Your tips and words of wisdom still ring in my ears.

Very very nice pieces of work Those are WEM kits for those PT boats?

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Your tips and words of wisdom still ring in my ears.

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This turns me officially an annoying person

Well, Carl, I am glad that I could help, and that you are improving the next build in earlier stages (it always makes things easier).
I like what I see, so far on the PT Tender, and also found interesting for you to have two different types of PT-Boats.
Of course, some action is happening (the officer peaking over the railing, denotes that (nice touch, btw)) but you have to think of a clever one to depict.

Please keep us posted
Keep up the good work
Cheers,
Rui

EDIT: Hmm, the only thing that is bugging me (went back and looked at the photos again...) is the water. Was this just for the purpose of the photo shoot or are you going to use this? Have you considered using Heavy Duty Watercolor Paper for this project?
Give it a try (at least in this early stage)

Rui,

I thought that, that was what you meant by "clever". Many of those things have crossed my mind. I like the "stores load" / "bucket brigade" idea. I did a lot of those when I was in the USN.

I"m definately going to get some watercolor paper and try it out. I would like that link to the turorial. I'm sure that I've seen it before, but would have to hunt for it, again.

Here is a water base that I have prepared from Plastruct's "agitated water" plastic sheet. It is intended for my future 1/700 harbor dio. Note the transition from the greenish water which is to depict that water nearer the shore, and the deeper, dark water farther from shore.

Carl,

First, let me say that I missed (a lot) these kind of discussions
Real Life Su**s!!!

On the size of the base for the Oyster Bay Dio, I think that it is about the right size... And now I will tell you why:
1 - The center of the action, read Oyster Bay and Elco's is a unbalanced situation, due to the specific nature of the ship involved.
2 - More action, situations, should populate the sea base, but without taking the attention of the main Ship (Oyster Bay), so I like the situation that you mentioned of whale boat near accommodation ladder, and also a PT arriving to the scene. This could be entering the dio, making the relation/connection on where is open sea
3 - Dioramas should have air (with the exception of my Floating Dock dio!!!! ), where things appear natural without being too cramped, neither too far away (see note bellow) and look empty.

This is why I think you got it right
Rui

Note on point 3: Although, as we both know, distances between vessels while at sea will never be portrayed correctly in model form... distances of 1000 yards or 2000 yards (one nautical mile) would make it a monster of a dio with just two vessels

Dio's involving tenders and repair ships are excellent forums for depicting casual action. A humorous touch would be the wardroom steward tossing out yesterday's coffee!



--Karl

Here's another question on another matter.........

PE 40mm ammo racks are cool, but empty. Has anyone ever attempted to load up these 1/350 ammo racks? I covered them with canvas, instead, like I've seen in photos of this ship.

Looks good Carl, but I would put four PT-Boats on the mother ship and one approaching (where you placed it), but coming from the other side (in the opposite direction from Oyster Bay)

Riu

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Here's another question on another matter.........

PE 40mm ammo racks are cool, but empty. Has anyone ever attempted to load up these 1/350 ammo racks? I covered them with canvas, instead, like I've seen in photos of this ship.

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Carl, I would make them as you have, since making those ammo clippers would be a dreadful task!
It's a very clever way, but you can also leave some without the ammo to show the detail (you can use some paper tissue to simulate the unfolded canvas)

Also a note on the Tamiya Ocean effect plate... it is suitable for 700th ships - I think that it was created with this in mind (could it??)

Rui

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Looks good Carl, but I would put four PT-Boats on the mother ship and one approaching (where you placed it), but coming from the other side (in the opposite direction from Oyster Bay)

Riu

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Very good point! I only have the four boats to play with right now. From what I can remember from my research, MTB Ron 33 had 8 boats in it during Leyte Gulf operations, but they lost one, thus I'm thinking 7 boats for my dio.

It has been a process of elimination in my search to find squadron info and units in the squadrons during this time frame, and which one(s) the Oyster Bay tended to. It is from this process of elimination from info on the other three AGPs and the squadrons that they tended to during this time frame (Wachapregue and Willoughby and Mobjack) that has lead me to depict MTB Ron 33 in my diorama.

Hi Carl!

Yes, I like the Liquitex experimentation! Particularly (I know it's hard to see) on the already dry, or almost image!
It can make some interesting small wakes and disturbance on the sea/water surface

I don't know if it is possible, but since this is a "test sea-bed", could you build up layers of Liquitex near the PT-Boat bow and stern?

Keep on the Good Work
Rui