Acrylic Gel Medium... Gloss or Matte for simulating water?

Use whatever is handy.   The trick is to apply a final coat of Future floor polish for the overall wet look.  And don't forget to splash some Future onto your subject.  To my eye a flat-painted model plowing through the ocean, with no wet gloss from wave action looks like it was just plopped down on the water, instead of being a ship in the water.

Thanks Ed,

I'm going to make a sample board with the following techniques...

Silicone method - Painted base with silicone sealer

Gel method painted - Paint base.  Add gel.  Paint Gel.  Add future as top coat.

Gel method not painted - Paint base, add gloss gel as top coat.  Hi-light white caps with white paint.

Gel method with Sculpey waves for swells - Build up swells on base and bake, paint, cover with gel.

Gel method except mixing paint into the gel.

I'll be interested to see a side by side comparison.  I'll try and get that done this week.  If you can think of any techniques or modifications worth exploring let me know.

Take care and thanks again

Dave

Put this one somewhere in the list:

Paint water with a deep/dark color such as Paynes Gray

Paint foamy water white around the hull & in the wake

Make a "wash" of clear medium and lighter water color (Atlantic green/gray, Pacific Blue).  Overpaint deep water color & white.   This gives a depth to the foam - it is in the water, not on the water.

Imbed ship into base with application of more dilute water color.

Dab on some more straight white in the foamy area. Overcoat with Future to make everything wet.

Ed,

Tell me more about....

Imbed ship into base with application of more dilute water color

Thank you

Dave

weebles wrote:

Ed, Tell me more about.... Imbed ship into base with application of more dilute water color Thank you Dave

Remember that ships float in the water, not on the water.   A ship model which is sitting on top of a painted sea looks less lifelike than one which is actually part of its environment.

This is the new 1:700 scale Dragon Perry-class frigate sold as the Ingraham.   I've yet to install the PE masting & rails which are provided in the kit.  (I'm striving for an OOB build).  It comes with a whole hull option.  I chose to cut the lower hull to leave just the bow.  I want to show her plowing through the sea.

If you look closely at the bow you will see that it just doesn't make contact with the sea. ( It hasn't been imbedded yet.)  I need to flow a bit of colored medium around the bow and along the hull to blend the hull with the water.  Doing so permenantly afixes the ship to the base.  It becomes imbeded in the paint.

Her is a shot looking down on the hull & water.  You can see the deep darker water with some highlights of Azure blue.  I used artists tube acrylics for the dark Paynes Gray.   I used craft store paints and craft thick mixing gel for the wash (about 6:1 clear to paint).  

Without the ship you can see how the white froth applied earlier appears deeper.  This has a top coat of white which will be toned down some by the color wash which imbeds the ship.

I can also add a bow wave by painting some of the color wash, clear, and white onto a piece of plastic sandwich bag and imbedding it in the water - with a bit of a breaking curve/splash.

I've done some experimenting with this myself.  I've gotten the best results using Gloss gel.  Then overcoating it with some modpodge.  Then spraying future over the modpodge.  The results have been spectacular.  Better then I could have imagined.  Just brush paint the modpodge on in a couple of thin coats.

Michael

*EDIT*

You can also build up waves and turbulance with the mod podge as well.  Just an FYI.