Omami is a Japanese modeller and webmaster
of the J-Model
Works site. For publication in IPMS Stockholm magazine the original
article from Omami's site has been expanded and refined (Ed.)
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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.
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.
In-progress photos, click to enlarge
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.
 
In-progress photos, click to enlarge
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.
 
In-progress photos, click to enlarge
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.
 
In-progress photos, click to enlarge
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.
 
In-progress photos, click to enlarge
The following photo shows the completed waterline of Kaga, with
in-progress waterline of Akagi in the background.
Step 3: The wake
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.
In-progress photos, click to enlarge
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.
In-progress photos, click to enlarge
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:
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.
 I use Loquitex
acrylic soft type artists' colours. Loquitex acrylics are very suitable
for the purpose because they retain a rich "moistened" look
when dry. The colours I used for the Kaga/Akagi base were Titanium White, Phthalocyanine
Blue and Emerald Green.
Another principal decision was the choice of a brush rather than
airbrush. Brush painting is able to produce colour depth which is
simply unobtainable by airbrush application - a fact well known to
figure builders.
For the base colour of the Carrier Division base I used a mixture of
Phthalocyanine
Blue and Emerald Green. The colours were applied by
brush and mixed directly on the surface of the base to create uneven
rather than uniform colour.
 
In-progress photos, click to enlarge
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.
Step 5. Finishing
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).
In-progress photos, click to enlarge
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!
More photos, click to enlarge
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Realistic
Sea Bases
