I have created a dio of the USS Cowpens firing her first warshot into Iraq, take a look.

Linky

Very nice! I like your water very much. I'm experimenting with my first "water" base right now, so I appreciate a well done effort. Your missle trail is great, too. All-in-all, a really nice dio.

Cheers,
Mike

Ryan,

That is pretty good.

Very cool Ryan, nice work, thanks for sharing, mate....like your missile trail, truly, smoke is one of the most difficult things to replicate in miniature..........

Really nice job, thanks for sharing... maybe down the road a short quick "informational" post as to how to do the missile trail effect? Cheers

Sure, the missile trail was achived by drilling through the VLS and through the main deck into the plaster a bit to provide stability. I then inserted some wire and cut it to size. I tried using a cotton ball to create the smoke, but found that it looked too coarse. I pulled apart a Q-Tip and discovered the cotton on it was much finer. I pulled apart several Q-Tips before I remembered they have cotton on both ends. If you pull straight up on the Q-tip you will ahve a nice little collum on cotton, I just put this over my wire. I put a little more cotton over the wire than nessisary to cover it. Using many pieces f cotton pushed down created the "layered" look you can see and give the impression of exaust gasses expanding in the collum. The gas trail will be way too wide so for the final few "feet" wrap the cotton around the wire tightly and secure it with a tiny dap of glue. This simulates the gass right out of the nozzle.

Hope this explains it.