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
