These are some photographs of my most recent model building and diorama construction, of the Walt Disney interpretation of the Nautilus submarine (1954), in the Jules Verne foray into sci-fi, Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (1870). This movie for my generation was the STAR WARS and JAWS of its day. For me, it was the ultimate in seeing the dreams of fiction produced into a physical reality. I was fortunate to be working at Walt Disneys Imagineering when we were privileged to get to see the original model used for the under sea sequence.
Now, years later, I got a chance to build this model for my son. The model building was fairly simple, and if you go to the manufactures link (http://www.naturecoast.com/hobby/nautilus.htm), you can see the parts breakdown. I lit it with mini-Christmas tree lights, with the power wires running along the anchor chains. I spray painted the hull with a Krylon textured paint that I felt depicted a rusted iron look. The figures were 1/72 plastic WWII figures, where I cut off the bases and painted them as portrayed in the film.
From the very first moment that I considered building this model I wanted to find a unique way to show it. The idea of an antique Victorian type of aquarium came to mind to hold this ancient deadly fish. I constructed the tank from MDF (medium density fiberboard) and wood, molded & cast the rivet heads with products made by Alumilite (available online or at a hobby store) coated with a mixture of sand & drywall mud, coated with Sophisticated Finishes Rust Antiquing Set (available at Michaels) and then given a wash with transparent watercolors. The ocean floor was sculpted in Urethane foam (florist foam) and coated in drywall mud & sand. The coral and plant life were made by nature in the form of likens and fungus I found growing on dead limbs in the woods. The water surface is a piece of Plexiglas coated with acrylic medium dyed with blue food coloring and the white caps created with white acrylic paint with sand mixed in to give it texture.
