Product Review - Polyfilla: Another Method of Modeling Water - A Guest Column by Graeme Martin

Use Selley's Polyfilla, a cellulose filler material – Polyfilla is a proprietary New Zealand/Australian brand – the product is available elsewhere in the world under other brand names. You can mix Polyfilla with water in a cake mixing bowl (Ed. Note: If you’re married, and want to stay married, buy a bowl just for this and keep it out of the kitchen).

Before you start, have everything prepared – and make sure you have a timber edge to your diorama base to work up to. This will hold the Polyfilla on the base and keep it from dribbling off the base before it begins to set up.

You have 30 minutes to spread the Polyfilla on the base and around your model. Work it into waves using an artist’s spatula. To help ensure that it stays put, I drill out key holes with a large drill bit – about 3/8 deep – in my base so the Polyfilla can grip into the base. As the filler dries you can drag the Polyfilla over and make bow waves that are almost surf-like waves. This adds to the illusion that the ship is pushing through the water at speed. As the Polyfilla dries, at the stern of the boat, pat the half-dry Polyfilla with the spatula to give the impression of very aerated water – this impact is later enhanced in the painting.

Half the result comes from the painting. Use water based acrylics – they work best on Polyfilla. When the Polyfilla is totally dry – allow about 24 to 36 hours – paint the material using the lighter colors first, then blend in darker colors (see my attached pictures).

Top off the breaking water with white acrylic paint – and then, with the paint, blend the colors with white to give the impression of lots of prop foaming wash. This is especially important at the stern, showing the aerated wake churning behind the ship.

When that is all dry, a couple of coats of acrylic clear gloss will give the sea a wet look. You can splash a bit of gloss acrylic up the side of the hull and onto deck to give the ship that at-sea wet look – important in any but the calmest seas.

Before crafting the waves, I study pictures of the sea state I want to show for a particular ship model – and when possible, I like to review photos of the ship in question at the speed I have in mind – wakes are very different-looking at different speeds. However, sometimes – especially when you are working on a big scale model, like 1/200th scale – you need to work fast. When that happens, very often the sea just comes out unplanned. The important thing is to have a rough plan in your mind of the speed of the ship (and therefore what the wake will look like), then the courage to just go for it.

The only negative with this method is that when the Polyfilla dries there can be a millimeter of shrinkage from the hull. The manufacturer states there is no shrinkage to this product – and I believe him – but I don't think he intended this product to be used in this fashion (it is primarily a gap filling product, not a modeling product). Polyfilla is still a great product – and with this method, you can create very life-like sea scenes – and the millimeter gap can be carefully filled with paint once everything’s dry.

Hope this adds another dimension to realistic water for you.

Cheers,

Graeme Martin – http://www.shipmodels.co.nz

How-To: Realistic Water and PE Brass "Exposed" in Rusty White CD/ROMs

Modeling Realistic Looking Water
A guide to creating water for models
By Rusty White

Tips and Techniques for Working with Photo Etched Parts
An introduction to photo-etch for the beginner and Novice modeler
By Rusty White

Reviewed by Ned Barnett
Review Copies provided by Rusty White


I have long been a fan of Rusty White’s articles in the Journal, in FineScale Modeler and in ship-modeling magazines. But I’ve never found an article to match the two new CD-ROM (pdf. format) digital magazines Rusty has produced to discuss major technique-issues in ship modeling. Both of these: Modeling Realistic Looking Water and Tips and Techniques for Working with Photo Etched Parts have now been produced by Rusty’s company, “Flagship Models.”

Both are in sub-sized CD-ROM disks, and the pdf. documents are laid out, magazine style, with lots of gorgeous color photos of models (and some real ships), as well as tools and action shots demonstrating the techniques.

I was excited to receive these two CDs, because the topics hold great interest to me as a ship modeler (I’m currently working on an odd-scale model of Columbus’s Nina, and a scratch-built version of Noah’s Ark), and as a diorama and display modeler. For thirty years, I’ve been trying to come up with ways to model effective water on dioramas and as bases for ship models. And, for more than a decade, I’ve been trying to build up the courage to actually try photo-etched accessories (I’ve got a lot of photo-etched sets for ships, planes, tanks and model railroad kits, but until now, I lacked the confidence to tackle them). As a result, I came to this review – in one case, as a home-grown expert, and in the other case, as the rankest novice. In both cases, I decided to try the techniques before writing this review.

First, Rusty’s suggestions on water (Sculpey – a harden-when-baked modeling clay – and artist’s Gel Medium) were techniques I had not previously tried. Prior to this, my most effective large-wave technique involved the use of spackle on wood-mounted styrofoam, painted with acrylics – and for small waves or smooth water, many multiple thin layers of Elmer’s glue (a technique I used in an IPMS/Nationals-winning figure diorama).

Both of those techniques have now been retired forever.

As long as you have an oven large enough for the hardwood base for the model display (and Rusty offers suggestions for what to do when the base is too long to fit), Sculpey works great. In this CD-ROM Rusty takes you step-by-step on how to prepare the base, spread the Sculpey, as well as how to mount the ship. The painting guide is also valuable. With the information in this CD-ROM monograph, you’ll have everything you need to effectively create water for use in displaying ship models.

Next, Rusty de-mystifies the use of photo-etched brass, a technique that’s invaded all model realms, but which is especially important when it comes to ships. He even suggests a “starter” model – the Tamiya USS Fletcher (a world war II destroyer) because of it’s large scale and straight lines.

Rusty walks through all the techniques needed to prepare the brass, paint it, trim it, mount it and touch up the flecked-off paint. Most important, he offers hard-won techniques that involve using a relative few simple tools (drill bits, styrofoam egg cartons, X-Acto blades, and home-made CA glue applicators) that take most of the fear-of-failure out of using photo-etched parts.

If you’re experienced with photo-etched, Rusty’s CD-ROM will probably offer you a few time-saving techniques (I quickly adopted his CA glue applicators for all uses); but if you’re new to the photo-etched field, then you are the person this was written for. As I said, I was a “ground-zero” target, and I gained a huge amount of useful information from this guide.

I strongly recommend both of these – and even if you’re not a ship modeler, you’ll find his techniques extremely useful in building any models with photo-etched parts, or any model mounted on a diorama (with or without water).

Flagship Models
2204 Summer Way Lane
Edmond, OK 73013-2815 USA
http://www.flagshipmodels.com