Bismarck - Doing the Sea

[Iron Mike]

The water effects are really coming along, and look pretty convincing. I admire your courage to try these new to you techniques, especially on a build of this magnitude. Hold fast and stay the course, looking forward to the next episode.

 

[White_Wolf]

The water effects are really coming along, and look pretty convincing. I admire your courage to try these new to you techniques, especially on a build of this magnitude. Hold fast and stay the course, looking forward to the next episode.

Thanks Mike

Laurence

 

[moon puppy]

"Just do it"
That's what Dad always said to me.
Really liking this Laurence!

 

[White_Wolf]

"Just do it"
That's what Dad always said to me.
Really liking this Laurence!

Thanks MP - appreciate it.

More thinking, more trying, more messing it up and less doing. However., I made up my mind about the bow explosion.

More work to make it look more realistic, but it is a bit by bit piece, can't do it all on one go and this takes a lot of time and adjusting.

One view from above, working from bow to stern, nothing is really even close to 100%. Working in small sections, adding cotton, letting the varnish dry, then plucking it into the desired shape, correcting as I go. Adding more where needed, and so on.

Ton of other things going on at the moment seem to be keeping me away from finishing this piece...I hope to get it done before 2023.

Thanks for watching,

Laurence

 

[moon puppy]

Keep going Laurence! Looking great!

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Looking really good Laurence!

 

[Greg Kimsey]

This is insanely awesome! Goodness gracious

 

[White_Wolf]

Right, this is turning to be exactly what I thought it would - a looooooooooong trial and error process. Very long, but progress is still happening.

First photo - difference between going for a straight break wave line and a curly, random line. The straight (ish) line might appear when the water is smooth, never when in very choppy waters / heavy storm. Should have known better, but I do now. So, rework - not too bad, pluck the cotton with tweezers, moist cotton tip to remove the stubborn bits and voila. no more straight line.

Same section seen from the side:

This section here requires a lot more work - bow explosion is not finished, water over the deck must have details worked out, then, side of the ship - plucking excess cotton and shape it better, then hairspray over it to stiffen up the strands of cotton, then a bit more gloss medium to give it the watery appearance.

Will see what it looks like soon (I hope).

Thank you all for your kind words.

Laurence

 

[Greg Kimsey]

This model astounds me. I can barely comprehend how it is done!!

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Looking good!

 

[moon puppy]

Looks awesome Laurence!

 

[Brokeneagle]

Looking good Laurence. The bow explosion is perfection.
Just keep an eye on the wispy effect at the sides further down the hull to make sure you take away the cotton look.

 

[White_Wolf]

This model astounds me. I can barely comprehend how it is done!!

Thanks Greg. The model itself = lots of research and strenuous work, especially with the hundreds of small PE pieces. Rigging was a cow too, masts and cranes alike. For the water, I am learning myself and sharing it here, so thanks for coming along, hope you enjoy the ride.

Laurence

 

[White_Wolf]

Looking good Laurence. The bow explosion is perfection.
Just keep an eye on the wispy effect at the sides further down the hull to make sure you take away the cotton look.

Thanks mate, appreciate it. I am going to fluff it up around the bow a bit more, so it looks realistic from all angles, not to forget the symmetry.

I am working my way down the hull, replacing the wispy bits that I laid few weeks back. I lined them up the wrong way and it shows. Now I am plucking them out bit by bit, laying the new pieces of cotton. Once that is done, I will apply hairspray, flatten or trim the rebellious strands, then apply a bit of gloss medium. In theory it sounds like a good plan, let's see how it turns out.

 

[White_Wolf]

After much deliberation, tossing and turning and all sorts of trying to squeeze some clear thoughts out of my brain, I have decided to completely redo the base. Freed the ship from the clutches of those layers of celluclay and air drying glue, threw the old base out. It was way too heavy, too big and the ship was sitting too low. Got it all wrong and constantly tried to fix it, achieving worse and worse results.
Got some thin wood-like material, used for skirting boards in fancy houses, some XPS board, the green stuff in the photo, some cardboard from an IKEA table as added support for the foam. Cutout done, the ship sits so much better, photos to come later. The base is smaller in length and width too.
Hope this will work as I want it to. Time will tell.

Thanks for watching,
Laurence

 

[helios]

Painful to throw all that work away...but if you aren't happy/content with it, it's always going to bother you every time you look at it. Looking forward to seeing the next methodology though.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

So the first try was a good learning treatise. Not a real loss except for materials, however you gained so much from what you learned that the redo will be a lot better.

 

[moon puppy]

If you don't like it throw it out. Take what you've learned from the first go and apply liberally to the next.

 

[White_Wolf]

Thank you gents, much appreciated. Bob always told me that next piece of work should always be better than the one before. The U-69 looked better, and I felt that I did not improve. Worse than that, I felt it was not even as good, let alone better.
I hope this time around it will be better.

Cheers,
Laurence

 

[Brokeneagle]

A bold move when I thought it looked pretty good already, but I understand where your coming from and have been there many times myself.......... whatever you can improve on through striving for higher results always makes you a better modeller aqnd you go to the next rung of the ladder of progression.
This is what it's all about and without that element I would have stopped years ago.