Russian Naval Base by mikegr - 1/950 - 3D-printing - DIORAMA

[mikegr]

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

[Old Collingwood]

Looks excellent.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

The snow and ice effects look very realistic; especially when the sun catches it.

Alan

[mikegr]

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

[ccoyle]

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

[mikegr]

1 hour ago, ccoyle said:

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

Thankfully It didn't melt.

[mikegr]

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.

 

[king derelict]

Its starting to come together really nicely

Alan

[mikegr]

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.

 

[mikegr]

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.

 

 

[ccoyle]

Looks just like murky bay water.

[knightyo]

Wow! That water turned out great!

 

Alan

[mikegr]

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😁

[mikegr]

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

[king derelict]

The micro balloons are great but I also like the paraffin with white spray as a piece of floating ice with snow or frost on it

Alan

[mtaylor]

I go along with Alan.  Mix and match as needed.

[Canute]

I'll go along with using both in different parts of your diorama, The third floe definitely looks like the real ones.

[mikegr]

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

[king derelict]

Mike

That looks really good I feel like I want to make a frozen sea diorama

Alan

[Old Collingwood]

On 1/11/2023 at 10:14 PM, king derelict said:

Mike

That looks really good I feel like I want to make a frozen sea diorama

Alan

A sinking  Titanic  with  Ice Burges.......

 

OC.

[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.

 

[mikegr]

Had a partial failure yesterday. By the time small rocks were put into place, resin has mostly dried. Overconfidence and wrong planning led me to higher dosage of catalyst which dried mixture by 80% in 40 minutes. I tried to reduce them used dremel tool. Some were removed. But after using two pieces of sanding bits effects were minimal. It is the point of no return like I said previously.

I poured some PVA across the dock and surrounding the Typhoon and glued thin and long paraffin pieces which were squizzed with a spatula to get a whitish effect. The target was to achieve a good accumulation of snow around the sub to look like it was immobilized for long time.

Airbrush white gave the fog effect along with microballoons sprinkles mostly around typhoon and close to dock.

[yvesvidal]

WOW!!! What a harsh winter.

 

Yves

[king derelict]

Mike

The ice effects are spectacular. The used of different media really enhances the look

Alan

[RGL]

Well done mate! I’m tempted to do a US Carrier will all the aircraft on deck under snow too! 

[Old Collingwood]

That  looks  so  good   -   the  different  sizes  of Ice  makes it look so  realistic.

 

OC.

[mikegr]

On 1/14/2023 at 9:42 PM, yvesvidal said:

WOW!!! What a harsh winter.

 

Yves

Indeed 

But for some people is just another day  on ice😁

On 1/15/2023 at 2:23 AM, king derelict said:

Mike

The ice effects are spectacular. The used of different media really enhances the look

Alan

thank you for supporting my theme as always

On 1/15/2023 at 8:31 AM, RGL said:

Well done mate! I’m tempted to do a US Carrier will all the aircraft on deck under snow too! 

I guess if I triggered motivation that means the project is successful regardless optical outcome.

On 1/16/2023 at 8:34 PM, Old Collingwood said:

That  looks  so  good   -   the  different  sizes  of Ice  makes it look so  realistic.

 

OC.

thanks for the likes and support.

[mikegr]