The Ship Model Forum

This is my diorama in 1:700 scale showing H.M.S. Barham, accompanied by H.M.S. Valiant and H.M.S. Griffin on the 25th of November 1941, just before being torpedoed by U-331. It took me more than seven years to finish mainly due to moving to a new home while Barham was being built. All the ships are featured with a detailed build log, which can be found here:
viewtopic.php?f=59&t=163972&hilit=barham
here: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=315058&hilit=valiant
and here: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=377115
The diorama was constructed as follows: before their assembly commenced the position of the individual ships had been marked and holes had been drilled to accept the screws holding the models.




Once I had finished construction of the last member of the diorama, H.M.S. Griffin, I started working on the seascape. I sourced what I believed was a generous amount of Magic Sculp, but as I had no previous experience with it, I found out only during the wave formation that is will not suffice to cover the whole of the diorama. I was desperate to get some more, because I had only a few days to complete my work. A model competition was being held in Mosonmagyaróvár here in Hungary and I wanted to get the job done and participate. Finally after using up another dose of Magic Sculp and having covered about 2/3 of the water surface I switched to Milliput, because it was the one I could get, hence the two colours of the base.

Having mixed the two components a thin layer was added to the base, then using a spoon and the handle of a small pair of scissors the wave pattern was formed using plenty of water. Recesses for the ships were left bare. My inability to achieve a uniform thickness of putty resulted in a realistic effect: the battleships, especially H.M.S. Valiant “dig their bow in” the water surface, a phenomenon which was a characteristic feature of the QE class. The surface was primed and sprayed several shades of blue with a hint of green. Light blue was airbrushed carefully around the wakes of the ships to represent disturbed water. Wave crests of white were painted on with a fine brush – a tiresome and tedious affair. Acrylic gel was stippled all over the surface adding another layer of texture.

Next the ships were screwed to the base and the gap around them infilled with more acrylic gel. As a last step some torn tissue paper was added around each ship’s bow representing the bow wave and made translucent with acrylic gel. I went to the competition without sleeping the night before, because the diorama was finished only in the morning of that day.

Some more pictures:










A big thank you to everybody who has been following this very lengthy build!

Absolutely one of my favorite things I've ever seen posted to this website. Bravo! A f**king stunning achievement. I admire both your skill and your persistence in seeing this through.

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Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

Ship Model Gallery

I couldn't agree more!

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http://www.3xblackcats.wordpress.com

Very nice diorama. When looking trough the pictures it is interesting to see how Barham and Valiant seem to be different in size (Braham looks bigger to me) even though they have the same hull. I wonder if this is the camouflage pattern doing what it is supposed to do.

Superb work One the finest of models I've seen.

excellent work

That is remarkable work! Fantastic builds! I thoroughly enjoyed looking at all the pictures. A hearty well done!

Martin, SG1, Pieter, EJ, Mick, Jon I,
Thank you so much for your kind words!
Pieter, strange, it never crossed my mind that Barham might seem bigger than Valiant.
Although produced by two different companies, and one being plastic and the other one resin, they are pretty close in terms of length and beam.
In fact Valiant should seem bigger with a full-width forecastle deck and more substantial superstructure.
Barham's funnel is huge, though.

My next build (after some distraction) will be Samek's H.M.S. York, accompanied by FlyHawk's H.M.S. Ajax and a Flower class corvette from Ostrich Hobby, at Souda Bay, early 1941.

Hi!

The diorama turned out very nice! I like the water, I think it's much better than what was made for Tiger and Derfflinger. The details are amazing as always. Unfortunately, I couldn't see the Mosonshow live.

I like these compositions, I also have an idea that I would like to build in a similar way

It may have been a lengthy build, but taking your time and detailing it and getting it right pays off.

Such a beautiful scene, the colour of the water really captures the vibrant blue of the Mediterranean. And three masterpieces of ship models all sailing in it. It is a huge advantage of 1/700 scale that seldom gets exploited, you can do dioramas featuring multiple capital ships without requiring an enormous size of baseboard or display case.

It looks fantastic. Should give many hours of pleasurable viewing to anyone lucky enough to see it 'in the flesh' as well as everyone looking at it here online. Really excellent stuff. Many thanks for posting.

Absolutely breathtaking - having just read through the wip threads for all three ships I am in awe of your persistence and attention to detail!

FAN-TAS-TIC!

Congratulations on finishing such an epic project!
I hope I can see it in the flesh one day.

I didn't follow the original building-logs (WW2 isn't quite my thing, sorry), but the rendering of the ships in the see indeed is impeccable

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Eberhard

Former chairman Arbeitskreis historischer Schiffbau e.V. (German Association for Shipbuilding History)

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Many, many thanks for your positive reaction, gents!

Szabi, truth is that I was never satisfied with the seascape of my Derfflinger/Tiger dio.
It was prepared in a hurry, and proved not to be worthy of the ships, which turned out quite well.
Therefore I looked to develop my sea-building skills and your work was one of my inspirations.

Mr. Church, your words are really flattering.
I had been deliberating long enough on putting these ships so close together, but in the end I just could not resist the temptation.

brocken1sm, it was really long. I hope I will finish my future builds in a shorter time, because such a project is a real test of one's perseverance, and I have so many interesting subjects to finish!

Marijn, I am so glad you like my dio!
I used Magic Sculp for the seascape following your description - and it was very nice to work with!
I hope I can take it to Telford sometime.

Wefalck, I do appreciate that you looked at my work, although it is not in your scope of interest.

Let me know if you do; that would be an extra motivator for me to make the trip too!

I'm planning to finally return to Mosonmagyarovar next year. Maybe that will be a good opportunity too?

For the sake of people who never built water, I hope that this water is a result of years of experience and 100s of trial and errors. Because if not, Im just gonna quit and never attempt water in my life!

All of the plan came together brilliantly. I followed the QE builds and was wondering why they were finished on wooden boards, assuming (wrongly) you just didnt want to attempt water. Im so glad to see them fitted on a base, this is brilliant, truly brilliant. Well done! Looks true to scale and super realistic, like looking at a beautiful postcard photograph of the real thing.

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- @Shipific on IG
my gallery

Marijn, I plan to go to Telford this year, but it is not set in stone yet.
I will see if there is somebody I can team up with.
I will let you know later how I decided.
If you come to Mosonmagyaróvár I will take my diorama there for you to see.