OutcastJoel Posted May 1, 2020 Share Posted May 1, 2020 Hello, I am starting to build HMS Campbeltown for use in a diorama of it wedged on the lock gate at St Nazaire with the rear half underwater. I want to have the underwater bits visible and as such I think the way to do it is to use resin for the water effects. I have heard that resins can get very hot whilt curing and was keen to know if there are any that people on here have had success with? Thank you, Joel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bismarck builder Posted May 1, 2020 Share Posted May 1, 2020 hi yes lots of heat i use watercolour mediums by Daler & Rowney its a clear varnish 75 mil is enough for 700th scale you can get it from art shops hope that helps cheers gary r 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted May 1, 2020 Share Posted May 1, 2020 Heat is generated in the exothermic curing reaction of the resin. How hot it actually gets is a bit like microwaving cold food in reverse. It will be hottest at the centre of the mass of resin curing. A sphere, if you could pour a sphere, would be much hotter in the middle than if you poured the same volume of resin in a thin layer over a large area. It's all about surface area. If your "water" is shallow, the heat build-up will be relatively modest. If you pour a fairly deep block it's going to get hot in there... Using polyester resin with the minimum proportion of catalyst applied for the slowest, coolest cure, the perspex mould sides of a 500ml pour that measured out approx 13in long x 3in wide by 1in deep got very warm to the touch on the sides of the mould. I'm not sure I'd recommend polyester resin after my experiences with it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutcastJoel Posted May 1, 2020 Author Share Posted May 1, 2020 Thank you both, I will have a think and do some experimentation. I am not the biggest fan of varnishes for deep water, i have always had cracking unless applied in very thin layers. I think for a normal seascape that is exactly what I would use, but I want this to be pretty clear all the way to the seabed. Jamie's point about the temperature being related to the volume/surface area is a good one. For this diorama, the water only needs to be 15-20mm deep and I don't mind doing that in ~3 separate pours, 1mm at a time would drive me insane though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted May 2, 2020 Share Posted May 2, 2020 Have you seen this? It's not so much a "how to" but more a "what not to", but if it helps you avoid repeating my mistakes then it's useful! It's not nec 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted May 2, 2020 Share Posted May 2, 2020 Perhaps also worth bearing in mind that if the water in St Nazaire was clear all the way to the sea bed, then it’s the only harbour like that on the planet; the water in most harbours is filthy 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 That's a good point. You'd probably get away with parking the ship's back end flat on a brownish base the pouring a fairly heavily pigmented thin layer of resin just to give that impression of depth you want. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewbacca Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 18 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said: Perhaps also worth bearing in mind that if the water in St Nazaire was clear all the way to the sea bed, then it’s the only harbour like that on the planet; the water in most harbours is filthy Kota Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo. Absolutely crystal clear from the surface down to the seabed which was about 15-18m at our berth. But other than the very rare, obscure Far East Asian, ports, i'd totally agree with that! I remember an excellent diorama of this using a heavily modified Airfix CAMPBELTOWN that was in an Airfix magazine or modelling special back in the 70s. That used a resin so that you could see down to the deepest part of the quarterdeck - probably about 5-6 feet under - but no more. In 1/700 scale that's only about 3 mm 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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