1/1250 Viking Neptun Subsea Construction Vessel

[Neptune]

With the board upgrade and some picture issues resolved on my side, it's time to share another one of my colourful subjects.
I'm building a 1/1250 waterline version of Viking Neptun. She was built to Norwegian design and requirements for Eidesvik to perform subsea construction. She was later sold to Belgian Dredging and marine engineering company DEME, which converted her for cable laying duties.
I'm in favor of her original red/orange -yellow livery, but will build her in her newer DEME colors.

[Pieter]

Nice start. Will you be using decals for the windows?

[SG1]

Welcome back Neptune, great start indeed! are you going for the orange/yellow finish? Very captivating

[Neptune]

She was started a while back actually.
Not sure on those windows. The portholes I drilled, but the windows are a bit of an issue. On the real ship they are quite recessed, I assume for cold weather insulation. I intended to either prepare a mask and paint them or use a very fine marker with masking as I did in the past.

As for the livery, she will get the DEME green-white livery since she'll be outfitted for cable laying.

[Pieter]

Maybe sand the underlying structure back a bit and build up the walls in strip styrene leaving the windows open. This is now I did the windows in my 1/700 Adrastus.

[Neptune]

That boat has left port a long time ago , I'm way past that phase. I was more concerned to keep those sides nice and straight. However a good idea to keep in mind for the future. I may build a larger scale red version at some point.

[Neptune]

Jumping ahead a bit to bring you up to date.
First actions were aimed at bringing that hull to a stzte that I could apply some spray putty.
In Portside she also has a recessed part in the hul where a panel of the ROV hangar slides when one of the ROV's is deployed.
Since there is very little tolerance in this scale, I waited to cut that pzrt out and scribe the panel lines until the recesses for the lifeboats and rescue boats were finished.

For the cable carousel on deck (she has an additional one below deck from her original configuration), I started off with wire hoops in horizontal direction. I didn't feel like putting all the vertical stiffeners in between, and leaving everything off wasn't an option either... I decided to measure some fly screen and it actually matched quite well.

[Neptune]

Preparing the hull for primer. Scribing panel lines, drilling portholes, making a small recessed part in the hull, adding wooden landing zones qnd fenders on the hull side and mounting the main 400t SWL crane pedestal (it's mounted flush with the side so should be installed now).
Also work on the auxiliary deck crane.

[Neptune]

And a little test set-up for the painted carousel.

And a little paint does miracles.

[Neptune]

Almost up to date now, and hopefully almost finished as well.

The ship was more or less converted from subsea construction to cable layer, however she kept the full subsea construction outfit. The main 400T crane stayed in position since its 3000m of cable is located on a winch below deck. From time to time you do see pictures where the jib rest is placed aft rather than forward of the crane.
The auxiliary crane is completely moved, including its jib rest for use in cable lay ops.
So time to continue on the cable lay equipment.

The aft cable chutes where cables are pulled from the sea or laid on the seabed are built up from 0.3mm styrene sheet and due to all the curves and lack of any straight edges, possibly the most fiddly part I ever made.

All still dry fitted since I was going for a darker shade of grey on deck.

And time for the lifeboat and rescue boat davits.

[Neptune]

Time for some windows and preparation for that helo deck, which will eventually cover most of the detail on that foredeck.

And started that rather complicated mast. Normally the struts are flat bars rather than round bar, but I used 0.3mm steel wire, since I wouldn't succeed in making something flat and strong in that size.

And the cable lay equipment for the aft deck. I built most of the equipment off the ship in subassemblies, since the ship delicate to handle.

[Neptune]

Time to get going on those windows and details.

[Neptune]

And a little more detail. Almost there now.
First I attached the lifeboats to their davits. Sort of lucky it was this type of modern davit. Then I slid the assembly into the recesses on both sides. I did something similar with the rescue boats.

[maxim]

Cool, another interesting offshore vessel!

[Neptune]

Happy New Year to all! May you and your families be in good health in 2026 (and after).

Took some pictures of the finished vessel, but I guess in my haste to get it finished, I forgot to add the 2 big satcom antenna's on the sides of the bridge roof.

So one picture with those as well.

[Pieter]

Happy 2026 as well. Looks like a good start of the year.

[marijn van gils]

It's good to see some variation to the usual warships.
Another interesting subject well executed!