king derelict

The boxes are just to yield pieces of flat card. Sorry I’m still half asleep

OC. I was wondering if you had some old cardboard boxes that you could cut up to create the contours of the rising ground. Then use strips of old newspapers/ free newspapers/ junk mail (just avoid the glossy paper) laid on with diluted white glue to get the final smooth shapes. Maybe a final layer of typing paper to get a clean surface if you want to paint on it. Yep,, old school (literally, I remember doing this at school sixty years ago). It’s papier-mâché as suggested above. The thickness of the card is probably not critical so you could use whatever you have on hand. Good luck. The scene is developing wonderfully alan

Hi Mike Curiously I had reached the same conclusion and ordered some Woodlands Scenic snow powder. I think I need to boost the white on the wave caps and spray and I want something a bit more dimensional than paint. I have the Vallejo Foam and snow stuff but (I'm probably using it wrong) that just seems like fairly thick white paint. Thanks for the tip about adding white to the areas around the foam. I think with guidance, I'm getting somewhere. Alan

Beautiful detailing work Dan. It looks great Alan

Thank you very much EG. Copperheads were a new term to me and several Google pages about snakes didn't help much but a belated guess got me a bottle ordered with the wet palette. Thats a great help Alan

Thats encouraging. I anticipate plenty of arm exercise shaking them. They seem to need a serious agitation to get a good consistency Alan

Thanks Jack. I was planning on using Vallejo Acrylics. I already have a set and they seem to have the colours I need. I was reading up on figure painting and decided I needed a wet palette. I think I might be able to slide into Michaels before I head to work tomorrow. Thanks for the tip. Much appreciated Alan

I've always liked the 19th century Indian Army units. Flashman and all that but they do have an air of romance about them. They seem a bit underrepresented in the model world. I missed the Art Girona guides figures; they look great but expensive. I'll see how much I bodge the Yellow Boy first. An uncle had a squadron of Indian lancer lead soldiers with pivoting arms when i was a kid. I wonder what happened to them Alan

Thank you OC. The last and most difficult bit coming up - the bursting wave. I think I am going to retreat a bit and get the two Flowers moved along a bit first. I think one of them will need to be fixed in place for the final bits. So far its turning out better than I hoped and I am continuing to learn Alan

Thank you James, Its not a (teddy bears) picnic Alan

Lovely ships in an effective setting Alan

Great haul Mike, Looking forward to more excellent builds Alan

Thank you Bob. Thats another great tip which I will definitely try. Reviews are generally positive. it looks like it pays to think a bit laterally instead of just jumping to the model supplier. Alan

Thank you Jack. The vice was a great suggestion (and its legal) Alan

Thank you very much OC. here's hoping this will continue well. Alan

Looking very nice OC. The mucky whitewashed walls are excellent Alan

Absolutely spectacular. Congratulations on a wonderful creation. I thoroughly enjoyed the build log and it has been a great teaching opportunity. I learnt a lot of techniques that I hope I will be brave enough to try in the future. Alan

A bit of time today so I watched the Night Shift video about the glazing painting technique then fired up the air brush. I'm not sure how well this has come out; maybe not enough white on the Yellow Boy and too much on Nabopolassar? We shall see. 000 size brushes on order hopefully getting some time to start painting this week. The universal clamp works well for holding the figure. Thanks @Jack12477 for the suggestion. The one from Micromark arrived yesterday and to my eye is identical to the one from Walmart. Well spotted @Bob Cleek. The Micromark one is a universal clamp for modelers; the Walmart one is for jewelry makes. Stick it to the modelers as usual. Its handy having the two; I can just swap the handle between figures to alternate work. Thanks for looking in, the comments and likes Alan

So after the experimentation its time to get the nerve up and start putting some or the results onto the seascape. I used the teddy bear material and worked it into the wave crests and wakes using diluted white glue. It seemed to work better than gloss medium. This is the first pass. It looks a bit overdone but thats becuase the glue is still drying and makes everything look whiter After drying it tones down a bit And with long suffering Zinnia This will be tidied up and then the bursting wave will be added. So far it looks as if I can do most of the seascape without irretrievably installing the ship which will help with morale. So far I am happy with the progress and no teddy bears have been hurt in the process Thanks for looking in and for the likes and comments Alan

Mike You are so right. I'm not sure I am up to it but I want to give it a try. At least the corvette is a manageable size to mess about with. Alan

The deck looks very good. I would think the exterior of a submarine is a nasty environment. Your model is coming along very nicely. Alan

OC, you are right. Smoke, explosions, water spray are all exceptionally difficult - at least to me. So far I like this polyester material, it has a bit more strength to the fibres so it can be used in thinner more diaphanous (oooh errr) pieces which helps with the illusion. Its also not so "hairy". If I have time this weekend I plan to start the webs of bubbles and wave tops and see how it goes. In the worst case ..... I can always stuff a teddy Alan

Just keeps getting better and better OC Alan

Absolutely beautiful!. Congratulations Alan

These 2pm to 2am shifts are really beating me up so not much else is getting done at the moment. Hopefully only another week and then back to something a bit more reasonable I have been using the limited spare time available to experiment with ideas for spray and wave tops. I played with clear silicone sealant but it didn't really dry clear and was hard to work. I had read that it could be diluted to a jelly consistency with IPA but mine didn't seem to do that. I tried Lexel clear sealant which does dry crystal clear and glossy but didn't really provide any better options for the seascape. Next up was gloss medium mixed with micro balloons. The micro balloons gave the medium a white colouring and stiffness to create dimensional wave tops. Curiously it dried matt. Initially I thought this might be the way forward but looking at the results for a few days I am not so sure. Then I tried cotton wool teased apart and coated with dilute white glue. This provides something that can be worked with a brush into approximate shapes and further moulded by hand as it dries. I think it might be possible to make candidate shapes on a temporary base and transfer to the diorama for final shaping and installation when dry. That would avoid getting medium all over places it shouldn't be. The following photos show the micro ballons and medium, cotton wool spray and Lexel sealant. More cotton wool experiments looking at creating the skeins of bubbles seen in turbulent water and more spray I like the surface bubble effects. The spray looks promising. Not all results are good but they are quick to create and working off model means the best can be picked. I got some polyester cotton wool material used for stuffing teddy bears and tried that. It is a little stiffer than cotton wool so the results have more depth which I like. It is whiter than the cotton wool and it has a bit of a sparkle to it. I tried spray, bubbles and wave caps and I think with a bit more work they may be the best option Thanks for looking in and likes and comments. Alan