Moving right along, I painted all of the little details that needed done by hand. As you can see above, I tacked most of the kit together temporarily for photos.

Here is the Long-Nose shown with my original Fantastical Fish-Shaped Submersible build for size reference.

Now onto the dreaded weathering. When I started weathering the original copper sub, I was innundated with emails and forum posts saying “don’t do it!” However, I like things to have a nice aged look… I love rusts and patinas and any opportunity to replicate one is a good thing! To start out, I airbrushed VERY thin mottled layers of the following AK-Interactive products:
Dark Streaking Grime (dark brown-green), Wash: Brown-Blue (muddy blue-green color), and Filter: Blue for Panzer Grey (dull blue). These are enamels so I made sure I first coated the fish in a coat of semi-gloss Future Floor Acrylic to keep it from interacting with the enamel metal colors.

I then took a deerfoot-shaped brush wet with odorless turpenoid (because it’s easy on the enamels, not strong or damaging) and tapped/blended the thin filter layers on the surface. This breaks them up and makes them look mottled, more natura, and also helps them act like a wash of sorts.

For some small photoetch brass parts I didn’t use paint and instead suspended them in a jar with a little ammonia in the bottom. The fumes help speed up the natural patina process giving you a nice blue-gray patina as opposed to some products that will act as a blackening agent for brass. Both ways are good, just make sure you use whatever one is appropriate for the task/look at hand. YOu can see that my painting looks very similar to the natural brass patina except for the light blue-green areas. Those I’ll need to add with oil paint next.

Also shown is the little PE brass valve wheels and the painted white metal propeller.

Moving right along, I’ve been working on the brass paint and base-tarnish/panel definitions. I’m painting this similar to the real Longnose Butterfly fish that it’s design is based on, but in bare metal tones. I use a multi-stepped process for this brass finish and as usual with bare metal, it looks better in person, but the final photos should show it off nicely, just like my original copper fish.

First up was a coat of Dumplicolor Black primer. Simple enough!

Next I sprayed on a base coat of Alclad II Jet Exhaust and let it cure overnight.

Next up is a fine misting of Mr. Metal Color Brass. This was then buffed with a soft toothbrush. As you can see on the top center panel, I masked it and started the panel discoloration…

The prepped brass-painted panels, masked off 1-2 at a time, were sprayed with a random mottling of the following paints in this order:

1: Tamiya Clear Blue
2: Tamiya Clear Orange
3: Mr. Metal Color Copper
4: Mr. Metal Color Brass
5: Mr. Metal Color Brass + Iron 50/50

This if done in a nice random mottled pattern will give the look of heat-tarkished brass with a rainbow of colors like a wet oily road. It’s hard to photograph however. When doing the panels, try to make the panels that touch not match to make them look varied.

The lower nose was sprayed with Mr. Metal Color Aluminum, buffed, them misted with Tamiya Flat White then buffed again to give the look of patina’d aluminum. The top was misted over with Mr. Color flat black, then Mr. Metal Color Iron, then buffed.

Next up I’ll start picking out details and painting the interior.

My new steampunk Fish Sub model kit is about to start shipping for those that preordered it, but meanwhile, the caster sent me my advance copy to start building up. I did my last sub design in copper, but this one is begging for brass since the real fish I based this on (The Longnose Butterfly fish) is mostly yellow.

I started off by gathering some old brass watches in my collection to use as paint reference. What’s great is that the tones of brass are quite varied even without the patinas and staining. The kit comes with the brass photoetch I designed for it, but the sheet-brass has a natural grain to it that makes it look out of scale. So unfortunately I’ll be painting most of the etch as well, but the good news is that it’ll match the rest of the sub better which in the long-run is ideal. I like that in the watches, they’re not all brass. There’s other gray metals (stainless steel?) in there as well which will help to break-up the brass tones.

Along with the reference I’ve pulled out a plethora of brass and gold-toned paints from the shelves. I’ll use these straight from the bottle and mixed with silvers and coppers to adjust and vary the tones so that the panels have some nice variance to them. Just like I did with the original Fish Sub.

The brass photoetch is pretty easy to work with. Simply use a razor to snip the parts from the sprues and lightly sand the nubs down. Lightly sanding the entire sheets before cutting as I did will allow for better glue and paint adhesion later.

Let’s start with the brass gauges. Cut then from the sprue and stick them to some reverse rolled tape. Spraypaint them in whatever color you choose for the recessed faceplates. I used cheap gloss black spraypaint. Let dry then lightly wet-sand the faces on some fine grit sanding film glued to a styrene block to reveal the raised brass. Really simple and nets some attractive results.

The resin is cast in Industria Mechanika‘s typical light grey which makes cleaning it up easier than the plain white or cream colored resins. Clean-up is a breeze however thanks to some great casting. The pilot figure turned out especially nice. Overall minimal sanding is needed and so far, no putty!

The figure gives you a good idea (if you’re familiar with 1/35 scale) of the size of the Fish Sub. For those that are not, nose to tail the sub measures a little over 8.5 inches (21.5cm) long.

I decided that since this is a promo build-up for shows and such, I wanted the head to be removable to show off the inside. This was really easy since the head fit is VERY good. I used several neodymium magnets (small, but crazy strong) to keep the head in place.

There was a hair of light that could be seen yet which bothered me so a thin strip of styrene embossed with rivets (nail pushing on the reverse side) was added on the rear hull inner seam. This will block any light bleed. As you can see from the first pic of the resin above which the magnets are holding in place, the fit is really good. Nice amount of interior space on this one.

The layered photoetch brass fins are my favorite part of these subs. The side fins are 4 parts each (unless you also use the optional riser as shown below) while the other 3 fins are 3 parts each. A main fin shape and 2 decorative brackets. The dorsal and anal fins have holes in their brackets where a brass rivet included in the kit can be inserted to secure the brackets to the hull. These brackets need a little bending to get them in the right position, but that’s relatively easy.

Above is a 3-part riser that one can use to make the pectoral fins stick straight-out like traditional dive planes on a submersible. Otherwise you can skip these and have them look more fish-like and to the sides as I’ll be doing.

Next up I’ll be starting to paint the interior.

Here are the final images for the Hornethopter. It was a fun kit to design, build and paint and I hope the hundred of you that purchased one of the first edition releases enjoy building it up. Watch for the second edition to be on sale at Industria Mechanika.

Since the last update I’ve been painting the little brass trim details. The Mr. Metal Color Brass hand-paints beautifully and buffs up to a nice sheen. I used the same toothbrush with the other metal buffing residue on it which actually makes for a nice tarnish. ponging on a little thinned copper also helps break-up the brass color.

I painted the dashboard in brown wood-streaks and filled the gauges in with black. Then I used some 2000 grit sandpaper to remove the paint from the raised portions revealing the dash details.

Next I’ll give the parts a clear-coat and add some minor pin washes and such to pick-out details. Not going too heavy with the weathering here since it’s an aircraft of a more “civilized” age.

I’ve also been painting the figures with oil-paint which takes a while to dry. Here’s the first pass. Next I’ll add more highlights and shadows, pick-out brass details, and add black stripes to the pants.

I received my initial copy of the Hornethopter this week and went right to work building it. Everything looks great cast-wise and once together with the photoetch, it’s a great-size and pretty impressive! I still have almost 20 copies left unreserved and have started taking payments from those of you that did reserve the kit so please check your inboxes and spam-boxes just in case.

I have several schemes in mind to paint these, but decided to do my “green hornet” first. For this one I’m layering buffable Mr. Metal Color’s Copper, Dark Iron, and Bronze. This is to get different variations of color to break-up panels and give the paint-work more depth. I’ll be doing the trim in Brass so that you get some thin yellowish stripes on the thorax.

First I primed the kit in dark gray Duplicolor automotive primer. Once cured I applied a random coat of the Mr. Metal Color Copper.

I followed this with mottled layers of Mr. Metal Color Dark Iron and the greenish Bronze color.

You can take a toothbrush and soft piece of t-shirt at any point after the paint dries and start buffing these paints to a very nice metal shine.

Once buffed, I used some Tamiya tape and masked off the first areas I wanted “greener”. I sprayed them with the Bronze and removed the masking. You can see the difference here between the buffed and unbuffed paint.

Repeat the masking and painting and buff inbetween. Like I said, the trim will be in brass so I’ll be starting that soon. I also started the figures now as they’re painted in oil-paint and that takes a LONG time to dry. Here’s more progress images.

I got a scan of my etch today from Paragrafix and wanted to share it. He’ll be bagging the sheets and sending them my way in a few days. Then all I’ll need are the resin casts and it’ll be ready for reservation payments and shipping. There’s still about 30 left unreserved so if you’re interested, fill out the form below to reserve a copy before they’re available. Thanks!

How To Reserve Your Copy / Preorder »

Fill out the following email form to reserve your copy (copies) of the Hornethopter. Please fill out all fields. I accept Paypal for payments. I’ll reply to let you know I got your email. Please add that address to your *NOT spam* filter so that when I send out payment request invoices they don’t get lost. (that was an issue with the fish-subs) I’ll send out a payment request when everything is boxed and ready to go. If you change your mind, please let me know so I can remove you from the list and move up the next people in line. Thanks!!!

The Hornethopter is in production! After getting all of my costs info, crunching numbers, drinking some tea, etc, I can announce that the Hornethopter will cost $80 + Shipping. I had hoped for a smaller cost, but there’s a LOT more PE to this design than the fish sub as well as extra included materials such as the plastic sheet and glass cabochon for the eyes.

How To Reserve Your Copy / Preorder »

Fill out the following email form to reserve your copy (copies) of the Hornethopter. Please fill out all fields. I accept Paypal for payments. I’ll reply to let you know I got your email. Please add that address to your *NOT spam* filter so that when I send out payment request invoices they don’t get lost. (that was an issue with the fish-subs) I’ll send out a payment request when everything is boxed and ready to go. If you change your mind, please let me know so I can remove you from the list and move up the next people in line. Thanks!!!

Coming Soon: The Hornethopter! Following in the wake of the Fantastical Fish-Shaped Submersible, my next release takes to the big blue skies and is the bane of all who sail them.

Available: Late-Julyish. Price: TBD.

When I have all of my quotes in from my vendors, I’ll be able to post a price and start preorders. Thanks!

Without further adieu, I present to you FichtenFoo’s Fantastical Fish-Shaped Submersible! Enjoy the pics of my finished sub as they’re the best I’ve ever taken I think. I didn’t even need to color correct which is a total bonus. If you’re interested in getting on the list to order the early 2011 3rd Edition, click here. The 1st Edition is sold-out and the 2nd is reserved and then some. Thanks to all of you that helped make this possible and ordered the 1st two runs of subs.