HMS Monmouth (F235) by king derelict - Trumpeter - 1/700 - PLASTIC

[Landlubber Mike]

Hey Alan, looking really great!  Lots of fine detail work.  I know what you mean about knocking things off.  I’m considering in upcoming builds attaching a block to the bottom of the hull (for waterline ships) and sticking the whole thing in a vise.  I got two different vises from Dspiae that might help alleviate my problems of knocking things off, etc.  I’ve set the hulls on things like old paint jars and plastic shot glasses, but the set up is not very stable.  In a vise though, it should be a lot better.  The Dspiae ones are a bit pricey, but the vise bases are weighted so they are quite stable.  And, having the whole thing in a stable setup would make attaching parts much easier than laying the model on the bench, holding it in one hand, etc.

 

For seascapes, what I do is before any work is outline on a piece of thin cardboard the waterline of the ship using the top half of the hull.  Then when I’m ready to do the seascape, I can place the cutout on the base and figure out orientation and build up the sea around where the ship will be.  Make it a touch bigger and then all you have to do after you glue the ship into the base is fill the minor gaps.  I learned on my first couple that it is tricky to do this after the model is mostly completed because you have the risk with the fragile assemblies and it can be difficult to get a fairly accurate outline of the waterline if you’re trying to keep the model stable on a piece of cardboard while tracing it.

[king derelict]

7 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Hey Alan, looking really great!  Lots of fine detail work.  I know what you mean about knocking things off.  I’m considering in upcoming builds attaching a block to the bottom of the hull (for waterline ships) and sticking the whole thing in a vise.  I got two different vises from Dspiae that might help alleviate my problems of knocking things off, etc.  I’ve set the hulls on things like old paint jars and plastic shot glasses, but the set up is not very stable.  In a vise though, it should be a lot better.  The Dspiae ones are a bit pricey, but the vise bases are weighted so they are quite stable.  And, having the whole thing in a stable setup would make attaching parts much easier than laying the model on the bench, holding it in one hand, etc.

 

For seascapes, what I do is before any work is outline on a piece of thin cardboard the waterline of the ship using the top half of the hull.  Then when I’m ready to do the seascape, I can place the cutout on the base and figure out orientation and build up the sea around where the ship will be.  Make it a touch bigger and then all you have to do after you glue the ship into the base is fill the minor gaps.  I learned on my first couple that it is tricky to do this after the model is mostly completed because you have the risk with the fragile assemblies and it can be difficult to get a fairly accurate outline of the waterline if you’re trying to keep the model stable on a piece of cardboard while tracing it.

Hi Mike, thanks for the information, very helpful. As you can see I’ve been using old pill containers for holding hulls and assemblies. The child proof top means you can rotate the model without any risk of unscrewing the lid which I find useful when painting the miniatures. I usually fill them about three quarters full of water which helps with stability. I’ll look at the Dspiae vices, that may be a better solution.

The idea of tracing the hull outline to use as a template for the seascape is a good idea, I’ll give it a go. 
I need to start some serious planning for the seascape.

Thanks again 

alan

[Old Collingwood]

Great work Alan  - certainly coming along.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

On 12/6/2025 at 7:48 PM, Old Collingwood said:

Great work Alan  - certainly coming along.

 

OC.

Thank you very much OC, the PE is giving me fits this time but most of the tiny stuff is done. Lots of railings and lifeboats still to do though.

l’ll take a bit of a break with the seascape for a bit.

alan

[king derelict]

I don’t think I can progress Monmouth any further until I have the seascape ready to take the ship. So, onto the seascape!

I’m using my usual one inch thick extruded polystyrene sheet, bought in a twenty four inch square and now cut to five by twelve inches. I find this material much easier to cut and shape compared with expanded polystyrene. I used a scalpel to cut out the outline of the hull.

Then I used a hot wire cutter to carve the rough wave shapes I want. According to my ancient copy of Allard Coles “ Heavy Weather Sailing” a seventy mph wind on open seas can be expected to generate waves of around 65 feet. So at 1/700 anything around an inch would be acceptable.

 The dressmakers pins are holding pieces together while the glue dries.

Then Sculptamold was added to break up the flat and smooth surfaces and to further define the waves. Once this has dried I will add torn up paper towels soaked in diluted white glue to refine the surface and build small waves.

As always this is very experimental and may evolve in unplanned ways.

Thanks for looking in, the likes and comments.

alan

[Old Collingwood]

Looking good so far Alan.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

22 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Looking good so far Alan.

 

OC.

Thank you very much OC 

[king derelict]

Today I used torn paper towels soaked with diluted white glue to soften the scuptamold surface and then pushed around the wet paper to form smaller surface details. Some edges have been left to help the modeling of the wakes around the hull.

This is now drying. I may add another layer tomorrow.

Thanks for looking in, the likes and the comments 

Alan

[mikegr]

10 hours ago, king derelict said:

Today I used torn paper towels soaked with diluted white glue to soften the scuptamold surface and then pushed around the wet paper to form smaller surface details. Some edges have been left to help the modeling of the wakes around the hull.

This is now drying. I may add another layer tomorrow.

Thanks for looking in, the likes and the comments 

Alan

Try to shape the waves in a way they look they come from the same direction. Make a corridor at the stern for the wakes that should be almost flat 

[Landlubber Mike]

This looks really good Alan, nice job!  I like your approach and might try it out someday, especially for larger waves like you are showing.  My approach is very similar, just uses crinkled aluminum foil to build the waves, with a final sheet on top to lessen the sharp angles from the crinkled foil underneath.  I haven't seen the paper towel layer approach, but did see someone use art paper so comparable.

 

You might find if you add another layer of paper towel that you will start to lose a lot of the definition in the sea.  I found that with using a single layer of foil and even had to build a bit back with gesso.  

 

Looking forward to seeing how this comes out!

[king derelict]

On 12/10/2025 at 4:39 AM, mikegr said:

Try to shape the waves in a way they look they come from the same direction. Make a corridor at the stern for the wakes that should be almost flat 

Thanks Mike, that’s sort of my intention but the lighting doesn’t show it up as well as it looks in real life. I think some adjustments will be needed once I get some gesso on and can really see what I’ve got.

alan

[king derelict]

23 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

This looks really good Alan, nice job!  I like your approach and might try it out someday, especially for larger waves like you are showing.  My approach is very similar, just uses crinkled aluminum foil to build the waves, with a final sheet on top to lessen the sharp angles from the crinkled foil underneath.  I haven't seen the paper towel layer approach, but did see someone use art paper so comparable.

 

You might find if you add another layer of paper towel that you will start to lose a lot of the definition in the sea.  I found that with using a single layer of foil and even had to build a bit back with gesso.  

 

Looking forward to seeing how this comes out!

Thanks Mike, I’ve tried the crinkled foil approach and it works well. I like the papier-mâché way because you can push the wet paper around to create small ripples and waves with some control over the process. I think toilet paper, paper towels, newspaper all work but you have to be careful to eliminate any patterns on the paper towels.

You are right about the addition of another layer of paper towels, I’m going to add some gesso and see what it looks like.

alan

[king derelict]

I realized that I could use the hull from Monmouth 2.0 as a fit check on the seascape which would let me continue with the build of the model itself.

So, the three main superstructures were added along with the gun and Harpoon missile launchers. I made a mistake in build planning, completing the structures separately meant that they were very fragile and hard to grip firmly when placing them on the deck. A total of five small pieces detached in the process but were all found and reinstalled.

The major remaining task is to add the side decks and the barrel life rafts. Oh and the dreaded foremast.

i put a coat of gesso on the seascape and I think it’s going in the right direction.

The next decision is to decide on the base colors for the water. North Atlantic under heavy cloud suggests to me that it should be shades of grey green, lighter where air is mixed with the water.

Thanks for looking in, the likes and comments.

alan

[mikegr]

I like the paper glue method over the foil. You can work better the wave form and direction of the waves with a brush. It takes more effort but worth it. There's no easy way out on this.

[Landlubber Mike]

Hey Alan, glad you were able to add the structures to the hull without too much trouble.  That's the problem with working in the scale - parts are so fragile.  I'm working on an IJN light cruiser that has a mixture of wooden and steel decks and I think I'm going to build/paint separate assemblies as an easier way to avoid wasting $100 on Tamiya tape.  Of course, that makes painting easier, but then the combining of the assemblies to the hull can be tricky.

 

The seascape is looking really good.  For the color, I think you're on point.  As a base reference, Vallejo makes different Water Effects/Water Texture for different oceans and seas in the world.  Here is the Atlantic one - it's definitely more green compared to the brighter blue of their Mediterranean and Pacific products.  Under cloudy/rainy skies, I would expect to sea to look a lot more gray for sure.