Mike Aucutt's Voyager |
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I finally found some time to start a project, the Lunar Models "Voyager" from the animated Fantastic Voyage. This is a
large kit the wing span is 16 inches, and sadly it has very little detail. Here are the basic parts.
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I soon found that this would be no easy project. Nothing fit, the upper hull was 1/16 too wide and the wings were a mess. Please
note I have the highest regards for Lunar Model kits, and I understand this kit has been pulled for retooling.
As it turned out this project was a "two tuber" two tubes of Testers filler and a few ounces of Micro-fill model filler. Micro-fill is a wood product I use on my large scale RC warships, but is also works well as a gap filler on plastic and resin kits too.
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After all the filler and a great deal of sanding I came to the detail dilemma.
So ok this ship is from a cartoon, how much detail should I add? Well, I decided to carve some panel lines and add some handrails for what I believe to be the hatch. How did they get in this ship?
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Well, as you can see the results came out ok. I also decided to light the ship using a AA battery 10 bulb set from Flora Lite,
CO. I ran the bulbs through plastic conduit level with the upper hull. The battery holder would fit in the rear of the ship. The interior was simple and I decided to leave it that way painting it
two tone blue as in the cartoon.
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It took about 40 hours to add the filler in layers and sand the wings, and another 9 hours for priming and painting. Here
is the final result, I can just see Bugsbey Birdwell at the controls.
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I loved the old Aurora version of this kit, wish I still had one. Frankly I love large scale the bigger the better but in this
case I think for the subject matter the kit is too big. You like me want detail and once you start on this path you've lost the cartoon ship and created something real. Still a neat kit with lots of
possibilities.
Mike Aucutt
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