The Nautilus
Model, photos and text by Chris Chulamanis
The story about how and why this model Nautilus was built, considering the recent additions to the model using computer graphics for the lighted salon window display, spans from early childhood to the present.
Never has anything in my life inspired me more than Walt Disney's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea. I was five years old when I first saw the movie and I never imagined that one day I would be suited up in full diving regalia, and dropping through the hatch of a lock-out submarine onto the sea floor just as Captain Nemo did.
For almost five years, beginning in 1981, I worked for an oceanographic research foundation that operated unique and remarkable deep-diving, diver lock-out submarines. During that time, I lived out my fantasies inspired by Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. For those few short years, I was a witness to many a rare and wondrous sight. I spent hours on end, observing all manner of creatures in the sea from the vantage point of a modern day submarine with a spherical, five-foot diameter, clear Acrylic, pressure hull. From that vantage point it was easy to imagine that I was looking through the salon window of the Nautilus. Jules Verne himself would surely have been impressed.
Main Salon Window Detail
I decided to build my own Nautilus model simply because there were no commercially available kits that pleased me. In 1982, with advice and help from many people, I completed a first attempt scratch built model of the Nautilus. Rivets, anchors, deck fittings, hatch wheels, and bifurcated terminals were all off the shelf parts. Everything else was made from stock materials. I used Disney plans that were published in a 1960 model magazine. The model is an impressive 33.5 inches long and there are approximately 12,000-14,000 scale aluminum rivets on it. The first consideration in building the model was determining what I would use for rivets. I knew it was going to take a lot of them so I wanted to use something that was commercially available. I used Sig aluminum rivets. The plans were blown up to more or less match the size of the rivet heads that I decided to use. Bulkheads are balsa wood, cut from 1/4 inch flat stock. The hull is skinned with 3/32 inch thick balsa sheet which was glued into place against the edges of the bulkheads. The main ramming spur was machined from aluminum round stock and capped around the hull with lead foil. Each cutting tooth was cast separately using polyester resin in a silicone rubber mold. All the hatches were machined from ABS plastic round stock, as was the propeller guard and capstan. Hatch hinges and diving planes are made of lead. The salon window flange is aluminum. The condenser was made with bits of lead, plastic, wire, and tubing. The phosphoric atomizer was made with brass and bifurcated terminals. The skiff is a solid piece of Plexiglas capped with lead and trimmed with brass wire. The stuffing box is ABS plastic; the prop flange is brass, and secured with a steel nut. A small electric motor spins the propeller. The unusually shaped, five-blade prop was cut from a piece of lead sheet but later replaced with a plastic one, as the spinning lead prop was like a heavy fly wheel that would have eventually damaged the model. Each window was machined from Plexiglas stock and bead blasted on the inside surfaces to make them slightly opaque. The control room and salon areas are lighted. A recent addition is the salon interior that was made using computer graphics. Three wax-transfer prints were sandwiched together to provide pleasing color saturation and depth. You can see the couch, the shell case, paintings, curtains, and the switch that operates the iris shutter for the salon window.
Wheel House
Propeller
The reef diorama contains what appears to be miniature Elkhorn and Staghorn corals. Some of these are actually colonial Bryozoan organisms that were found growing on a platform for a cosmic ray experiment that lay in 2,000 feet of water for two years. In deep, calm, water some species of Bryozoans mimic, almost exactly, the morphology of shallow water corals. I remember my elation when I found a ready but limited source of miniature "corals" that were a perfect complement for the model reef diorama. These were carefully removed from the framework structure of the platform, bleached and later painted with water colors. I collected the other tiny corals from the ceilings of small caves on shallow reefs. I selected weathered coral rocks for the basic reef foundation then placed the coral pieces realistically about to accurately represent the structure and zones of a coral reef. I painted in patches of algae and encrusting organisms of all colors, and I made Sea Fans from nylon mesh and glue. The reef is dotted here and there with sea creatures, some real, and some made with Sculpey.
A scratch built figure of Captain Nemo in his distinctive diving helmet, made of brass and lead foil, complements the reef scene. A look into the visor reveals a tiny picture of James Mason's face!
The Nautilus as it looks today.
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...visitor since April 5, 1998
