Making Water (Part 1)
by Jim Baumann

HMS Scylla is being built in 1/700 scale using the WSW kit as a starting point.
For most 1/700 models I use textured watercolour paper- Rockingford Rough 140 lbs
in a block measuring 14" x 22"- available from http://www.artsupplies.co.uk/index.php


Any textured watercolour paper from any reputable manufacturer will work.

It is especially effective at depicting a calm sea with only a gentle ripple caused by a light winds, an example of which can be seen in the overhead views of my 1/700 Kolchida

For my model of HMS Scylla I chose to set this weathered and war-weary AA cruiser at speed in a rolling lop of a sea.
But first a bit of preparation....

To prevent warpage in the resin hull years down the line, I mount all my models on a stainless steel plate, in which are are
drilled an array of countersunk holes for later screwing down.
At the beginning of the build I drill a selection of holes drilled (3mm drill bit) into the underside of the hull that correspond with the pe-drilled holes in the mounting plate.

These then have a thread cut using a No 6 pozi drive countersunk selftapping screw.

I placed the hull of the model on a well oversize piece of watercolour paper -prior to commencing construction-and drew a pencil line around at waterline

This is then cut out using scissors( or a craftknife - to choice)- remember to mark the direction of travel/bow..!

To simulate a long swell I then covered the entire steel plate with very high tack doublesided adhesive tape( Venture Tape) and placed cocktail sticks in the positions where I wanted the high point of the swells and hull's wave formation to be; the cocktail sticks being snipped off with a Xuron cutter.

The paper was then placed carefully so that the pre-drilled holes in the plate lined up with the hull again as in step 1.
and the paper pushed down in between the cocktail sticks to form the desired swell

The surplus paper is then trimmed off using a sharp blade the plate as the guide.
Because the ship is at speed the displacement waveform created would reveal parts of her red 'underbelly'..!
To achieve this I placed some styrene strips in position to raise the hull slightly within the paper cutout, these also formed the lower hull where it would be revealed-hence their positions midships had to be accurate.

Had the decision to show the vessel in a swell been taken at the commencement of the build, I would have simply added a hull footprint sized waterline shim underneath!!!!

A testfit of the model showed all to well with levels and size.

The entire water-seascape was the soaked in Cyanocrylite glue( superglue) to make it strong,structurally stabel and totally impervious to moisture.

At the edges of the paper ( the sea!) there are unsightly gaps ....

These are then filled flush with autobodyfiller, a two part polyester filler consisting of paste and hardener.

This sets firm within about 5 minutes so that the coarse trimming of any surplus can take place with ease-again using the stainless mounting plate as the knife guide.
Within 10 minutes the reaction is complete and final trimming and a light sand can take place.
there are a number of Body-filler makes available, in the UK I use Isopon P 38 or Plastic Padding. In the USA understand a popular make to be 'Bondo'

The model is then glued and screwed; having first ensured there are no areas that require work that may need access to undercuts or overhangs..!( the waterline plate restricts this type of access severely!)

Any gaps that may appear between the hull and the paper water are filled using white glue to span the gap.

The technique that seems works best is to make a number of small' bridges' with a small dollop of white glue; once these are partially set, infill the spaces between using thinned white glue allowing the 'glue bridges' to make the frame required for the surface tension to span any gaps.

The bow wave and wake patterns are then added using Acrylic texture paste, I prefer the Daler-Rowney variant-it is easy to use, fast-drying and dries matt, so unlike glossy variants of acrylic gels it can maintain very fine curls and undercut bow-waves, as well as having a 'sharper' appearance when used for the crests of breaking water on the wake.