Yep Ski completely understand & identify with where you’re at, in spades. One other suggestion although maybe this is what you meant about hull touch-ups - splashed gloss up the con walls so it looks wet? Looking forward to the final reveal, it’s already stunning

Thanks Tim, yep, the gloss is on the hull, but not visible in the pics. When I do the final pics it should be visible.

Cheers, Ski.

Water works update

Since the sides of the hull didn't have any transition to the waves I decided on using the silicon caulk method. The only draw back using this type of caulk is that it's not acrylic, so adding paint will be an issue. But, not if you are just making bubbles, HA! It seemed to work out ok.

I drew out a line on a sheet of plastic wrap and played with it until I got what looked like mini waves and splashes. I let this dry over night.



Now that the waves were completely dried I pulled them from the plastic wrap and carefully placed them along the hull allowing the splash portions to ride up along the hull. When I was satisfied with the arrangement I glued them in place in only key areas that were prone to lifting away from the base.

Then I mixed a tiny amount of blue and green acrylic paint into a small amount of Vallejo's Water Effect and coated/blended the edges and added the mix into all the recesses along the hull and out into the pre-existing waves.

Now it was just a matter of adding white bubbles to the splashes using acrylic paint. I had to be careful not to get too carried away. As I mentioned before, the acrylic paint doesn't like to stick to the silicon caulking, but it worked out just fine for the effect I was looking for.



There may be some volume missing within the small transition waves, but I'm going to call this portion of the build complete. I really don't relish the chance of messing it up. I would have to say I'll be needing a lot more experience working with waves, I've got a long way to go before I feel totally confident in my ability to create realistic water works.

Thanks for watchin, Ski.

Very nice !

Thanks Maarten

Swell job! Great water-skiing

Funny you should mention that, cause in 23 days and a wake up it'll be wave runner city on the lake, yehaaaaaa!

Glad you like the effect Martin. Cheers, Ski.

Good God, this has been a mammoth project. You have my sympathies, envy and respect. I have no doubt that this will be a masterpiece with your exceptional painting skill. Cheers.

Very nice work on the entire Diorama.
Good darn work.

Thanks Nate and Jeff.

This has been a lot of work on the gun deck, but it's been fun even for my first time working 3D nylon.

Thanks kindly Gents. Cheers, Ski.

Congrats on the completion of this phase of your epic dio!
J

Thanks Jerry, what a pain in the hinny!

Watch Officer is Finished

Well, I thought I had taken in-progress photos of the legs and shoes, but apparently not. So, refer to the Captain figure, I used the same methods and techniques. Now all that is lacking is attaching these two figures to the deck and taking photos.

I felt rushed on this last figure towards the end due to summer outside work fast approaching. But, since my sleep before the night shift was lacking I spent a few hours each night before work to finish this last figure. Boy, work sure does get in the way of this hobby, ya know what I mean? At any rate, come Thursday it won't anymore, Yehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.......!

Here's final shots before posting to the gallery.



Thanks for watchin. Cheers, Ski.

This whole project is excellent.
Bravo sir

Great painting brother! Looks the biz.
J

Thanks Guys, I'm kinda sad to see it finish, lol. Actually, this means clean-up the bench and power down the bunker for the summer Now that is truly a bummer.

Cheers, Ski.

A better close up pic of the face:

Exceptional paint work Ski !!! That's some of the finest figure painting I've seen , very cool man !!!

Thanks Brother.

I'm tryin the best I can. When fall comes by again I plan to line a few busts and go to town, refine that oil works, if ya know what I mean.

Cheers, Ski.

It's finished and already in the curio cabinet.

"Calm Before The Storm"

Alpine Miniatures 1/16th Scale #16021 German U-Boat Captain, Alpine Miniatures 1/16th Scale #16036 German U-Boat Watch Officer, German U-boat Type VIIB Conning Tower Gun Deck and Dual Gun from Shapeways, designed by Sasa Drobac.

Figures painted in oils over an acrylic base. Railing, cables, flag pole, and deck bench were scratch built. The water effect was created using blue construction foam with several layers of Vallejo's Water Effects and acrylic paint.



Cheers, Ski.

Beautiful man , just beautiful !!!!!

Ah, thanks Brother!

Cheers, Ski.

Well instead of all those summer chores you could criss-cross the country instead, picking up every Model Show first prize. One quibble – I know it’s supposed to be calm but maybe spray some Elmers around so it glistens? Did I say “masterpiece” already?

Thanks for always bein there Brother, thanks for the kind words too. As far as hitting every show, yikes! They say the most difficult issue while traveling to a contest is keeping your dio together in one piece, I agree, lol.

Glitter,...Bro,....it already took me 8 attempts to get the water effect half way decent as it is, lol. No worries, this won't be my last attempt at water, it's challenging, but fun too.

Thanks Bro, Ski.

Brilliant!

Looks like a show-stopper to me.