Bismarck - Doing the Sea

[White_Wolf]

Almost 2 months later, an update is available.

Took that white clay, cut chunks and made them into thin sheets, 6 inches long by 3-4 inches wide. Laid them one, max two at a time, let them dry and then moved on to the next. Taking a long time to dry, it shrinks badly and it causes cracks. Not bothered by the very thin cracks, as oil paint will cover it all, it's the bigger ones I must cover, plus some more shaping here and there.

There are some small wet patches, where I started covering the cracks. View from the bow.

Same, view from the stern. Cracks are visible here.

Closer, to show the cracks - 1mm wide I guess.

Covering these and bit of reshaping will take a few more days, but, at least, this is now done and I am reasonably happy with the outcome.

Thanks for watching,

Laurence

 

[Iron Mike]

Moving ever closer, I'm still following.

 

[moon puppy]

I would think a thinner "top coat" could hide the cracks. Take your time, no point rushing it at this point!

 

[Brokeneagle]

looking good - Monte Marte modelling paste and a painters knfe iwill cover all those cracks in an hour.
Looking good mate!

 

[centaur567]

Wow!! Impresive build!! White glue might work too. Gary S.

 

[White_Wolf]

All good ideas there gents, thank you for that. I went with small bits of white clay to cover the bigger / wider cracks, slightly wet, spreading it with a small spatula.
Then, the painting.
All oils, a mix of phthalo blue, paynes grey, olive green and titanium white. Photo is a bit deceiving - just a bit more blue than grey - green and white in equal proportion, roughly half the amount of grey each. The green came out a bit wet from the tube, but it is the same amount as the white.

Mix thoroughly with the spatula, then painting began:

The amount showing above covers an area of roughly 10 sq in. This is immediately after painting the area, the next day I gave it another coat, it looks even and a dark shade of blue. The smaller, remaining cracks were covered nicely, can't even see them.
To my pleasant surprise, the paint takes less than 24 hours to dry (first coat) so I could give it a second coat the next day. Since I took these photos I managed to do 30% two coats and another 30% one coat. Couple more days should suffice to have it fully done, two coats.

Once this is done, effects will be added. Still working out the details, I am using small rectangles of white clay to test paint different things and combinations, but more about that later.

Thanks for watching and for the ideas - keep them coming.

Laurence

 

[moon puppy]

Every work of art starts with a base.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

So far so good!

 

[Iron Mike]

Keep at it, Laurence! Pretty awesome!

 

[Rhino]

Nothing worth doing well is done very quickly! Stay the coarse!

 

[White_Wolf]

Every work of art starts with a base.

100% agree !!! Not saying mine is a work of art

 

[White_Wolf]

So far so good!
View attachment 149021

Thanks Paul.

 

[White_Wolf]

Keep at it, Laurence! Pretty awesome!

Thanks Mike !

 

[White_Wolf]

Nothing worth doing well is done very quickly! Stay the coarse!

Done quickly ... umm ... over 4 years on this one so I couldn't agree more

 

[White_Wolf]

Right, time for another update ....

Base is fully painted, plus one layer of matt varnish.

I used a much lighter mix for the highlights. Not sure if this is enough or not, but I would rather add highlights / different gradients later. Photo taken prior to applying the varnish.

Now, I have started adding cotton along the hull. Turbulent area, must have some volume to it. Going slow, as this is very much an experiment, never done anything like this before.

These bits of cotton have not been properly shaped yet, just applied to the base, with a bit of varnish. I want to let the varnish dry first, then I will start working on the shape of these things. Once I am happy with the way they look, a light touch with some gloss varnish will be applied.

Same thing below, bit further away from the camera, a slightly different angle.

More to come, soon I hope.

Thanks for watching,

Laurence

 

[Brokeneagle]

Looking fantastic mate - keep experimenting its the way to making something special.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Keep up the good work Laurence! This is going to be quite impressive once done I am sure.

 

[Iron Mike]

It's looking really good, Laurence. Keep going!!

 

[Steve Ski]

Being new to waterworks I know it's a lot of work. I've only done it once, but I like how it plays in this Sport. That's a huge project ya got goin there, my hats off to yuz!

 

[White_Wolf]

Managed to do a bit more work, very much experimental stuff. Playing with cotton, hairspray, gloss varnish and all that, plus all the inspiration I can get from looking at more photos than I can remember.
The "curtain" of water falling off the deck received short puffs of hairspray. Brush dipped in the gloss varnish then touches cotton 24 hours later, adding the effect of having some shine to it. Without the hairspray, the brush dipped in varnish sticks to all fibers in the cotton, more or less pulling it away from the ship, which is bad, because there is only a very small part of the cotton that sticks to the deck.
On the deck there isn't a lot of cotton, just patches, only placed that over the last few days, trying to make sure it looks as realistic as possible, while still showing some of the detail on deck. The wave breaker will be "flooded" obviously.

There will be a lot of trimming and making all this look real, removing some "rebel" strands, but that's for later.

Camera not quite in focus, but the water over the deck is showing.

A closer shot.

Lots and lots of work to do and, at the moment, the only motivation I got left, is that Bob always encouraged me to get this done. He liked the ship, but never got the chance to see any of this .

Thank you all for watching.

Laurence