Hr. Ms. Java 1925 by Piet - FINISHED - Pacific Cross Roads - 1:350 - PLASTIC - Light Cruiser of Royal Netherlands Navy as she was in 1942

[Mirabell61]

wonderful work Piet,

 

I know its not easy to model gunsmoke and ships wake, but here you have brought fine action into the scene, well done !

 

Nils

[flying_dutchman2]

Great work, Piet, especially your bow waves. The water looks very realistic. Something I need to learn how to do this as well. 

Marcus 

[Jim Lad]

That shell splash looks very realistic, Piet.

 

John

[Piet]

Good evening everyone and thanks to all for your very encouraging comments, so very much appreciated.  Also thanks to all who clicked the like button.

 

Yes, Lou, I looked at steel wool but the cotton was finer and easier to work with. I think I have come up with a method I think will produce a more realistic smoke.  I wish you good luck with your wife's Titanic, not an easy scale but you'll do okay with it, I'm sure.

 

Hey Mark, good seeing you here again. Yup, I looked into the model railroaders but not much on gunsmoke, just chimney smoke using cotton. Looks good at viewing distance.

 

Hello OC, yes, I looked at those marvelous dioramas of aircraft and tanks exploding, a hard act to follow, especially at my scale of 1:350.

 

Thank you Jud for your very helpful info, looks like you have naval gunnery experience, like Amateur Jan with field artillery.  Now that you mentioned the Japanese used die marker shells I did read about that in the several books I have on the Battle in the Java Sea.  Hmmm, food for though adding some red in one and yellow in the other. I could still make the splashes a little higher too.  All I plan to do with the gun flashes is some red and perhaps light yellow coming out of the barrel.

Yes, they had a fire control system for distance, direction and elevation. As far as I can determine from reading about the actions there were no broadsides.  The photo I posted of "Java" with a broadside was the contest winner's "hurray."

 

Thank you Nils and no, it's rather difficult depicting smoke at this scale but I tried something yesterday and I may be on the right track with that.

 

Thank you Marcus for you kudos. Back from Holland? How was your mother's birthday? All's well over there?

 

Hi John, good to see you again and thanks for your approvals.

 

Hello Lawrence, thank you as well. I think I lucked out with the bow waves, I'm still tweaking them as we speak. After I walk away from it for a day or so and scrutinize it again I find little things to work on.

 

Well, no matter what spray gun I use, the paint still seems to make the cotton smoke look unrealistic enough to keep trying.  This morning I started to pull one of the pre painted funnel smoke pieces apart and made an irregular ball from it.  This seems to come closer to what I think the cordite smoke could look. I have temporarily put them on wooden pins that I cemented to the barrels.  These pins serve as the support as well as painting the gun flash on them.  When I get additional input from the experts, when I get a yay I can cement them to the wooden pins and shape them into some realistic form.

Working with these fluffy balls without support doesn't work too well.

 

Below I post a few pics I took this morning before my dental appointment.

The light above the workbench made the dark grey of the smoke kinda washed out.  The intend is for constructive criticism as far as form and shape. The one on the left still needs a redo.

 

 

Hmmm, the overhead light did cast a nice shadow though.

 

Next is the funnel smoke.

 

Cheers,

[lmagna]

Hi Piet

 

I am kind of partial to the shape and density of the furthest forward gun. In several of your pictures the light makes it look almost translucent, almost as if you can see the gun through the smoke. In those same pictures the other guns look more dense as if they have fired slightly later and the smoke is more condensed. You could use the same effect if you can make less dense balls on purpose to even have other puffs of smoke that are behind the guns as if the have fired and at 30 knots or more have moved out from behind the last shot's smoke. 

[amateur]

Hi Piet,

 

the sea is quite good. The larger bow wave does add to the diorama.

 

Ans as the others said: smoke is getring better and better. I wagerly await the end of your further experiments!

 

jan

 

[jud]

Might try a three color smoke, fresh shot with an orange glowing flash, avoiding the bore shape, it mushroomed and billowed inside the smoke, some off white around and then broken sections of dirty white, bleeding aft, amount of drift depending on the amount of or absence of flash. There was some Flashless Powder for nite time use, even in the 60's when I was a Gunners mate in an 8" turret we never used it in training.

[popeye the sailor]

very hard to do Piet.......very nice progress though     the diorama is looking really good....your improvements made a big difference.

[John Allen]

Piet,

 

I kinda held my breath when you were laying resin around the hull with the plastic wrap covering the hull. I would have ended up with a vessel being mothballed before being scrapped. All very nicely done like the way you attacked the problems Kudos

[Piet]

Thanks again for the input gents, VERY much appreciated.

 

I like your suggestions Jud. I'll give it a bloody go tomorrow. Don't know if I can come close to what I think you have seen in real life.  The only smoke I have seen is when a R-2800 fires up

Hmmm, orange glow inside, light grey and whitish things, sounds really nice but executing it is a whole other thing.

Handsome young man you were, um - - - sorry - are, with a very handsome ship.

 

Between some other chores I have been fiddling with the funnel smoke and getting somewhere with it. A few more tweaks I think.

Well, back to the workbench with some more tweaking on the gunsmoke. 

 

Cheers,

[cog]

Tweakin' Pie ... so far your tweaking has resulted in some great improvements ... I wonder if you will be able to improve on yerself yet again .... a very interesting build it has become ...

[RGL]

I’m loving the water, it’s very much done everywhere now and you’ve got it right. 

[Piet]

Hello Everyone, and thanks for visiting Carl and Greg and your very kind comments.  Also my thanks to all who clicked the like button.

 

I know, it's kinda late for me to be posting a progress report but I just showed Gwen the pics I made this morning. I tweaked some more and mixed some red and yellow paint to put inside the smoke clouds - thanks to Jud's comment.  Gwen really liked the results, even when looking at the model from all angles.  Her reaction was "life like, like it's real."  Coming from her, Mrs. critical observer, is a real compliment.

I haven't glued the smoke to their supports yet so pending on a thumbs up from all of youns I can finally proceed in gluing then down so I can complete with sculpting the smoke a little better. Right now that's practically impossible because they rotate and tend to droop.

This sure was a long and trying process I must say but in the end it didn't come out too shabby.  I also added a few more vertical water spouts on the missed 8 inch shell bursts and the dye.

 

The sea was an experiment for me, never done one before.  I read a lot about the how to's but in the end I went with what was available in the local HobbyLoggy. The material for the waves didn't really satisfy my that much.  I didn't do what the instructions promised it is expected to do but in the end, only thanks to a rater calm sea, it worked out okay. 

In retrospect, I should have used some very thin plastic, like the stuff used in packaging LED lamps, for the bow wave as support. This would have saved me a lot of trouble in trying to make them thin enough and not to droop.  However, they came out okay in the long run.

I may do some more tweaking here and there like adding some more very light green in areas where the sea becomes transparent, but that'll be for later, if at all.

 

This coming week I plan to call a plastics place, www.eplastics.com for material to build the enclosure.  I may also ask them for a price for the O19 enclosure. I may have mentioned on my O19 build log that I planned to make it with a rounded top rather then square.  

 

Okay, here is "Jave" as of this morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

[BenF89]

Holy smokes! (No pun intended) That looks really great- reminds me of the famous picture looking down on the USS Iowa firing a broadside. I agree with your wife- very life like. Nice work!

[mtaylor]

By Jove, I think you've got it!!! Looks super, Piet.   My vote is 

[lmagna]

I'm with Mark

 

I think you have more than achieved your goal She looks very much the fighting lady making the enemy work and worry. I am very glad you were able to fulfill your dream, and thanks for sharing your vision.

[amateur]

Hi Piet,

 

I guess this is the end of your tweaking? Or do you still see room for improvement.

Judging by the pics I think you have nailed it: Ship, water, smoke, action. Great model.

 

Jan

 

 

[cog]

you're tweaked out my friend. a marvelous result.

[Mirabell61]

Stunning work Piet !

 

that approach bow-view with wake, smoke is fantastic ! well done.....

 

Nils

[Omega1234]

Hi Piet

 

I’m catching up...again.  Boy. Oh boy, what a top job you’ve done.  I’ve read everyone’s suggestions, hints and tips with much interest; hoping that one day I could emulate what you’ve done.

 

Having said that, I’m just reflecting on the original reason for doing the model, which was to honour and memorialise your father’s memory.  Without a doubt, Piet, you’ve done him real proud!

 

Congratulations, Piet.  She’s a beautiful ship.

 

Cheers. 

 

Patrick

 

 

[Jack12477]

WOW ! I'm with the others Piet, you really nailed it!  Great looking model/diorama.  Even my wife loves it.

[Canute]

Piet, your work is stunning. A very fitting memorial to your father, his ship and the gallant crew. A double thumbs up!

[John Allen]

You got it enough said

[JesseLee]

I don't even know what to say, WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Jesse

[CDW]

Inspirational work, Piet. Just beautiful.

[Piet]

Hello everyone and wow, I'm overwhelmed by all your kind words, thank you all from the bottom of my heart.  I am very happy to hear your endorsement for me to go ahead and permanently secure the smoke.  I still need to slant them athwart a little to indicate her 29 knot speed. No Jan, there will be no more tweaking, I'm tweaked out   Even though my father hated this tired old rust bucket, this project is not only for him but for all who lost their lives in this struggle. Thanks to one survivor I now I also know how my father died and I have a grave marker too.

Now I'll have to contact the plastic place and see what they can do for me and at what cost.  I'll make a place for the diorama above my drawing table, next to the O19.  When its all done I'll report back with all of you with my final words and pictures.  So, don't go too far away now and forget me, I'll be back.  It's not finished till it's finished.

 

My next project is getting back to the VOC ship Surabaya and my attempt to the 1:3,000 scale Young America.  But first I have to complete two or three paintings to submit to the International Colored Pencil Society of America.  Gwen has also been asking for me to cook dinner more often, so that'll be coming up soon.  She has been very patient and encouraging, knowing how much this model means to me.  I also want to start baking sour dough bread for health reasons and then there is always the outside work to be done.

 

Cheers, 

[BenF89]

5 minutes ago, Piet said:

 I also want to start baking sour dough bread for health reasons and then there is always the outside work to be done.

Wow, sounds like me! We love making sourdough bread, and there IS always outside work to be done!

 

As for the model, I think all the praise is well deserved, and it’s such a meaningful way to honor the memory of your father. Well done  

[Old Collingwood]

Piet,   Superb in every way,     you have made history and woken spirits looking  down on you,   you should be so proud of what you have done.

 

OC.

[Jim Lad]

It just keeps getting better and better, Piet!

 

John

[popeye the sailor]

nailed it!    love the added color.     well done Piet!