Greetings Shipwrights,

I completed this build/scene for the AFV campaign on Armorama and as I was the only ship builder in that group build, I wanted to represent on this forum as well.

This was my first scene, use of water and other such extras. The kit was the AFV/Academy 1/350 Type B I-58 with Kamikaze Torpedoes. It has PE railings and wood deck which was fun (also a first for me). This was a good learning piece for me to inspire and build confidence. It came out much better than I expected.







If there is demand I can post the whole build story,

Cheers,
Bryan

Yes, please!

I second that.

Ahoy Bryan,

Excellent little diorama! Super work on that submarine.

Cheers,
Joe

Beautiful presentation! I vote yes, and recommend submitting it as a feature.🍺

—mike

Hey Bryan!

good to see you back on the salty side-would be great to see the build story!

Of course, it would be great to see the whole story, especially the part regarding the water...

I present for your viewing pleasure

AFV's IJN Type-B I-58 Submarine: PART I

Shot of the kit, it came with the Indianapolis which was supposed to have been built as part of the Cruisers Campaign. Anyway its the AFV kit, wood deck and a little bit of PE. Its huge in submarine standards. Overall a simple kit.





The plan was to make a quite scene for this infamous ship setting to sea for one last great kill. Because of the size of the ship the land:sea:ship ratio meant that the land had to be very small and the water look very deep so I went for a "channel between islands" idea that would explain the scene.

Originally it was supposed to be a lighthouse but Japanese lighthouses from that era didnt strike my fancy and scratch building one didn't seem very much fun, so I went for a forgotten guard tower at the far end of the port and a little guard shack.


Before anything else I wanted to try the water on foam board technique. I bought some little pieces and cheap acrylics. I painted the water/beech and land using a sponge to make the greenery. Water was made with silicon as follows:
1. Apply silicon
2. Smooth with popsicle stick to even layer
3. Hit with plastic spook to make ripples/waves, for smoother waves, getting some water on the spoon helped
4. Wait 24 hours
5. Apply more silicon for waves
6. Wait 24 hours
7. Dry brush white as needed, more on the breaking waves, less on normal sea

You can find a great tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFOpc8Q6a7M
Thanks to Mr. Akademee for this easy to follow video series on the subject

I added some real rocks to see the effect:


Finally I decided that this scene needed palm trees so I thought up a funny way to make them: wire and a paper leaf twisted together. I did some research to get some dimensions.



PART II of the story Tomorrow,
Bryan

AFV's IJN Type-B I-58 Submarine: PART II

Now that I had a plan, I started to map out the whole foam base of scene. I was really in the mood for the scene and neglected the ship building almost completely, only water lining the hull so I could measure the cut in the foam. I immediately started scratch building some of the little components for the land section, using the trees and a scale calculator I made some slightly over sized little pieces for our beech. These pieces are made from very thin plastic stock, stretched sprue and some 0.5 cm tube stock. The roof of the house is tissue paper. On the house you can see where the masking tape was left on to give some texture to the plastic.

The method I use for these little scratch-builds is to put the tape directly onto the plastic stock sheet. Then I measure and draw the pieces onto the tape and then cut through the tape to the plastic. Works pretty well to this point.

Completed fishing boat based on pics of "traditional Japanese fishing boat".
Completed guard tower with radio antenna
Completed beech hut on stilts
Completed dock for the fishing boat


Water lining the lower hull. I decided to keep much of the hull as I wanted some of the anti fowling coated part of the hull to be visible in the bow waves. I used a blade clamped to the desk to cut the hull. I added some sprue pieces as bulkheads to help the waterlined part of the hull keep its shape (i did this before cutting).


At the same time I had started working on the foam base. First I drew the plan using the waterlined hull as a guide. I researched bow waves very much and eventually on the pine tree look you see in the picture. The space between the lines would be lower. I sanded the foam board to make a 3d look, expose some of the lower hull and make the ship look like its moving.



I used red marker to color "Low" points in the foam, and then used sand paper wrapped around an empty toilet paper roll to get a smooth round sanding finish. I repeated this many many times until the beech, bow waves and wake were a little bit higher than the smooth water. You can see the effect in the waterline collage.

Thats it for today,
Stay tuned for PART III and thanks for watching,
Bryan

Nice work on the palms, Bryan - they really enhance the tropical feel of the scene.

AFV's IJN Type-B I-58 Submarine: PART III

Once the base had been sanded down, and the apartment thoroughly vacuumed, I moved back to the plastic to advance the submarine. The building was very straight forward. Only 1 scratch built piece, the frame around the upper rudder structure. Just a little filler and this thing is ready for a coat of paint.



Painting was accomplished in a method similar to a AFV, primer, heavy preshading and then base colors, Vallejo light grey and some weird mix of red and brown for the lower hull. I also painted the plaque in Imperial colors. I didn't yet know what to do with it but I wanted to add it to the scene some how. This was brush painted, so easy with Vallejo.



Setting the plastic to dry, I turned to the base coat of the whole scene. Cheap acrylics: blue, yellow green, white, charcoal, brown and green. Lots of mixing, blending and colors that I could never reproduce. I was going for this kind of look with the water.



But the water had to look deep or else how could we explain that the ship is so close to shore. The sub is HUGE. So there is a quick transition from blue water to coastal water to beech. Rocks were collected from the local rock climbing wall, washed and glued into the foam after digging out a trench.



Thats it for this update. In PART IV we will finish up this project.

As usual thanks for stopping by,
Bryan

Very creative use of the rock climbing wall "rocks" Bryan.

Look forward to part IV!

AFV's IJN Type-B I-58 Submarine: PART IV

Last stage of this project, finishing the ship, attaching it to the base, adding grass (sponge soaked in green paint and then torn up using a saw blade) to the beech as well as the buildings, dock/boat, walkway and palm trees. White paint was dry brushed onto the water, bow splash and waves to give it some life. Also if you look close there is a close line with some clothes.

Conning tower ready for command:


Finished Sub:


All Done:






Thanks for stopping by,
Bryan

A great little sbs on your Diorama, Bryan-thanks for sharing!