So I have a lot of submarines. They are all in 1:350 scale ranging mostly in the late cold war. Well I am trying to figure out what would be a good way to display these without using the pos stand the kits come with or mounting it on a plaque with rods holding it up. I am thinking about making a dry dock… but that would be too big for a shelf. Cool but too big. So does anybody have any ideas or pictures. I also thought about just doing the base of a dry dock.
Would love to hear if not see some ideas as well. Thanks for your time!
This is just my opinion, but I personally don’t have an objection to plaques with rods holding them up. To me, it gives the look of a nautical office and lends a professional air to them. I use clear plastic rod from the local plastic shop, and I also make my own wooden bases out of oak planks from the hardware store, using a router to put a nice decorative edge on them. For a $30 board of oak, a $4 can of stain, and $5.00 for 20 ft. of plastic rod, you can make bases forever, achieve a uniform look in your display of ships, and avoid the cheap look of the kit supplied bases. Just my .02 though.
Well, I don’t know how to do it, but I know it can be done. I’ve got a little Oracle paperweight my dad gave me years ago that’s a block of acrylic, glass-clear, with two of those AA battery tester touch strips suspended within. It could and probably does get pricey with a big ship, but man it could look cool!
You could probably even tint the resin (or whatever medium you use for the water) to give the appearance of deep ocean.
Have you thought about a plaque hung vertically on the wall? Use some J hooks used to hang plumbing pipe…they come in a variety of sizes…mount them to the plaque and rest the sub in he hook.
You can mix scales to create force perspective displays. Museums do it all the time. A larger scale aircraft such as a 1:72 P-3 mounted above a 1:350 sub gives the perception the aircraft is high above.
If you mount three different scales of aircraft you can give the perception of a formation using less required space. The smallest to the rear.
If you try to encase them in acrylic you run into the possible problem of heat being generated as it cures and you will have a distorted blob in the middle of a cleat block.
A few weeks ago I came across a build where the guy was just putting a thin layer down for shallow water for his float plane and it melted the floats.
I have a few subs in the works and was thinking of doing a sandy bottom base with maybe some reef or rocks to mount the subs on using clear acrylic rods from the hidden side.
I agree with Div. 6, heat might be an issue. What about creating a base to depict the bottom, and then building an acrylic cover tinted appropriately to represent deep water? You could use clear acrylic rod to hold up the sub, and mount the rod at an angle into the sub, coming from the back corner. This would make the rod difficult to see from the front. You could complete the effect by modeling the ocean’s surface on the top surface of the acrylic cover. If you wanted to get really ambitious, you could have the acrylic cover be a cylinder with a round top. This would simulate a “column” of water.
I’d better watch out. I’m tempted to try this idea myself LOL.
cut two pices of wood and put together to make a back and bottom. mist with different shades of blue to create water, then mount two rods from the back and mount the sub from the back to give the affect that it is floating in the ocean hope this helps
