all at sea

[aleccap]

Could someone please guide me through on how to apply the sea to a model base, such as a ship stationary in the sea (and looking like the sea) or a ship at full power moving through the sea, I have tried painting wood, plastic, using large amounts of silcone and nothing as yet has come close to looking like the ship at sea. Look forward to the replies.

[JIM BAUMANN]

Hi!
its very late at night here in the UK--so this is brief...

have a peek at some of my recent build articles, there are some photos that show the autobodyfiller method as well as the paper--

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

methods that works well for me is this:



In 1/700 scale I use Artists Watercolour paper which has a regular indented texture(try Winsor & Newton); firstly I cut the waterline profile out of the paper 0.5mm larger,this is done by placing the hull on paper and drawing round the hull with a sharp pencil ( before I even think about building the ship) then I stick to the base with either white glue or double sided sticky tape. Build ship to the stage at which you are no longer happy to handle the ship,I usually mount the ship in her sea before put on funnels or masts or photo etch. The ship is placed in the prepared cutout and screwed thru the base so that if it is a resin ship it prevents her warping. I then paint the sea in chosen base colour I add ships wake and bow-wave for (slow speed ) from white/PVA glue and build it up in stages. For medium speed I use Artists Acrylic gel/texture agent and shape it as it is drying. For a ship at high speed I use autobodyfiller for big wake and waves because it sets quickly (30-45 minutes!) so that I can carry on modelling!

In 1/350 scale if the ship is being shown in bigger waves I again use all the above techniques but glue the paper over bits of scrap wood to give the shape of the waves (remember to keep the wood bits clear of where the ship will go....) when the ship is finished ready for varnishing then I paint and drybrush the wakes and bow-waves, this is best left till last as the handling of the base will otherwise make the white go yellow....

I have also used succesfully white toothpaste(!) to really highlight white wavetops etc. cotton wool can be sued but do not use too much or the ship will look as if she is on a cloud....

[orb]

Jim,

I am fairly new to building ships in 1/700 and have also been wondering as to what is the best method for creating water bases. I've tried the silicone method but wasn't very satisfied with it. Good that I stumbled over your post here. And can I just say that I've seen some of your models on other sites as well and they are absolutely amazing, but also your water bases are also among the most realistic ones that I've ever seen. I will definitely try out some of the methods you just posted. Thanks for the tips!

Heiko

[NukeMM]

Aleccap,

For my 1/700 models, I use Tamiya's Ocean Effect Plate and spray paint the bottom surface the sea color of choice and then paint the waves and wake on the top/rough surface.

















I have my eye on getting some Plastruct "Agitated Water" sheets. I have a small piece from the hobby shop, but they make larger sheets. The agitated water one would be nice for 1/700 harbor water. They have rougher water textures that I'd like to see, too. Some come in clear and blue.