My Schwimmwagen: It's Italeri with a Verlinden upgrade (PE and Resin) the driver is Tamiya with a Legends head and the propeller letter downer is Dragon.

I'm planning on using a larger water effect down the road and wanted to try it on somthing small. I would have not been to upset had the Schwimm taken a dive (har har) so I thought to practice on it. The project kept getting more involved though and I was nervous when the time came to pour the water. The effect is Easy Cast Clear Casting Epoxy. I bought it at Micheals while my wife looked at girly stuff.

I tried a few practice runs and got little bubbles. With out the rocks though, no bubbles. I figured the pourous little rocks needed to be sealed with a clear coat first and resolved to remember that before the REAL thing.

I forgot.

So as you can see, little bubbles.

I'm not even sure the clear coat will fix it but I'll be experimenting with it before I use it again. I'm not all that unhappy with the bubbles I just wanted to see deeper into the water.







I tried out some new tricks, mostly learned here. So thank you all. You've helped me create somthing to show off and I had a blast doing it. So much fun that I'm off to join the light tank campaign.

Constructive critism is of course welcome.

The wheels should actually be kicking up clouds of mud and bubbles as they disturb the bed. Did you have any trouble with plastic melting?

Come on, a vehicle enters the water, who cares about a few bubbles?

Ok, apart the mud Jeremy mentionned already, a bit more white water (sp?) behind the wheels would make a nice effect to.
It may also hide now the view to the ground where the cloud of mud should be.

Claude

True, true there should be mud stirred up behind the tires. Having a muddy portion of water amid clear water would look great. Perhaps if I added silty fine clay dust to those areas after a period of curing....another experiment.

This epoxy doesn't get hot. The instructions say to heat both parts to Luke warm before mixing. That's the only heat involved. No smell either. I haven't found anything to color it with yet if needed. Acrylic and oil both seperated and turned into willow-the-wisps

Great little dio! Even with the minor details mentioned above this really turned out very nicely and is incredibly interesting to look at. Really catches the eye.

Jim
Large Scale Armory

Don't talk it down so much - it looks great! I particularly like the trailing edges of ripple from the front tyres - very natural looking.

Last year I saw something similar at a show here in the UK - a Bf 109E shown as sunk at the bottom of the North Sea. The guy used the same technique as you, only graduated the 'sea' colours from a light green near the surface to a deeper grey at depth.

Interesting ideas!

Mold release spray can help get rid of bubbles. Do small layer of resin (enough to cover the rocks), and spray mold release on it. This will help decrease the surface tension, which allows the bubbles to break to the surface and pop. Then add the rest of your "water" resin and spray another shot of mold release.

to be a test, it's beautiful!

I agree on the cloud of dust raised by the fund, and in an upcoming test, I would keep account of the current, in the case of a river.

the material is this one?
http://www.michaels.com/Castin'-Craft-Clear-Casting-Resin-with-Catalyst/gc1703,default,pd.html
looks really interesting, I wonder if they sell online? in europe, the stuff like that there is not .... :-( ((

As long as I have been building models and dioramas since the 1950s I have never worried about what they look like as long as I had fun!
Check out the Features section here for my work and the following for more;
Amazon.com (kit reviews)
FineScale Modeler (Hints and Tips)
Miniart Gallery
WarWheels
StormtheCastle
Facebook, Hobbies in a Barn and Building Historic Dioramas

Best of luck,
John Staehle

This is a great water effect.... I like that its not just a puddle ane more of a cutaway of the river. Really pulls the scene together. Wish I was so brave to do this.....maybe with my newly acquired M1114

Thanks guys! I appreciate the encouragement.

Mcsixtyfive: that is the stuff and I did get it at Michael's.

How did you put the model in the water, Im doing a dinghy in a lake and i need to figure out how to put the boat in so it appears natural. Thanks

Looks like I need to take my wife to Michael's You have a winner with that water

OUTSTANDING WORK

Raffi, the water wasn't deep enough to "float" the schwim. I glued the tires down. That was a consideration when I was planning it. Would it float realistically? I didn't know for sure and still don't. I might work fine. I don't think I'd chance it though. I would be tempted to suspend the craft from above with a temporary crane type apparatus. This way you can adjust it's level in the water and remove it when cured.
Also, the resin will creep into cracks, so if your dingy is loose (that sounds bad I know),it may end up looking like it needs bailed.

Greg and Bill, thanks for the compliment!

Thank You for the advice

Yo Raffi,

Nice job, well executed. Reminds me of my first water attempt in a diorama..i had much difficulties to make a good border around the diorama so the resin will not ran out of it.

Well done!

Grt Nico

Hey Bryan, very nice dio you have there. I like to include water in most of mine and the bubbles might be from air trapped under the edges of the rocks. If I use large flat rocks in my streams, this sometimes happens. Mainly use enviro-tex for my water. I'm not sure about the product you are using, but with E.Tex you can blow on it and the exhaled breath helps raise the bubbles to the surface where they pop or you pin prick them. Might try a test patch some time to see if that will help. But the bubbles you have don't distract from it at all. Aside from that small, and I mean small thing, you have a real nice dio. The story is there and everything interacts with everything. Nice job all the way around. bob d.