display

Waterline models pretty much require a sea/water base.  There are lots of options for this.  In 1:700 I can often make waves in a fairly thick blue paint with hand brushing, using several coats.  Then several coats of clear gloss.  When brushing, put down thicker application on each coat over crest of waves.

Other options include krinkled aluminum foil smoothed back out and glued to wood base, wavy plastic, or model railroad water.  Artist gel medium (thick) is also used to make water.

The thing is not to try to make the water "see through". It's not realistic. Don suggested one easy way- paint the board a blue-greenocean color, and paint on acrylic gel medium. It's pretty cheap at Aaron's and comes in several gooiness levels. Kind of like cold cream, dries clear and shiny, or matte if you buy that one.

If she is under way and you want a wake, find a photo of either that ship/ class or something like it and carefully copy what you see. You can put white acrylic paint in the gel medium for that.

Out of curiosity, the Clemson, Buckley or Perry class?

It's a Clemson class.  I would have preferred a larger size and maybe a full hull but the choices are limited.

Here's  the song about her.  The second one shows the ship.

www.youtube.com/watch

www.youtube.com/watch

This one shows pictures and drawings from the time, even the newspaper story:

www.youtube.com/watch

cs.finescale.com/.../107532.aspx

Here's a post from several years ago of one of my 1/720th scale carrier models.  In it we have a discussion regarding mounting waterline ship models to a plain, black base and does it work.

It is my preferred way of doing small scale waterline models.  It is direct and simple and as you can catch from the attached posts others acknowledge it as a excellent option to modeling  a sea.

A well done sea can enhance a model.  A poorly done one can hurt a well done model.

In my experience, casual model observers become so excited about the modeled wave action, etc., that they can miss the model ship entirely.

You can use silicone caulk to make an ocean surface, too.

I like the idea of the black base for the Reuben James.  That 4 stacker is only about 4 inches long.  It looks so small it could be easily overpowered by moving water.

I do have a couple other ships what I can display on waves or in a couple civil war cases a muddy river.  I'm thinking of having one fighting the current at a fork in the river as it makes a turn.  That way there will be a bit of foam off the bow in one direction and the stern in the opposite direction

You can go to an art  framing store and buy paper matte board in any color you like. It comes with a little texture that "suggests" water, but doesn't distract from the model. In my opinion the absolute worst idea is the crinkled tin foil method. It is a very accurate representation of crinkled tin foil, and I've never seen an ocean surface that looks like that.

Fred

onyxman

You can go to an art  framing store and buy paper matte board in any color you like. It comes with a little texture that "suggests" water, but doesn't distract from the model. In my opinion the absolute worst idea is the crinkled tin foil method. It is a very accurate representation of crinkled tin foil, and I've never seen an ocean surface that looks like that.

Fred

You have to be careful how you wrinkle it.  The wrinkles, representing wave crests, should be basically parallel, but not perfectly so.  I roll the foil first, then crush the cylinder to put the wrinkles in it.  They should be then flattened carefully, and much of the art is in the painting.

If it is not a diorama I would purchase a good thick piece of either azur blue glass or green glass and just use that. You can also get very dark grey, almost black glass known as turtle glass. Really an inexpensive way to display waterline.

Where would you go to buy this glass?

I worked at a commercial glass company and that is where I secured mine. Cardinal, PPG, etc. But they do not sell direct.Have to purchase from a distributor

I read an interesting technique for making a water base for waterline models in the Bluejacket newsletter about a year ago.  As mentioned here, you start with some medium like blue paint, plaster, or other, applying it in layers as you work, painting it as seen in photos. However, the article pointed out that you use your fingers in the wet medium to form the waves. Simply place your fingers palm down where you want the waves, spacing each finger as desired and slide the fingers off of the edge away from the ship. Repeat on the other side of the ship.  It is simple to do, and  it will look quite good.

Bill

I recall an article quite a few yeas ago that used a sheet of suspended ceiling light panel. They used the stuff that has a textured face on one side and smooth on the other. they spray painted the rough side with some white paint where you wanted to show the wake and the wave tops then blue, turned it over and you had flat smooth surface to place the model on.  It looked good in the magazine. I may still have the maga but it would take some searching. It looked surprisingly good.

Doc Hu

The main thing to remember is that at any scale that ship models are usually done in, you cannot see through the water surface. It's pretty opaque.