Shinkai 6500

The  Shinkai 6500 is a manned deep sea research submersible. built  in 1990, it is owned and operated by JAMSTEC(Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology)
manned by a crew of three and protected by a 73.5 mm thick titanium pressure hull.it features robotic arm manipulators,three view ports and on board camera systems. the Shinkai is capable of diving to depths of 6500 meters and held the record for deepest diving manned sub in till 2012. its mission is to explore and study the oceans floor geography and deep-sea organisms.to date it has  completed over 1300 dives. Link for additional info about this incredible craft www.jamstec.go.jp/e/about/equi…

Here is my finished 1/48 scale shinkai deep sea sub by Bandai. the overall model kit was pretty impressive, featuring many great details,gimmicks, moving parts and working lights. built mostly "outta the box" tho i did scratch built front baskets and added wires for the camera systems.
i built this one up a few months back, but today i finally got around to top coating and taking some photos of it. all in all i could of done a bit of a better job(colors are off, some finer details are not so great, the line work bleed on top coat ect) but seeings how this is  not a normal project for me and wayyyy outside my comfort zone, i am happy with it(for now....i see a kitbash in this ones future). its one of those models that's not great looking in photos, but in real life, looks better and seems to draw alot of eyes and questions in my display.

As always, questions,comments and suggestions welcome.