Trumpeter's HMS Naiad in 1:350 scale

Treehugger
I already have so many work-in-progress stuff going on, but I need to finish this smaller project to get to try out making custom railings with wire and styrene, instead of doing that on that other heavy cruiser build from before with the USS Guam. Re. the Guam kit, to try re-work all that photo etch railings was a big mistake, just too much work and probably much harder to align than individual pins togehter with wiring for the deck railing.

The 3d printed turrets w. barrels really look nice, however I also have metal barrels in stock. I will try drilling out just a couple of mm's deeper and see if that works out, if it fails I will have to cut off the resin barrels and add the metal barrels. If I end up using the metal barrels, I must remember to make a "jig" to get the barrel alignment as good as possible without the barrels looking weird "not looking straight".

Hmm, maybe the ship ought to be less angled in the photo there? Not parallel with the "white" edges, but not as angled as this I think. Thinking about this now, I think an "angled" ship is all wrong with the mood of the still water, and I will straighten the model a little to avoid the obvious diagonal angle of the hull there in photo #01.

Not sure if I have larger "isopor" material around, will have to look. I just thought, this might work ok, to draw attention to the model itself, and not end up with a large ocean surface acting as a frame.

A photographer once wrote: "Frame what you love" I think what he meant was, to not add other things into the frame other than the stuff you like/love. A "closer framing" I think is also more "intimate and works better, and also makes the model seem taller as opposed to flat.

Hm, I forgot to think about maaaybe having additional models in the ocean. I do have a tug boat of the same era, I could use that. 🙂

Jörg Schäfer
Interesting, I'll stick with it.

Matti Thomaes
Interesting technique, following with interest. I also used aluminium foil when I made the seascape for my Tashkent, Soviet destroyer, but the way you are doing it is new to me.

Treehugger
Not sure what to expect. A danger here is the foil is so mallable, any accidental denting has to be smoothened out. Should "stabilize" after a few layers of paint and goo hopefully. Hm, if I keep adding goo on top, the goo will flatten and work the opposite way of shaping waves. Might have to just create a glaze close to the foil surface and not fill up with gransparent goo.

Although I have this "isopor" plate ready, I might add black cardboard ontop, as a base for the foil, then add paint on top of that and hopefully some water goo. Probably not a good idea adding too much transparent goo on top of this alu foil as it might look weird perhaps when the foil isn't at the very top of the surface anymore if adding too much transparent goo, unsure.

In computer 3d modeling, there are tools for modeling realistic water waves, but that is too complicated for physical models, unless somehow one starts carving out large waves, then smaller waves and ever smaller waves again, and somehow end up with a nice looking result. Ofc, here there just wouldn't be big waves at all, just smaller waves that slosh around, which is what the steel ball is for.

Steven Van Dyck
Nice project. I once used alufoil too for a 1/700 dio, Operation Torch | Project by StevenVD (1:700) . I found out that if I covered it in Stillwater, I could use water paints on that. But the end result remained quite metallic.

I've read books that described placing ships oblique in a frame as an error, trapping the ship in an undersized frame, so do this only if there is ample space for the bow.

Treehugger
Right, I personally think however that tallness of the model with counter will dominate anyway. Heh, I am willing to risk it. 🙂 Also the ship will be at anchor, so not moving, which works in my favor I think.

Ingmar Stöhr
As I will also soon face the cahllenge of creating a nice seascape, I will be following your approach.

Treehugger
I have some difficulty gluing the foil to the paper (dries, but then comes loose when bumping it with the steel ball bearing), which is problematic if the foil comes loose. Seems to me that, I might as well try dent the black cardboard directly, and leave out the problematic foil.

Ingmar Stöhr
Hm, Just some random thoughts:
There are special boards that are cardboard-foam-cardbord. They have very smooth surface, and having the foam inside you might be able to dent them.

Treehugger
Btw, photo #8 only shows the rough state of the base, it really needs additional cutting and cleanup. I had to glue on the bottom plate and see if that made the whole thing flat.

Heh, I have already emptied one of my stick glue pens. Not much glue in them it seems.

Because the ship's hull just sits there inside a carved out space, there's nothing between the model and the foam surface, a 1mm gap all around. Not quite sure how to deal with that. I don't really have any soft clay to work with. I could fill in with vallejo putty, but I would have to finish the model first and then carefully add putty and also airbrush the last part of the ocean surface around the hull. *shrugs*

I do have clay, but meh it feels a bit hard to work with. Not like I can just press the model onto the clay and make a nice imprint.

Update: Later today, I found some kids soft clay in the food store and will try adding that to the base to close the gap between the water color paper and the plastic ship model's hull. Says it hardenes in 2-12 hours and can be made moist with water first.

Treehugger
Word of warning: If using such a foam material, better make sure the whole plate has an even thickness. This I used, somehow.. did not have uniform thickness to it. The other foamly plates I have, do seem to be entirely flat, but sadly not the one I picked earlier. I had to pick this I used, because it was the only one I had with a certain thickness that fit the project. I corrected for the uneven surface, with pressure, but it ended up creating a non flat base. It is fixable, but I will have to go find some flat hard material that doesn't flex much, like metal or wood. I think maybe all those books I used for weight waiting for the glue to dry, somehow created a bend as well, not entirely sure why I have a slight bend at the center at the bottom.

Ingmar Stöhr
If you cover a plate with a material which shrinks or expand while drying, or when humidity changes... This can always result in a bend to the whole assembly. A friend of mine encountered this in an extreme form, when he used some children's air drying clay on a foam board. This is the reason why I try to use special epoxy clay, with very low to nearly no shrinkage.

Treehugger
Update; In photo #13 the stand is basically done except for colors/more paint and the filling required between the hull and the gaps around the hull in the hole in the stand.
I like how adding the additional 4mm acrylic plate, added the extra height to lift the keel of the ship higher than the table surface, even though the keel isn't visible per se, makes the ship look like it floats better I think, no longer parallel with the table surface like before.