Hi Toby,

Great display idea, must admit I have got very lazy about of late, with full hull kits.

Following with interest and hoping for inspiration.

Cheers,

Si

Hi,

I've started the sea sculpture by initially building up the height with polystyrene tiles. I have made it difficult for myself by having made the kit and thus ending up measuring and guessing the correct waterline shape. I'm not too bothered if it's a bit out as I can use the cotton pieces that make the waves to cover it up. I've also overlapped the paper towel pieces to make it look better.

Here's the first picture of the carved out polystyrene tiles without and then with the ship. I'll fix the ship to a piece of polystyrene tile using plastic rod. That way I can remove the ship when I need to.







The next photos show the Oatbran added and glued on. I found this a particularly interesting way of making the sea. On the one hand it does make a very good undulating sea. However, conversely it's a nightmare to glue (I used very watered down PVA as CA was too expensive in the amounts needed) and took nearly a week to dry. When it did dry, it was cracked everywhere, which did produce some nice undulations, but at the same time did require a lot of the Liquitex Professional Gloss Fluid Medium & Varnish.





On top of the Liquitex I added 1" square pieces of paper towel and brushed more Liquitex over the top. It may sound daft but you need to make sure the paper towel squares go on without creasing otherwise you'll have a crease in your sea!! This dries to a nice hard surface, but I was unsure how well this would take the sanding that was coming next. There also appeared to be lots of little ripples where the paper towel had expanded as it was covered in the Liquitex. Because I wasn't happy with this I have put a second layer of Liquitex over the pictures below. Once its dry I'll take some photos, although you may not be able to tell the difference and thus it might be pointless posting them!! Anyway here are the two photos from last night....





Hope this helps explain the technique a little. Any questions, please ask.

Toby

Go Toby!

great progress!

Thanks Russell. Another quick update tonight as I've put a coat of paint over it to see how it actually looks. Not too impressed and I think it needs another coat of paper towel and varnish before I start sanding.

Hi Toby,

that looks really good to me!!

I have to admit, I never tried my hands on a dio - but the way you are doing it. full hull and the diorama in a way that you can take the ship out, thats pretty cool.

Your progress on the water surface looks very nice to me, I would think with the proper colors on, it should look pretty realistic! And thanks for showing how exactly you did this!!

Cheers ,

Jan

Hi,

Unfortunately I'm having to admit defeat with the sea diorama. It was too difficult to carve out the correct shape and there were huge gaps at the rear that wouldn't have looked right. As a result, HMS Westminster will remain mounted on her stand. However, the sea diorama will be used with my LCVP, which is squarer in shape and is thus easier to carve. The gap at the rear can then be easily covered up with churning water. If anyone's interested I'll link the new blog into this one, as this one is now finished.

Never defeat!! Just another way maybe not to do it is all! Looking forward to seeing you progress with the dio on the LCVP!! Bring it on!!