Before starting this kit I was unaware of the Star Wars connection, which I still find fascinating.
The top of the observation/storage room was yet another greeble Lucas’ ILM used on the Millennium Falcon studio model.
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The observation/storage room came together easily, but it was only after assembling it that I noticed this ugly, hard to fill seam!
Fixing it would have been an effort, so in the spirit of ILM’s greeble gizmology I tried cheating a bit and simply concealed it under a length of plastic strip. It wasn’t technically accurate, but it looked reasonable and did hide the seam.
In the end, though, I just wasn’t comfortable “making up” detail on a historical model. Fortunately, after looking again at my references I realized the strengthening strakes didn’t extend all the way down the sides…
…so trimming them down and filling the seams actually turned out to be straightforward – and more accurate!
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Ready to get the build started, The kit is very well detailed, there is some flash to clean in some parts nothing major. Lets see how well it comes together 
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Very nice cockpit, Peter. Great details - especially for a kit in 1/72 scale.
Looking forward to see more
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Wow Peter, your cockpit treatment is looking really good! It looks like the Eduard kit is now the Mustang in 1/72! 
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The lower tank assembly was the construction that anchored SEALAB III to the ocean floor. It contained the main ballast tank, eight smaller air tanks, plus the sonar transducer and other gear.
The various air cylinders are enclosed in an open framework which is just taped together for the moment; I’ll seal things in once the tanks and frames are painted.
Somewhat hidden beneath the main habitat, it looks the part tucked away under the station.
The last of the major subparts to prepare were the side tanks. As with the other assemblies, I was impressed with how neatly Aurora’s simplified renderings nevertheless capture the complex look of these fittings.
They will be attached to the outer frames of the station just below the interior floor level.
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Unfortunately, earlier error caused that canopy isn’t perfectly aligned with hull (this ~0,1mm gap caused by interior joint being too large is now “paying off”) - not mentioning my poor scribing skills 
. But at this stage there’s nothing I can do to fix that, so my Airacobra is ready to meet primer
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I had decided at the outset of this project to forgo any scratchbuilding and just go with the Old School look of Aurora’s 1960s SEALAB model. The molded plastic renditions of the screens over the junctions of the side tanks, for example, were pretty good, so the plan here was to bring out the mesh detail with a dark wash…
… but in the end I just couldn’t resist replacing those screens! After prying the cages loose from the recently assembled side tanks, I trimmed away the molded screens and replaced them with new ones cut from 0.5 X 0.5mm stainless steel etch stock.
Photos of the real SEALAB also show some stiffening strakes inside the cages, so I added these with plastic strip.
Although not exactly what the Aurora modelling gods intended, these simple upgrades do make things more interesting!
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Tim, that is a very nice addition and something that instantly upgrades the details of the lab at first sight.
Looking forward to see more
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Thanks Jesper. The tanks are right up front there too, so I suppose the extra effort with the screens will be visible.
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those look good, i’m looking forward to the Weequay Pirates coming out early 2026 and their tank!
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The new etched screen covers over the side tank junction boxes look good, but having impulsively replaced these means that leaving the molded plastic screens on other parts would now look odd… which I hadn’t properly considered. Oh well, committed now, so…
The simplest place to start appeared to be the small deck extension and fence on the platform deck beside the cylindrical ballast tank No. 1.
A look at reference photos, though, revealed that there was actually more to the structure than Aurora’s simplified depiction would suggest. It was apparently an open ended cage which served to stow and protect the various air and electrical umbilical lines while the habitat was on the surface.
Accordingly, I built up a cage from the same 0.5 X 0.5mm etched stainless steel mesh used on the side tank screens and framed it with Evergreen .010 X .020 (0.2 X .5mm) plastic strip. This little fitting may not seem like much, but it took most of a Saturday afternoon to construct!
The real cage had two hinged covers; I thought it might be a fun to show one of them open. The tiny retaining chain is some etched brass anchor cable left over from a 1/700 scale destroyer project.
I’ve been trying to keep this build as out-of-box as possible, but as usual a bit of mission creep seems to have set in…
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Beautiful details and scratchbuilding, Tim!
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My Airacobra got basic colors. I made a preshading, but decided to go with Hataka C018 US Olive Drab Late which has a very low coverage pigment, so had to adjust colors with good old Tamiya XF-62 and then went back with C018 and lighter tones.
Grey is Tamiya XF-53 and mixed few drops of Mr Hobby H51 Light Gull Gray to concotion to create some highlihts. Red is XF-7 with several drops of White.
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Next up for SEALAB were the lower screens.
These were begun by removing most of the molded screens but leaving some extra around the framing for strength as I cut away the bulk of the plastic material.
After the rough cuts I went back and trimmed the plastic more closely to the frames and cut more of the etched stainless steel mesh to fit inside them. Plastic cement doesn’t work on metal, but it did soften the surfaces of the plastic frames just enough to hold the screens in place.
The real screens had X-shaped stiffeners behind the mesh, so these were added using plastic strip.
Finally, the solid plastic gratings on the small platforms were cut out and replaced with metal mesh.
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