creating water base

[werner dk]

Hello all,
here's the technique I use for creating a water base for a ship model.
For now, I don't have pictures yet but I guess the text will do...

base
The base plate is a piece of insulation material, called styrofoam.
You have various thickness and colors indicating density.
I usually use a light blue, green or yellow one.
You can cut using a heated wire or just a long knife (Olfa).

Then, cut out the desired pattern for your seascape ; big, long waves or short ones, whatever...

You cut out roughly the size of the model you will put in and do a test fit.
Make the hole bigger than the ship ; the textured watercolor paper will cover it later.

surface
Cut a piece of textured watercolor paper, a little bigger than the styrofoam base.
Get the paper soaked in water and glue to the base with white glue.
Also add a few drops of cyanoacrylate glue here and there - do not blend with the white glue !
The CA drops will fix the paper in place, while the white glue gives a strong bond.
(This is a bit of a tricky part, as I am not yet completely satisfied with the result.
If you would use another kind of glue, please let me know !)

Base finish
Once dry, turn the finished base upside down and cut out the excess areas.
Cut out very carefully the paper area where the model will fit in (not too much!)
Put plaster with white glue on the sides to hide the paper surface and to have an equal paintable side surface.
Place the model in the sea gap and finish the sides with filler like TEC7 or any other that will dry and still be flexible.

Painting and finishing
have a look at Jim Baumann's technique
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=37406
regards,
Werner
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