Just adding my 2-cents of a method here, as a few people asked me how I did this Varyag seascape:
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/ca/ru/Varyag-350-gg/index.htm Sea scape using toilet paper (TP) and white glue.There are two advantages that this technique brings. One is that the undulations of the resulting surface are more or less in a parallel direction, tricking us into thinking a breeze is blowing. Second, it is very forgiving: if you goof it up, a bit of water can help undo things, and adding a few pieces of TP can patch it up.
I have used it both on a flat surface and on styrofoam that was already given the basic shape of the waves. In other cases I lay down wires on the surface where the ship’s wave pattern will be, prior to applying the technique. The general idea is that the TP layer will be the final fine-grained layer of the sea surface. Any larger patterns will have to be there before you apply it.
Toilet paper or other kinds of cleaning paper wrapped in a cylinder has one characteristic that is relevant to our task. When you spread it on a flat surface and sprinkle water onto it, it wrinkles form mostly in a specific direction, parallel to the axis of the cylinder. I had success with plain tissue paper also, though one has to experiment to find the direction of the wrinkling.
Once the TP piece is laid down flat, I use either a syringe to wet it drop by drop, with diluted white glue; the degree of dilution is not important, but it should be on the watery side. I do this going left to right (parallel to the direction of wrinkling) over one edge first and progressing in parallel sweeps until I reach the opposite edge.
Sometimes the wrinkles fold over themselves and that does not look natural for a sea surface. Just make sure that the piece of TP is flat before you start wetting it and go gradually. Sometimes, once I wet the starting edge, I hold the opposite edge with one hand keeping the piece taught, as I progress wetting it in parallel sweeps.
Of course the sea base will be made of many pieces of TP that will be laid down progressively one by one overlapping each other. Two things to keep in mind here. One, if you leave the TP pieces intact, their straight edges will be very visible in the end product. So before you lay them down you need to pluck their edges so they are shredded. That will allow them to blur with each other as they overlap. Second, you need to remember the original orientation of the piece of TP as you pluck the edges, so that all of them are laid down in the same orientation. You don’t have to be exact here, within 10-15 degrees is good enough.
I lay down one full layer covering the whole sea scape, wait for it to dry and then repeat 3-4 times. As the thickness increases, the wrinkles become more pronounced and the sea becomes more pliable. At this stage you can use an old thick brush to pound on it perpendicularly and shape the waves that way.
Once you like the surface pattern you may put down your base paint. I use acrylics and have not experimented with oils. You may air or hand brush this; doesn’t make a difference. You can dry brush the wave crests or apply a darker wash at the valleys, but the next step will diminish the effect so I would not spend much effort on this.
The next step is to apply a layer of undiluted white glue with a brush. Be generous and let it dry. It will give a shiny texture to the surface and make it look darker, so take that into account when you decide on your base color.
If the ship is in motion, I start painting the area near the ship after this layer of undiluted white glue is applied. This is because the white you apply will momentarily dilute the white glue and blend in. So the white will not stay on the surface but will enter the layer of white glue. (Again I caution you that this pertains only to water-soluble acrylics.) If the white is too much you can use the base paint again to correct. You can achieve variations of lighter blue hues this way and the layer of white glue at the top gives these some “depth”. I always enjoy this part. It takes some getting used to because as you paint, the white glue is diluted and turns white. So let things dry before you check the results of a session and decide on applying more white or more of the base color.
Once I am happy (or too tired) with it, I apply another final layer of undiluted white glue. I have tried a gloss varnish, but I find the white glue shinier.
I hope you will enjoy playing with the technique and do remember to report back any additional tricks you come up with. But I tell, you, when I grow up, I want to do the seascapes sargentx is making. Man these are great!