How to recreate ice.

[gmsphoto]

Hi

I was thinking of doing a German destroyer sitting in a fjord hiding from the strike wing. What is the best way to recreate the ice and water.

 

Many thanks

 

Graeme

[Badder]

Hi Graeme.

I make AFV dioramas in 1/35th but I think Woodland Scenics Realistic Water might serve you well. It's expensive (getting on for 20 quid a bottle) but I used it in my dios 'Lost in France' and  'Carry on Regardless' with some success.

Here are the links:

 

You will see that colour can be added to the product prior to, or after pouring. Whilst I added browns to recreate muddied water, you can add blues/greens to create a sense of depth and white can be added to the upper layers to simulate ice.

First, I'd pour cloudy blue-green layers to the required depth, letting each layer set. Then pour another layer and whilst it's still liquid, mix white in around the edges (a coffee stirring stick is a good tool for this)  Assuming you want your destroyer 'ice-bound', I would mix the white in around the hull and along the shore line. Let that set and then mix white into some more Realistic Water and pour a very thin layer over the entire 'ice sheet'.

You could try air-brushing/spray-canning white over the required areas just as the RW surface has started to congeal.

An alternative, which I discovered in the making of 'Carry on Regardless', is to mix in Cyano Acrylic glue whilst the final layer is still liquid. The CA reacts with the RW and turns into a whitish stringy gel, and this can be pulled around with a toothpick. Again, I'd think about spraying white paint over the area as well. 

If you can build up all these layers subtly, then you'll have some areas where the ice is thick and opaque (around the hull and along the shoreline) and other areas which are more transparent, giving veiled views to the deeper layers and creating a sense of depth.

Oh, and one final bit of advice, Whilst RW is self-levelling, it sometimes requires that you pull and push the liquid into the details around the edges i.e. into shoreline vegetation/between rocks etc. Again, a toothpick is good for doing this. BUT REMEMBER: Do not be tempted to touch any layer once it has started to set! (airbrushing at a low pressure is okay though)

 

I hope you find this useful, and don't forget to post your results!

Rearguards,

Badder

 

Edited November 20, 2016 by Badder

[Badder]

If you want to add sub-surface details such as sea-weed/rocks, you might find my Lost in France dio helpful too.

Here's the link for that:

BTW, I am currently building a winter scene dio 'Hambushed!' which will feature snow and icy puddles. I won't be at that stage for quite some time though.

As an after-thought, if Realistic Water is too expensive for you, you could try creating an ice shelf with a piece of transparent plastic sheet, cutting it to fit around the hull and suspending it over a pre-painted sea bed? You'd have to build the shoreline and fix the sheet into it.  A light spray coat of white or pale grey on both the top and underside of the sheet might produce an adequate icy look?

Rearguards,

Badder.

Edited November 20, 2016 by Badder

[John Laidlaw]

In addition to Badder's excellent work (how did miss them before?!), you could also have a look at Precision Ice and Snow. I've not yet used it, but @robvulcan did some reviews, and the results were very good:

http://www.precisioniceandsnow.com/

[Pete in Lincs]

I've painted the bottom of Perspex sheet

in a patchy white spray before now, it can

look quite good. Look for cheap picture frames

in poundstretcher of Wilko's. they sometimes

have plastic/perspex rather than glass in them.

[gmsphoto]

Many thanks for the help. I appreciate it.

 

 

Graeme

 

[Badder]

Sorry, gmsphoto, it seems I gave you the link to the RFI for Carry on Regardless, not the WIP, which is what I meant. It shows colouring of Realistic Water, AND the effects achieved by adding CA to liquid RW.

So here's the link to the WIP:

Water effects from page 5 onwards.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

Edited November 20, 2016 by Badder

[bull-nut]

If the water is fully frozen over, waterline the model, and spray a piece of thin transparent plastic sheet, such as comes with the afore mentioned photo frame, with a window frosting spray from your local DIY store. paint the baseboard black, and glue the plastic sheet down to it, then the destroyer to the sheet and blend the seam with your choice of fine snow scatter. The black paint gives the illusion of depth, while the frosting spray gives the sheet the appearance of thick ice. For added detail, dripping hot candle wax, very carefully, onto the plastic sheet after spraying, and ironing beneath a cloth, gives the look of air pockets trapped beneath the ice.

 

If the water is not frozen over, I've seen some nice results using transparent silicone sealant from the same DIY store, just make sure it is labelled as TRANSPARENT, the stuff labelled CLEAR actually dries cloudy, which thinking about it, may work to blend in an ice locked ship in conjunction with the sprayed sheet.

Edited February 18, 2017 by bull-nut