Studio Ghibli Mystery Project(s)!

[TheChronicOne]

I love the lil tiny bike, man!!! That's so cool!

[nighthunter]

The boat is from Ponyo, correct?

[strobez]

Looks like we have a winner! Yes indeed, the boat is Fujimoto's submarine from Ponyo... or at least hopefully it will be.

[zenrat]

Ah yes.  Mrs z doesn't have Ponyo but we have seen it.  Must have hired it.

[strobez]

Yeah. Ponyo doesn't immediately spring to mind. It's a great movie where basically nothing happens.

Still, for me, Fujimoto steals the show.  Between his elixirs, watering pump and (of course) his flapping submarine... he's awesome.

Anyway, got a bit of railing glued on, but mostly spent my time fighting to replicate the concave and curved cabin out of styrene.  It just didn't want to go together.

So, in the meantime, I finished off the Laputa Flapter project.  I'm not quite sure if I like the crystal clear transparent wings.  They went for a future bath that worked wonders, but now they'd very hard to actually see!

[zenrat]

The clear wings are perfect.

I've got a soft spot for Pom Poko.  It confused me on first viewing as I couldn't work out what the thing was the Raccoon Dogs were pulling out from between their legs.  Then I googled them, read up on the folklore and it made more sense.

[strobez]

After giving it some more thought, I've decided to leave the Flapter wings "as is".

So, moving right along, I made some more progress on Fujimoto's submarine.

First, I got the cabin together finally.  That took a lot of glueing, clamping, sanding, swearing, glueing, clamping, putty, sanding, and more swearing... 


First a bit of the outside details...


Then an upside down look at some of the inside details.


Basically just added up some drawers, shelves and closets.


You never really get a look at the interior of the sub during the movie.  Just a couple of quick shots in through the front windows.  I also noticed that the angle of the front cabin is a bit too shallow, which is a product of trying to match the height and width to a hull that isn't quite right to begin with. Something had to give, and I guess it was that.  Oh well...

[strobez]

Just a little update.  Added some of the external details and more or less decided on what's going on inside the cabin.

[strobez]

Ok, so a bit more of an update... since all the construction is finished, I decided to try my luck with a coat of primer. Sure enough I noticed some problem spots.  Looks like I haven't escaped PSR just yet...


On thing I'm happy about though, is it seems like the interior work will pay off, because it will be quite visible when completed.


Anyway, while the primer was drying... I decided to start one more mini mystery project. Here's the kit I'm using.


Three vehicles... three sprues...


Of ourse, i only need a handful of parts from each of them.


And even the few I do need... need to be cut up and modified.


A quick cobble together to see some proof of concept.


Ok. That works. Just need one more part from the kit and a scratched up windshield...


Voila! All boxed in.


I had to modify the axel to accommodate the wider rear, but it looks good.


If I was really ambitious, I'd have removed the back end of the jeep parts and make a true flatbed... if I was ambitious...

[nighthunter]

Gah, I know this one, just can't place it

[NARSES2]

Give that little trike some corugated panels and it would fit into any street in Brussels or Paris in the 50's/60's  Wonderful work

[strobez]

Heh, I'm really enjoying piecing together the trike. It's a fun little scratchbuild.

Work is continuing on the 3 remaining projects, but mostly just applying putty to some problem areas.


I did, however, get the interior of the trike cab mostly done... and added some fenders!



In the meantime I decided to take some pictures of the completed builds... Boy was that a mistake. I borrowed a friend's camera and intended to take some really quality photos. So I got out some white back drop cloth and set it on a sheet of styrafoam to act as a wall. I placed the broom/bike build neatly in the middle and began fiddling with the camera.  I couldn't quite figure out the settings, and the display kept jumping from extreme closeup to long shot.  While I was distracted by the camera, the styrafoam wall took a tumble and fell over and flattened the bike.  Broke the frame at the glue seam in two places and snapped the broom handle clean off.

I was just staring at it in shock.  I hadn't even managed to snap a single pic! Gah!  Luckily I was able oncarefully glue everything back in place, but of course it doesn't look as good as it did.  It never does, does it?

Anyway, I never did figure out the camera, so I decided just snap a few pics using the ol' iPad instead.

[Old Wombat]

Cool!


Bike looks fine to me (but I know what you mean).

[su27rules]

Great!! 

[TheChronicOne]

Fantastic, dude! Shame about the bike smashing but you recovered well.