Making Rough Water

Sometimes you'd like to depict your ship traveling through rough seas. It's not difficult to do. What you will need is:

A base
Masking tape
Cellu-Clay (paper Mache)
Elmers or white glue
Acrylic gel medium-gloss or hi gloss acrylic varnish

All of these should be available at your local hobby or craft store.

Begin by masking off the bases borders. I like to use 4 or 5 layers of tape for this-that builds up a depth for the waves. Mix some celluclay with elmers glue and water until it's got the consistency of tuna salad. Using a fork spread the mixture out on the base-layering it thicker where the waves are going to be.  I usually have my waves running in a diagonal pattern across the base. You should have some idea beforehand of where your ship will be positioned and how you'd like your waves to look. For waterline models you can have the ship down a bit at the bow or stern and for full hull kits you may choose to have the bottom of the hull exposed through a wave either at the bow or stern. It's a good idea to have the base started before the ship so that you can use the hull to set the position then wash off any celluclay residue.

Now that you have the celluclay spread on the base and your waves built up you need to smooth everything out-I like to use an artists pallet knife. Just smooth over the fork marks as if your putting icing on a cake. The good thing about celluclay or paper mache is that it has a texture that lends itself well to resembling water.

©2002 Text and Images Mike Taylor - All Rights Reserved.