Moebius Seaview (with mods)

Picked up the kit, fit the parts together - just about perfect alignment and well-thought out - and started taking a real look at the proportions and shapes.  One non-problematic oddity came up while I was fitting circular hull-bulkheads (I travel to a lot of shows with my models and have learned it's better to reinforce wherever possible), and found that the lower hull between the strakes is an 1/8" deeper than the hull is wide, resulting in an oblong/egg-shaped cross-section.  This isn't a drawback to the overall look of the model; on the other hand, anyone converting this model back into the eight-window version should account for it if they're using the studio-plans which have a fully circular hull cross-section.  The one other thing that struck me was that the strakes along the hull have semi-rounded edges, and this leads into the manta wings around the bow, which grows even more more rounded/blunt.   Also, my opinion only, the cross-section was too flat, with not enough down-curvature down toward the tips.  First thing I did was to score the lower half of the wing-set around the hangar, with narrow wedges fore and aft 'notched' out (the score-lines marked in photo) and the re-sectioned parts glued back onto the main section.  A .40 by .188 Evergreen strip was glued around the outer edges.  The upper half of the wings were scored and snapped away in a similar fashion, but spread out farther to 'wrap' around the lower tips (the white areas inside the score-lines), and packed with styrene strips.  The joints and the edges past the recessed joint-seams were filed down to thin them.  I used Bondo glaze to fill over all the work.  When I'm finished installing the control-room, the wings will be glued together and shaped; the few topside pictures I've seen show an ogive leading-edge til they reach the inset bow-planes.

The control room is a straightforward buildup, with glow-medium added to the acrylics for the missile-control panel, lights, radar/sonar screens, and TV displays (both have the same image, a giant manta ray creature gliding beneath an ice-flow).  The two scientists arguing about the creature, the two crewmembers at the helm-station (whom I had to bisect at the hips to fit behind the control-wheels), and the standing crewmembers, were resin castings I made impressions from in clay, then painted up to match the kit crew-figures.  The control-room looked a little barren of people so I went with this quick fix; because they were only detailed on the front-side, I positioned them at angles only visible through the main windows.  The remaining controls, etc. were picked out with pens, pencils, acrylics, and enamels.  The world-map was painted in on the port side of the observation room.  I lost one of the center-girders that fits behind the central window-frame, so traced the opposite piece on plastic sheet, drilled out the holes, cut out, and glued in place.  Still have to sort through some LEDs and rig internal lighting.  There is no ceiling or crossbeams in the kit, so making clear PETG ceiling with the beams glued in proper position.
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