thanks Marcin, Seb and Wijnand, hey actually the water is not *yet* finished, today hopefully!
Scott the water is dark but not of the same darkness everywhere -it's not so much on the left side, I work on a definite sense of the light once more. Though not really see through, I can assure you the light goes through which is what i was after

But well after having more or less worked the colours and all, something is wrong in the shape. Indeed agitated sea does plenty of small waves on the top of the bigger ones (the right side of the pic).

So to get this effect i use acrylic gels like the 1/700 boat guys do

it's very hot outside at the moment, so after a good dozen of minutes the gel begins to set on the surface, then I work on it a bit more, trying to pull out some of the gel, and it's also good to wipe out some brush strokes if any are left.

well, the gel is all very good, but it looks plastic in the end, so I have to coat a good layer of tinted Humbrol clear Quote on the top, and it also does a bit of shadows on that extra texture!


Then back to the painting of the wood: it looks a bit psychedelic like that, but in the end, it *should* work!


today i should be able to end up the paint of those elements.. as well as ending up the sea!

Jean Bernard, your "water work" is really spectacular.
What is also interesting is the risk you take to experiment new things on top of the real object. If it completely fails you will have to restart from new!

So, good luck and have fun

Claude

Jean , looks like beautiful water work to me. The foam tops make it look like a real Atlantic Noreaster. The helm looks equally good and this should be a good finish.

Not to detract from your build and post but I think you'll like these - next project maybe ?
French subs and the Bouvet - drednaught era.

Thanks Claude, exactly -I don't like using everytime the same old tricks, if there is no experimenting with new products and new techniques, well.. it's half of the interest gone.
But of course sometimes it goes wrong (see below)

Glenn, thanks again for yet more new pics! I had the one of the Bouvet, she's impressive innit? i read that she shouldn't have been send in the Dardanelles in the first place because she was leaking water oil etc out of every joint, but then the French thought she was so ugly she would scare Turks
Actually i don't think she is ugly at all, she's exactly my kind, round and yet spiky!
Thanks for the Sub cards too, I didn't have those ones. When I did the Sokol, I wanted to use a submarine's cupola at first but I lacked references!
As for the diorama, foam and all, it's difficult to see on the pics, because I never use the same lighting nor the same zoom level, but I hope to get finished with the sea today, so maybe i will take a pic of the whole for you guys to see..



yep that's right, i send the day of yesterday applying paint remover to wipe out all the gel layer.
And now i don't understand why it did those whitey blots during the night while there was none the day before while it was ultra dry.
4 reasons I see:
The water is so glossy that I have some trouble working on big portions of the dio at a time because of reverberation and I might not have notice that and it would only reavealm itself on morning light. (okay, sounds unlikely)
The gel reacted with the Clear Quote (unlikely)
It was so hot 2 days ago that the gel dried up too fast
the coat of gel was too thick (hell it's not the first time i apply gel this way!)
anyway, I now have to put some gel AGAIN!

Disaster! oh dear...

Jean , before I put my size 12 in my mouth , ......................
Silence is golden , ............... duct tape is silver ..................

Is it salvagable ???

If it's 50 % - 50 % than do it over ........................

If not some wine [ see other post , l.o.l. ] and some serious thinking is in order.

Glenn

Nay Chas and Glenn, I merely lost a day of work.
bizzarely enough, when I removed the gel it also removed some chunks of resin below. i was very afraid at first, but after one good clear Cote coat, well it gave some sort of fractured effect which I think looked pretty good!

Anyway, the first picture is for Scott and Claude who more particularly asked about the transparency of the water: here is my hand viewed from under the diorama


Then, well, more gel, but *cooled down on the amount this time*


Then this picture is to show something specific. how to create shadow highlights with water: here it is with that area between the sea and the Blockhaus which had to be shaded.
Actually, i should have used tamiya's tranparent paints but i didn't have anby of the right colour. those paints are good but really very dangerous to use when it comes to water making.


Anyway, that's it the pace of my updates will slow down, and it will completely stop for 3 weeks starting wednesday, don't cry for me Argentina i am going in holidays

So I thought it would be fair to give those 2 simulations of the completed work -though i hope to have completely finished the diorama work before I go! Would stay the figure and the base to work on.


uh well, i will open a bottle of Chinese wine tonight

That is looking great! I am glad it turned out to be fixable. This water effect is apsolutely stunning.

BUT! Shame on you! Chinese wine?! and a Frenchman no less!? I would give my left big toe to live in Paris again so that I could be close to all the history, food, WINE, and some of the people.

-Mike

Glad you only lost a day, I started to get sad for you. I've lost things like that before and I know the dissapointment.

The water looks good. I really like the birds eye view. Thats a great teaser.

Have a great holiday.

you just blow me away JB .

Steve

Well, well, thanks for the transparancy picture, i see it was worth the effort.

It turns out that this will be another special dio, a typical JBA trademarked.

En attendant le reste, Bonne Vacances!

Salut Claude

Well Mike, I feel too much internationally minded to care a lot about France, except when it comes to cheese and wine -but then I really can't afford Chateauneuf du pape '93
"and some of the people" uh? i know there are quite a few girls I miss there too

Scott and Claude, I ain't going yet, I've got the kitchen to end up painting first! Claude "typically JB trademark" uh? yes I wonder how many time I will stay stuck with boats !

Steve, thanks but really wait for it to be ended, things just could not click anymore shortyly before completion

Anyway, thanks for the comments and support. i hope I can make at least one other update soonish!

back to the dio it goes like this..

First the wood

the partially painted underside

then the rust

Here it is fixed at its definitive place.

Of course the 37mm gun will be placed on the round base. There is a lot of color correction to do at this stage, this is why I prefer doing those while the thing is fixed already, even of I will have to take care that no paint actually fall on the sea!

Great JB
Can you post a photo of the overall dio now ?
Please
Seb

Hello Friend
unfortunately the gel, but what your solution.
I think the problem is that there are other amount, I use a similar product
Oleoaquil is known and marketed in stores fine arts.
appears white-tailed, same color and texture but on drying becomes transparent.
the same thing happens, the more quantity later in transparency and dry, so it is best to repeat a few times and with a very small amount

Domi

WOW! This is so great!

Lars

Fantastic work! I can only echo others' words...most realistic water I have even seen. Keep up the good work.

We were stationed in Paris during the Balkins wars and when NATO started bombing the US embassy had protesters there all the time. Them, combined with our horrible neighbors contributed to some poor times. Overall though, I love the French. I hope to move back there and teach at one of the international schools some day. We lucked out with the wine though. My father knew someone who worked at the winery from his younger days living there. They gave us several cases of 93 when they were first bottled; long before all the ribbons! Needless to say... we have made them last and actually have one case left!

I am happy to see your progress! It is quite fantastic. I really like the rust effects. They look very very convincing!

-Mike

Domi my friend, I think you are pretty right here: I used too much Gel thickness, an this combined with high level heat just turned the diorama into a catastrophe, buy it's solved now

Lars thanks for dropping buy! DJ you too! Thanks for the water thing, I now have to photograph it properly without too much reverberation

Mike that's a nice wine story - I suppose you were an embassy guard or something the same? In '93 I was grudgingly tramping the landscape with a shotgun in the back, and I definitely remember F16 landing on "my" base.
you know, an American born English teacher will always find some job in Paris (there's always some adverts for this in Lyon so..)

And now for Seb -uh I couldn't go to my shed to take the pics before 9PM so the colours are a bit weird despite long time pose..

JBA, this is absolutely beautifull! Water efects are incredible.
Weathering is also great.

Andrzej

Great looking wood and rust effect Jean. Just wondering, are you planning any figures for this diorama?

Chas

great diorama i love the rust and the wood they blend in fantastic and love the water its a crackin build !

martyn

Well Jean Now it is so great with all the pieces together ?

To Mike, In 92 or 93 My baseball team played against the Marines from the US embassy of Paris, You were one of these ???
Cheers
Seb

Andrzej and Martyn thanks, actually, the diorama is at the stage where you shouldn't look at it too closely -if so you would see small bits of unpainted wood, white paint cracking because of the torsion of the solder I used for the stanchions etc

Chas thanks too, one fig yes. i already painted the head!
here.

Seb '93 seems to have been a bizzare year for a lot of us
uh well, I had a more lot of hair then, here is a diorama I did in end '93, almost the same as Galilée..


Only one hour of work yesterday, just enough to paint the ladder and the wheel


.. and yet I seem to have forgotten to put a bit of rust on the wheel..

I turned 1 years old....

Top notch figure painting so far mate,

Chas

Jean , nicely done !!!! It has a wonderful " rolling sea " effect that you've captured beautifully.
One question - are you going to weather - distress the blockhaus some more , it looks a little too clean compared to the well weathered catwalk. Then again if you're not to that stage yet forget I mentioned it, l.o.l..
Glenn