1/350 scale NUMA oceanographic research/exploration ship "Neptune's Trident"

[Diamondback]

Don't forget to write to Dirk Cussler about it, he might appreciate the tribute to his dad's works.

[Rick Lowe]

Nice!
Good work there, Dude. 

[Hobbes]

That's an amazing display, well done!

[NARSES2]

That's an amazing display, well done!

It is indeed   

[seadude]

Miniature balloons arrived today which was pretty quick. Ordered them on Weds. 
They seem to be made out of a styrofoam type material with a thin wire rod to represent the "string".
I'm not sure how long of a "wire rod/string" I'll need. I want the balloon to clear the height of the retractable roof doors, but not be too high, if you know what I mean. Maybe only go as high as what the black radar mast is on the ship. I'll do some more thinking and might have some more pics later this weekend.

[seadude]

Got a whole bunch of spare decals from some members in my local model club today. So I'll try to spend some time adding the weather balloon to the ship plus adding the NUMA lettering on both sides of the ship. Going to be lousy weather this weekend, so might as well finish this project.

EDIT: I just tried some lettering tonight that a fellow model club member gave me today. I tried a few sample letters first like Z and H to see how well they'd handle being dipped in water and how they'd handle coming off the backing paper. No good. They both broke apart as soon as I tried to slide them off the backing paper. This tells me that the rest of the letters could have the same problem. The guy must have had a really old sheet of letters. I can't use old. I need new!
And then a modeling friend lent me his large stack of extra decals (About an inch thick stack) to see if there was anything I could use. No such luck as everything he had was too old, and there wasn't any of the right type or size of letters I was looking for.
I'm going to a model contest next weekend. Maybe I can find something better in the vendor area.

[Andrew Gorman]

For crappy old decals, shoot a coat of rattle can clear lacquer over them.  You will have to trim them closely afterwards, but it does help them hold  together.  This method has helped me use really elderly decals from as far back as the 1940's.

[seadude]

Went to the IPMS Butch O'Hare model contest today in Illinois. Managed to find some new decals to use for the NUMA lettering I want to put on the sides of the ship. It's a 1/48 scale aircraft decal sheet. The letters are only 1/4" inch high. I was hoping they'd be slightly bigger, but I'll take whatever I can get for now. It's a brand new decal sheet, so hopefully the letters won't crack and fall apart when I dip them in water. I'll be working on adding them to the ship tomorrow.

[seadude]

FINISHED!

Calling this done.     The decal lettering was added last night, and the weather balloon was added this morning. Weather balloons are mostly white colored. But I didn't want that as it would blend in too much with the white superstructure of the ship. Other colors of weather balloons can be used to make them more visible on cloudy/overcast days or other weather conditions. So I went with a red color for the balloon instead.
I hope Sandecker, Pitt, Al, & Rudy approve of the ship. I'm sure they'll get a lot of use out of it...........without getting into trouble or breaking anything I hope.  

[Old Wombat]

  

[NARSES2]

That looks very good sir   

[seadude]

A few final recap thoughts on this now finished model project:

1. Back on Page 1 of this thread, I did originally want to create some sort of undersea diorama with the ship hull supported on a acrylic structure. That plan went out the window so to speak as I was never able to find the materials to create the structure nor did I have other resources like money to implement that plan. Sorry, folks.

2. At the bottom of this post is a picture of a real San Antonio class amphibious ship. As you can see, it has two "Enclosed Sensor Masts" for hiding the radars and other sensors. On my model, I took both of those off and used them for other model projects. So what to put in their place? The only idea for the front one was to add some sort of night sky astronomical observatory dome structure. I realize it may not make much sense to have it on a ship, but my reasoning was that if NUMA and Dirk Pitt and crew are out hunting for ancient treasure, lost shipwrecks, or something else, what if all they had to go on was scant directions and clues based on the stars? That's probably how a lot of ancient civilizations travelled from continent to continent was by navigating via the stars. It's also an awkward place for that dome too as it may not have total 360 degree coverage of the night sky due to the ship's main radar mast behind the dome. But 270-300 degrees is better than nothing I guess.

3. As for the aft place where an Enclosed Sensor Mast used to be, that's where I created a structure/enclosure for launching small to medium sized weather balloons. Again, that spot may not make much sense, but my thinking was to launch the weather balloons from a different spot that would not interfere with flight deck operations on the aft flight deck.

4. Most vehicles, equipment, etc. in Clive Cussler's books are colored turquoise. So why aren't the submersibles painted that color just like the aircraft and LCAC? That would probably be a bad thing as you don't want the submersibles painted in any sort of blue or green colors similar to ocean waters. If a submersible is damaged or sunk, etc., then how are other submersibles going to find it and rescue the crew if it's painted a color that matches or almost matches the deep ocean depths? This is why the vast majority of submersibles are painted white, yellow, or bright orange so as to be visibly recognizable/found.

If anybody has questions on anything else, then just ask and I'll try to answer as best I can.

[kerick]

I agree with you about the submersible's colors. Looks right to me. I might have added some yellow or orange to the aircraft but that's pretty small parts so decals might have been an option. Small potatoes considering the rest of this awesome build.
This class of ship makes a great vessel for what you describe. Just the right mix of internal space and flight deck.

[Rick Lowe]

Nicely done, good to see it completed. 

[seadude]

I knew I forgot something.
Well, maybe not forgot, but more like I've wanted to add this for awhile, but I just didn't know how.
Currently scratch building from tiny pieces of leftover sprue a 1/350 scale "JIM" deep diving hard suit to add to my oceanographic ship I finished late last year. After I finish the hard suit, then I need to come up with a way to scratch build a small 1/350 scale shark cage. Front and back sides of the hard suit shown below.