This is yet another Aurora reissue from those fine folks at Polar Lights. The SSRN Seaview is supposedly a purely scientific nuclear-powered research vessel and manned by civilians. However, these guys do have some perks. For one thing, the Seaview carries ballistic missiles (undoubtedly nuclear), a rather odd addition for a civilian research vessel. It also has a lot more room on the inside that what appears on the outside, with spacious rooms and very little in the way of hatches that one would expect to see on a sub (lots of nice, wood doors).

Well, it is television and the movies so I guess that suspending reality is the key for models like this. Anyway, it is quite sturdily constructed as it manages to get buffeted around quite a bit and spends quite a bit of time plowing the ocean floor like a walrus. Fortunately, it operates only in areas that have a lot of sand so colliding with undersea mountains and reefs isn't a problem. It also manages to find itself in trouble with giant sea creatures; squid and octopi being particularly troublesome from time to time.

Thanks to its basic indestructibility and the crew's miraculous ability to heal after severe trauma, the Seaview manages to win the day, and to do it in less than an hour!

The kit itself is molded in black, which makes it rather difficult to photograph, so I decided to show the instructions instead. As you can see, there really are not a lot of parts to it. In fact, it is quite similar to the Masterpiece Models resin kit that I built some time ago as that was based on the Aurora kit. The differences between the two are that the Polar lights kit does not have the bulges on the forward side and has a bulge on the top of the forward deck. It also has a different window arrangement in the front. I'd suggest a look at either the TV show or the movie to see which one is correct or not.

Painting colors have to be pretty simple and the instructions call out blue for the Seaview. That gives you a pretty wide range of colors to choose from! Frankly, I'd go for a light blue or a light blue-grey. You could even try a multi-hued color if you wanted to. The nice thing about these kinds of kits is that you really don't have to go with the flow on painting them.

The instructions (as shown above) are very simple and there are no decals included with the kit.

I think it is great that Polar Lights has managed to find a niche for itself by bringing back these old Aurora kits as well as the super new molds they have done. Apparently the Erwin Allen kits are what is being done now as the Spindrift and Snake diorama from 'Land of the Giants' are some of the next releases.

Kit courtesy of my kit collection.

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