Hi, I am very new to ship modeling, and i have come across a japanese site that uses a very unique way of creating realistic water using metal foils. Here are the links:
http://www.h3.dion.ne.jp/~mokei/j-gallery-taskforce.htm
http://www.oshipee.com/omami/j-build-taskforce01.htm
http://www.oshipee.com/omami/j-build-taskforce02.htm
http://www.oshipee.com/omami/j-build-taskforce03.htm
http://www.oshipee.com/omami/j-build-taskforce04.htm
Since i don’t understand japanese, I want to ask if you experienced modelers can figure out what the steps are by just looking at the picture. I find the metal foil method more superior than the gel medium method for creating realistic water. By the way, it is a very nice diorama too!
From what I gather from the pic, the sequence appears to be this. First you trace out the outline of the waterline onto a thin styrene sheet. Next fix it onto a piece of foil that’s been pre-crushed( you may want to watch out how you crush it so that your seascape will look more realistic). The crucial step seems to applying heat to the foil so that when the heat transfer over to the styrene sheet, it sort of turn soft & fill into the pattern of the foil. Now, whether is it direct heat or someother heat source that remain to be explore, you may have to do a little bit of experiment. My guess is that it’s hairdryer blower sort of thing, the industrial ones will be most effective, but a common hairdryer will probably do the job as well. Apply heat on the foil side & not the styrene side, 'cos the chances of burning & warping the styrene is rather high. The rest of it is rather straight forward, using epoxy putty to sculpt & form the wake. The rest is paint work. A few tips you might want to use, you may want to superglue with accelarator for the stern wake instead off sculpting it. Apply a thin coat in the shape of the wake, then spray the accelarator on it. You will find it sort of bubble up creating something liken to the wake of ships. After a few coat should get yourself a nice wake. The tricky part is that sometimes it will go out of control, you can never fully predict how the accelarator work on the glue so apply the superglue in successive thin coats & with some practice you should do fine. Have fun!
Babel fish gives a reasonable translation. Thanks for finding the site
barry
Hi,
I think the base ist not made of molten styrene but of simple plaster.
Babel fish translates “gypsum”.
A very nice technique, thanks for the link.
Bye
hi
gypsum is the basic ingredient for plaster of paris as in if you break your leg they put it in plaster
barry
do you guys think that the heating could be done in the oven instead of using a hairdrier? Just keep the oven low and check often.
you could ask J-Hulk, he has done some translating before for some other people.