mikegr

In struggling to find the right balance between ice and snow I came up with the following idea.

Big ice blocks are pure white. These are the first to be placed. So I did. I've block placed and polyester poured around them. A bit tricky as this material is thicker and less self leveling than epoxy so I need to work with brush. Some less thick pieces where soaked a bit and turned greenish, a quite natural effect.

Then I put the smaller ones. As my hands get sticky and messy I used pliers. The waxy surface helped, no need to grab them just touch and go

After done with ice blocks I turned to my bottle of mini rocks.l choosing the tiniest ones

It took half evening to fill this amount.

I spread them on a surface and sprinkled them with white, giving the semi transparent effect . There were placed one by one, what a nightmare with sticky hands by I paid the price for being foolish enough not to have gloves or acetone nearby by. But the outcome was positive although there is work to be done yet.

On 1/11/2023 at 8:58 AM, robdurant said:

Really great work. Congratulations! The sea is very convincing, too. Thanks for showing us how you've gone about this build.

1 hour ago, Canute said:

Nicely done. The seascape came out superb.

On 1/11/2023 at 9:06 AM, Wintergreen said:

What robdurant said above, excellent!

Fascinating all the spectrum here on MSW, from this 1:700 up to ships boats in 1:16 or even warships in 1:32 or 1:24.

I'm intrigued to see where you will stage it...

I thank all the members for the encouraging and supporting comments. Promise to come back soon with a new project. Once again thank you very much for your appreciation.

Thanks for the recommendations and support. I will probably must find a way to combine all.

The amount of snow is absolutely a subjective preference.

It can be 0

Or it can be that much that would look unrealistic if there was no real picture to verify it

Anyway. I melted the material above low heat and applied it on plexiglass sprayed with Teflon. Desired thick was approx. 1mm

It was a disaster as it stuck. A flexible base was needed. Retried on a shiny cardboard

It worked. Just to be on safe side transparent primer was used before paint. Then a 3rd attempt  on a thin naylon layer was decided. I was afraid of melting it but I wanted to try for an uknown reason. Could be the instinct of the modeler? Who knows. 

Anyway not only it didn't melt but the naylon base shrunk giving to the material a nice uneven surface effect. Like when strong wind blows during a  snow fall

By simply squeezing gently this wonderful material it gives the real effect of the crushed ice

The more I work with it the more I learn

Gel dried. I  applied some alcydic varnish for extra gloss and a Matt varnish sealed the ship.

Final touch was a helicopter 3d printed which I added photoetched details and a bit of painting with a single hair brush. It is done.

I worked on rear wakes with airbrush, then added white paste near the bow and gel paste right after. Then glazed over with transparent silicone.

Waves were made with snow paste sculptured with toothpick. Waterline gaps filled with cotton soaked in PVA. Sea was covered with gel medium. Once dried it will get transparent and glossy.

While resin is 99% done I did some experiment. 

From top to bottom

Paraffin

Paraffin with PVA and microballoons

Paraffin with white spray paint.

What do you think? I think microballoons won again. The of them applied the more ice turn into snow

1 hour ago, ccoyle said:

Looks just like murky bay water.

This can be fixed later. I can brighten it up. Almost to a drinkable state😁

Thanks all the members for likes and comments.

I came now to the point of no return. Once resin poured in there won't be much space for corrections. 

Paraffin has a melting point 45 to 65 degrees. To reduce the possibility of accident I will use polyester instead of fast curing resin with 2% catalyst.  The greenish color of it will also match the seabed. There will be two layers , a basic one, then ice block formation, then the top layer, hopefully to create an -ice sinking effect-. 

After leveling the surface I put it on wood blocks to avoid sticking with the workbench due to excess resin leftovers. I calculate the amount of catalyst and wrote it down on the upper right of the base. Only Typhoon and dock will be glued now cause of higher depth, others before the Fina layer

Right after the process i covered the whole thing with a pan to protect it from dust.

After 5 hours I removed to see the result

Low temperature and reduced catalyst didn't allow resin to cure completely.

I will cover it again and let it rest overnight. If its still soft in the morning I will have to increase catalyst amount in the next final stage.

On 1/3/2023 at 2:23 AM, king derelict said:

Its starting to come together really nicely

Alan

Thanks for supporting this project Alan.

On 1/1/2023 at 5:53 PM, Wintergreen said:

Happy new years mike!

Just scrolled through your log and even if it is not my cup of tea, so to speak, the build is still very impressive!

Amazing in all its littleness 😄

Happy new year to you and your family as well.

This is the first project of a 1/700 building series, a bit unusual scale for scratch built which can't be compared to the amazing builts presented in this section, but still has its beauty.

Anyway added some final details, rigging, flags etc.

The 527 number is also homemade, if you want to know how just watch this kind lady at 2:40

Now let's see if a simple sea base can look as good as a more complicated one

I took a piece of water ripples transparent sheet and glued to a wood base. The first attempt with Titebond failed then I used adhesive glue and worked

After priming the naylon surface I sprayed it with dark ocean blue

Next phase was the painting of the sea bed. Boring to deal with airbrush I mixed dark ocean blue with green at 1 to 1.5 ratio. Took a piece of sponge, dipped in, then used it to paint the base. Sencond attempt with reversed paint ratio. Finally some brush work to fill in white gaps. Since most area would be covered by ice such a procedure is too much but I was in the need to experiment as always and see how it looks.

For the ice formation I got i some other materials except those in hand.

A block of paraffin. With icy semitransparentcolor plus some white paint may give a realistic look.

Ice flakes.  Not sure if I use them, will see.

Finally while its Christmas and stores are loaded I accidentally found this on a nearby toy store: ice rocks. For a 1,5 euros a pound it was an easy choice.

Perhaps I may have stacked up materials for all my icy dioramas in the future. Perhaps not.

A last 2021 update.

I finish the main mast while added the rear radar. Added antennas, handrails and few other. Tomorrow will finish and start rigging. Happy new year to all

Α small update on the main mast as the last part was added. In a larger scale it could be a model its self with such complexity. In 1/700 is much simpler. I need to add the main radar. The most similar item in my stash is the SPS 40 but proved too big to fit on the platform. So I look for alternative.

A shot with a Typhoon class sub. This is in 1/950

Once again thanks for the support on this tiny unfamous project.

1 hour ago, ccoyle said:

Such an interesting contrast seeing your snowy diorama out on your sunny balcony!

Thankfully It didn't melt.

You made my thumb pain.

Too many likes

Santa Claus came and brought me a finished hull. I contribute a bit too.

After 3 bottles of primer the salvaged hull is saved. Its not going to be perfect neither the model will be any away. 

Thanks for the likes and comments

I did some work on the last submarine, bit of paint then a layer of PVA plus microballoons on top. A comparison along with my almost finished 1/700 frigate. Then I did a test fitting

I thank all members for the encouraging comments and likes. Therefore I decided to step up with the details.

Radar base and mast is not the only addition. I also printed and fitted some air vents especially at the bow. 2mm in height each, you can see at the building plate along with radar parts and some test print life rings in 1/350.

On 12/25/2022 at 9:28 PM, KeithAug said:

Amazing job

Thanks. Good to receive compliments from a master.

 While looking for the mast , railings were done and I printed some life ring which were put in place

I put some white paint in most areas then PVA glue then microballoon sprinkle. There should be a machine that could spread it evenly like the one they use to coat with grass, train layouts. 

Today its a shiny Christmas day with 18 celcius so i took some pics on the balcony on shadow and on sunlight

Those night time pics looks awful.

I take some on daylight tomorrow.

The hangar roofs needs to be smoothen as nobody steps on there.

Thanks for the encouraging comments and likes. I need to experiment a lot because it is the same materials that will be used for making sea waves.

I decided to add some motion but figures at that scale is out of question. So I added some vehicles. A light coat of gel was given, then microballoons sprinkled over , thicker in some places, less in other. A bit of white glitters added, I like the shinny effect on light.

Some putty on the base to fill a gap.

Gel is not dried yet but I couldn't wait for tomorrow pics were taken today.

I almost done railings today. More work than I estimated. Fortunately there won't be any in my next project. After installing them I had to check carefully for shiny brass spots and repaint them over with tiny brush.

I also printed the rear type 517 radar but it will be placed upon completion since it looks quite fragile.

Apart from some minor paint improvement with 000 brush the progress of the day was the addition of  barrel liferafts and the stairs behind the superstructure.