The Ship Model Forum

This is the 1/350 Boing B-314 Pan Am Clipper resin kit by Iron Shipwrights, Inc that I have used to portray the Honolulu Clipper.

This is the first step in attempting my plan to make a diorama of this incident in which the Clipper is abandoned and deemed a hazard to navigation and sank with gunfire from the USS San Pablo AVP-30 on November 3, 1945 in the Pacific Ocean.

The San Pablo collided with the aircraft at one point and damaged (broke off) the starboard engine.

An interesting subject. I learned to fly the 747 from Pan Am "Clipper Skipper", inheritors of a very romantic history. A fellow Her in Fairbanks, Noel Merill Wein was a DC4 and DC6 Captain for Pan Am and always regretted missing out on flying the large flying boats. My first trans oceanic trip was with a navigator so I have at least a little appreciation of that era!

Great subject!

Thanks, Fliger747! I'm glad you like it.

I spent the weekend populating the USS San Pablo..

This is a new method, for me, in creating a water base for a diorama. It is the tinfoil, paint and cotton batting method.

This is only a practice water base will not be the permanent base for these models. The final result will be a little larger and the plane and ship a little farther apart.

This practice run is valuable, to me, so I can work out the Do's and Don'ts and I think my crests of the waves are too, high and the troughs too, deep. They'll be lower and shallower in the final one.

In the real life scenario of the inspiration photo, the San Pablo is reversing her propellers to avoid hitting the plane. The plane eventually took a bad wave and collided with the ship and broke off the #4 engine of the plane. I am trying to replicate the foam and turbulence around the ships middle and stern.




You think the cotton is pure white until you add the AK Water Foam which is a much brighter white, however it is a more matte finish before adding any clear gloss.


It turned out much like my USS Absecon AVP-23 water base where I used solely Liquitex Heavy Gel to form the waves but with only painted wake and not cotton. I might try that again, instead, but with the cotton batting wake method.

Do you like the application of the AK water foam

Gabriel,

I am a little undecided. I didn't like the matte finish of the foam at first. A glossy clear coat doesn't look right on the foam, but I think that a matte clear coat of varnish, just on the foam areas, will look good. Maybe a mix of matte and glossy areas of foam. I'll experiment.

I do like the bright white of the foam. It is better than painting it on with an airbrush or hand brushing acrylic or enamel white paint. It is basically a white textured paint with dimension, where just white paint does not.

Angeliccypher wrote:Do you like the application of the AK water foam

Sounds awesome. If you experiment with it can you post pics of the different test results? I would be highly interested.

The build is looking awesome too!

Thank you, Gabriel.

I'm not sure if my photography will show the suttle differences in the finish of the white foam, but I'll try.

I did, just now, try Testors Model Master Flat Clear Coat and it is a little yellow out of the bottle, with a brush. I suspect that a matte varnish like Liquitex would be better.

I re-applied the white foam over that area that I put the Model Master on.

When I do the final water base, I'll try for more, better photos of the wake and foam and cotton.

The tools used to apply the foam may make a difference, too; i.e. brush or sponge; rough sponge or smooth sponge, etc.

The amount of paste applied at once may make a difference, too.

Angeliccypher wrote:Sounds awesome. If you experiment with it can you post pics of the different test results? I would be highly interested.

The build is looking awesome too!

The IPMS National Convention, being held ten blocks from my house, knocked down my psychological barrier that I've had recently in my model building and forced me to finish off this diorama.

The Liquitex cured just in time for me to get this one entered in the 2022 contest by 2:00 p.m. on Friday.

I'm glad that I did my practice water base a few months ago. The first practice was with tin foil and paper towels and white glue. I found the swells to be to high / deep. This last method was with just Heavy Gel and Glossy Gel Liquitex. Cotton batting and Liquitex glossy varnish used for the water foam.

The USS San Pablo is answering a "All Back Full" bell in an attempt not to collide with the aircraft while trying to attach a towline, again. There is a whale boat around somewhere (one is missing from the stbd side of the ship), but out of photographer's range, I guess. The aircraft was finally pushed towards the ship due to mounting waves and it lost it's stbd outbd engine.


















Second Place Trophy in the IPMS 2022 Nats contest. Ship Dioramas Category. I'm very happy!

Beautiful diorama.

Very, very well done - a most impressive result!

One question: Which figures did you use, they look great to me.

Best regards

Frank

Brilliant result of a rare subject! That award was well deserved

It is natural I guess to always envy those of a more romantic earlier era. Noel Merrill Wein whom I had mentioned earlier was a Pan Am skipper in some of the earlier days of trans Pacific flying but mentioned to me that he had always wished to be in that era of the Big Clipper flying boats. As with many worth souls, he just passed away the other day as did another Alaska Aviation pioneer, Pete Merry the week before.

In many ways our ship models cam be seen as a tribute to our fore bearers.

Cheers: Tom

What a nice subject, and awfully nice executed! Deserves a good exposure.

That is very cool! The metallics on the aircraft are super, quite an achievement in this scale. Very well done!

- Bas

Here is a YouTube video slideshow of my USS San Pablo AVP-30 and PanAm Honolulu Clipper diorama.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1nM9mqYu6w&t=8s