All of these should be available at your local hobby or craft store.
Begin by masking off the bases borders. I like to use 4 or 5 layers of tape for this-that builds up a depth for the waves. Mix some celluclay with elmers glue and water until it's got the consistency of tuna salad. Using a fork spread the mixture out on the base-layering it thicker where the waves are going to be. I usually have my waves running in a diagonal pattern across the base. You should have some idea beforehand of where your ship will be positioned and how you'd like your waves to look. For waterline models you can have the ship down a bit at the bow or stern and for full hull kits you may choose to have the bottom of the hull exposed through a wave either at the bow or stern. It's a good idea to have the base started before the ship so that you can use the hull to set the position then wash off any celluclay residue.
Now that you have the celluclay spread on the base and your waves built up you need to smooth everything out-I like to use an artists pallet knife. Just smooth over the fork marks as if your putting icing on a cake. The good thing about celluclay or paper mache is that it has a texture that lends itself well to resembling water.
So now you have your base covered in waves, you have an idea of where your ship is going to go. Now it's time to squash your ship into the waves where you'd like it to be. Take the hull and press it into the wet base where you want it to be. Now you can work on the waves as they meet the side of the ship and as the ship goes through them. Then remove the hull carefully by wiggling it a bit until it comes free-rinse it off removing any celluclay residue. Set your base aside to dry.
Now you can build your ship.
It may take a few days for the base to dry. Once it's dry you can paint it the color of your choice-for rough water I prefer a gray/blue/green color. Cover the entire base in this color. Once dry give it a drybrush of white overall.
Now you want to start adding depth. Cover the base with the gloss medium or varnish and let it dry then give it another drybrush of white overall. Repeat this step one more time concentrating the final drybrush on the very top or the waves and drybrush again making the wave tips very white. Add a final covering of gloss.
I like to add my ship before the railing around the main deck is installed and before it's rigged. Due to shrinkage the water will not butt up against the side of your ship as it did when you first set it into the base. Use your acrylic gel medium and fill the recessed area for your ship and set it in place. You can fill any spaces with this material and paint and gloss it to match later.
Look at photos of ships in rough water, videos, study photos of the class ship you're modeling in water. Practice.
For more of Mike's rough water photos please continue below... 作者: fighterplane 時間: 2007-6-19 17:21
作者: fighterplane 時間: 2007-6-19 17:23
作者: fighterplane 時間: 2007-6-19 17:29 標題: Another Japanese Web site for making realiistic sea base
Replicating elements of nature in miniature is one of the more tricky aspects of modelling, requiring not only the "engineering" knowledge of a subject but also a bit of artistic sense.
For ship model builders such as myself, water base can really make or break a good model. In this article I would like to show you how to produce a realistic sea base for ship model, with rough water surface, surf and wake. I have perfected these techniques during my own project of modelling the IJN Task Force, Carrier Division 1. The Task Force consists of the aircraft carriers Kaga and Akagi steaming side-by-side on a single base.
Before we begin, let's consider the qualities of our subject.
Despite of what we all know about water, deep water basins seldom look transparent, especially when seen from a distance. Rather than that, water has colour and forms a glossy, highly reflective surface. These qualities of water are especially appropriate to replicate in scale, particularly when dealing with ship models in smaller scales such as 1/700.
Having performed this most basic analysis, let's move to a step-by-step description of how to produce a convincing sea base. 作者: fighterplane 時間: 2007-6-19 17:30
Step 1: Basics
First you will need to establish the composition and layout of your base. Most of the times this is simple: place the model on the sheet of paper of the same size as the intended base, and outline its hull along the waterline. If you have any other elements such as peers, shoreline etc, trace them on paper, too.
Now comes the fun part: making the sea surface. A piece of kitchen aluminium foil is wrinkled thoroughly, and then stretched on a flat surface. Then, a wooden frame the size of the base is placed on top of it. The frame and the foil together form a mould for the sea surface.
For moulding, I use fine-grade plaster of Paris. It is blended with water as per instructions and poured into the frame. As plaster is quite brittle, I usually reinforce the mould by adding a cotton gauze on top of the poured liquid. Adding an additional layer of plaster over it can help to blended the gauze invisibly into the moulding.
It takes about 30 minutes for the plaster to harden so that it can be removed from the frame. However, it is necessary to wait additional 3 days before it is completely cured. Flipping the mould to its "right" side, you will see the effect that the wrinkled foil had on the surface. It will replicate the multitude of short irregular waves caused by wind blowing over sea surface.
Step 2: Bow wave et al.
Now it is time to replicate the prominent waves caused by the ship's movement in the water: the bow wave, wave pattern along the hull and the wake. These waves can be sculpted from epoxy putty.
The highest white-crested wave will surround the bow, usually with overhang on its top part. To maintain strength, I first model the "body" part of the wave, adding the top 1/3rd only after it has hardened. The shape of the wave is first formed with fingers, then the surface is sculpted using a spatula, see photos below.
The bow wave should be spreading into the fan shape towards the rear. The sides of the hull will also induce smaller waves along its length. It is helpful to draw the wave pattern on the plaster base with a pencil so that you ensure maintaining the uniform (but not symmetrical) look of the waves on both sides of the hull.
These waves can be modelled similarly to the bow wave, using the spatula to create crests and patches of foam. Be careful to work on a small area at a time - once the epoxy putty hardens, it becomes almost impossible to work with.
The wake of the fast-going ship is different from other waves on our base in that it its area will be almost completely covered with white foam. Switching to the ordinary thinner-based modelling putty, I apply a generous coat of it to the area behind the stern, and then mould the wake by poking it with toothpicks. Chances are that the surface structure obtained but this method is too rough, but it is easy to "soften" the effect by brushing thinner over it.
To complete the waves, a coat of Gunze Mr. Surfacer 500 liquid putty is applied in selected areas to smooth out the edges between the epoxy putty and plaster.
作者: fighterplane 時間: 2007-6-19 17:37
Step 4. Painting
First I coat the entire base with white primer. It allows me to discover any remaining joint marks, fingerprints and other blemishes. If found, these are treated with liquid putty. The completed base prior to painting looks like this:
作者: fighterplane 時間: 2007-6-19 17:38
Painting is a tricky problem. Replicating the softness of water in hard material is difficult, and it is all won or lost in the painting phase. Therefore I used to consider my options carefully and test all the steps before applying them "full-scale". For the first attempt, it may be a good idea to produce a scrap plaster base alongside your main project to practice your painting techniques safely.
Painting is a tricky problem. Replicating the softness of water in hard material is difficult, and it is all won or lost in the painting phase. Therefore I used to consider my options carefully and test all the steps before applying them "full-scale". For the first attempt, it may be a good idea to produce a scrap plaster base alongside your main project to practice your painting techniques safely.
作者: fighterplane 時間: 2007-6-19 17:39
After covering the entire base, I returned to selected spots with more contrasting tones to add depth. First I went through trough (lowest) spots with the darker tone of blue. Then the wave crests were brushed with progressively brighter shades, creating gentle gradation of colour from dark to light.
Loquitex acrylics dry to a matt finish, which is inappropriate for the glossy sea surface. Therefore the entire base was spray-painted with gloss clear varnish at this point.
At this point your sea should already look quite convincing . But bear with me, it can be made so much better by adding the final step - painting of the wave crests. It does just as much to enliven the sea surface as "weathering" does to models in general.
The idea is to suggest patches of white foam at the wave crests, and this is best done with dry-brushing. You should start with a mixture of your base colour and white, and progressively add more white in the consecutive dry-brushing passes. I have used four different shades for my base shown here. The result after the 4th shade of blue is shown on the photo below (to the left).
作者: fighterplane 時間: 2007-6-19 17:40
The last touch is the application of pure Titanium White on the brim of each wave. You should take care to vary the quantity of white depending on the size of each wave - the largest ones with pronounced brims should get more foam than the smaller waves. The effect is shown on the right photograph.
The massive amounts of white foam in the wake area should be emphasized even more. My method is to coat the wake area with diluted white glue and then sprinkle on the white snow powder used for diorama models.
Another few coats of clear gloss varnish and the base is finished. The complete item is shown below, with pre-drilled holes for screws attaching the models. I hope that you will agree that the result is a quite realistic rendition of an open sea swept by keen wind!
作者: fighterplane 時間: 2007-6-19 17:41
作者: dragonman 時間: 2007-6-22 09:31
thank you very much!!! 作者: ssgwingwing 時間: 2007-7-6 21:44
great! very good! thank you very much 作者: moxfactor 時間: 2007-7-7 00:17
啲海浪做到真既一樣啊
,但兩條船和"水"的制作則頗有水準