours model.
I'll probably end up making another with slightly less ludicrous proportions, but I'm going to finish this one out.

for the next steps, I attached steering wheels from toy cars to the hatches, and then gave the whole thing a coat of glossy black spray paint.





Then I took some Apple Barrel acrylic paint and gave it a dry-brush coating of pewter grey:





Then I went over THAT with a slightly lighter coat of country grey.



I'm at a temporary standstill.  I want to give it rust and black streaks, but I need to put some affiliation emblems on the side of the tower first, and I don't yet know what I want it to have.  So it may be a few days before I come up with one, paint it on, and move to the next step.