Need help with JAWS diorama- resin water / ocean...

Hi Ben!

    Watching the members of my RailClub/Museum do water and lakes and stuff, I have learned this much. Our best scenery expert tints the resin when she want's to indicate really deep water. That is available usually where you would obtain the resin.

Oh man, when you are ready, please post a few pictures.  Jaws is one of my favorites!  

Blarson79

Hi all,

I have been hand building a model of the ORCA from the movie JAWS. I am still working on it, and it has been a little over a years worth of work now. I am nearing completeion on this, and am wondering if anyone has experience working with resin. I would like to place this in a base that resembles the open ocean, with waves.

I have searched Youtube, and only found very clear resin waves, beach settings, or huge tidal waves. I am looking for the look of the deep blue open ocean, as well as the white froth where there is movement (by the boat, barrels, shark, etc.) Anyone have any resources? As the model will be trapped in this base, I need to make sure this comes out looking right. 

Thanks!

Ben Larson 

I suggest taking a different tack, and use a piece of foam for the base. If you do a web search on "Chris Flodberg", you should find tutorials he has done on using a piece of foam for the core of the base, and then using artist's arcylic gel to make the water.

His work was featured in a recent, that is, over the past 2 years, issue of FineScale, so you might even find it here.

Basically, he carves a piece of foam, like insulation, to shape the waves.  Then he coats that with paper towels soaked with artist's acrylic gel.  For wave caps and spray, he uses medical wadding-it's like cotton, but synthetic-also soaked with acrylic gel.  His bases are outstanding.

If the shark is going to be viewed from above and not the sides, you can paint the bottom a dark deep ocean blue and instead of resin you can try Liquitex Gel Medium. Its normally white but it dries clear overnight and the deep ocean color comes through naturally. Also you can form the waves as you go and it cleans up well. Then when it dries you can add the foam colors you desire. That is what I use for my ships in the ocean. I hope this helps.

Look down the Diorama topic list to the thread 'Diorama Resin'.   If the shark is to be a major display item, consider the plexiglas box mentioned