I have built many 1/700 scale waterline ships but have never done them in a diorama. I'm mainly interested in just a water display and was wondering what is the best methods and products?

For a simple water base I am great fan of the crumpled tin foil method. It has the advantages of being quick, simple & cheap. The major disadvantages are limited ability to show rough seas, and sculpting in general.

my method, get a peice of kitchen foil larger than your base, being lazy I make sure I can wrap it round the edges, saves masking. crumple it between my fingers (don't roll it into a ball, you won't untangle it without tearing). Attach it to the base shiny side up, cyno round the edges & under where the model will be & white glue all over the rest of the base.

Spray it with any blueish / greyish / greenish colour depending on where in the world. Attach the model to the base, a couple of lengths of brass rod, or even screws for a heavy resin kit are a good idea. pain the wake with a stiff flat brush, you do want to leave brush marks, this helps to give the wake texture. paint on alayer of clear / bluey / greeny sea (I use a mix of tamiya clear acrylics.
Add another layer of wake, leaving some of the previous layer of waye visible through the clear. keep going wake / sea / wake until you are happy with the effect. I usualy find abt 3-4 layers of clear sea clolour interspered with white for the wake gives enough depth, works well in 1/700 and even 1/350.



HMS Conn in calm waters at slow speed, the effect of the wake was accentuated by gluing scrap plastic rod to the base before covering it



HMS Starling under way.

Apologies for the quality of the pics, but all I have to hand at the moment

Si

Hi Mike, here at MSW you will find in our Features Department, some great methods for making water...I'm always adding new methods for achieving the effect (currently working on another GREAT method article to add as well!) and honestly, it all depends on the scene that you're wanting to depict (calm water, rough water, various regional areas of oceans, etc.)...so take a look here, mate...

Cheers,
~Gunny

Thanks guys! I have too many ships sitting on a bookshelve and not in their natural habitat. I'm sure I'll screw it up somehow but that's part of the fun. Thanks again!

Making water isn't as hard as people make it out to be. The first time I did it I thought that I wouldn't do a nice job and would have to do it several times to do an acceptable dio, but it worked out quite well. I use celluclay, a mixure of green and blues, a layer of acrylic gel, and you're done. If you want any more info give me an email at [email protected]. You can see some pics of my water dios at njipms.org. They are under the Mosquitocon tab. I won third place/ best out of box in the subs category with my DKM U-boat Type VII which was my first attempt at making a water dio. I also got third place with my 1/700 King George V.