Project 18 - Model Water From Toilet Paper

No waves, just rippled water in a protected harbour is required. Whilst searching for suitable modelling methods I came across a YouTube tutorial that in my humble opinion is the quickest, easiest and most authentic means of creating modelled water on the cheap.

Here is the link:

https://youtu.be/2TwpB7sVMn8

Having extended the box forward (last posting) I also extended the box sideways using mirrors giving the appearance of a longer jetty with an extra boat moored alongside.

The trawler height (not including masts) only just fits the box so it cannot sit on top of the thick water layer. I made a template same size as the trawler footprint, blutac'd it in place and cut the toilet paper to fit around it. Having glued the three layers of paper in place the template was removed.

When dry I painted the paper using the same colours and method cited in the tutorial.

Finally, 3 coats of flooring clear gloss sealer brought the water to life.

Not too sure about the muddy colour. Photos of the water at low tide I have seen show it green! I guess it depends on the ambient light conditions so could vary from black to brown to green to blue.

No photographs that I have seen from the period (1960s) show a ladder fixed to the jetty for boat access. If a photo turns up showing a ladder I'll add it.

I found that inclining the back scene gave a better appearance than it  being vertical. It is held in place with light blue ribbon. Unfortunately I failed to achieve a seamless transition between back scene and model across the hinge. A few more wagons placed on the jetty will hide that.

To Part 8.

To Part 1.

Project 18 - A Better View

Family suggested a better view of the diorama would be obtained if the front panel of the box could fold down.

This was much easier to do than expected. The box walls are not glued or screwed but stapled so it was a case of slicing the overall black cover where the front panel joins the sides and floor and prising the panel off.

The protruding staple pins were cut flush.

I hinged the panel using black tape along the outside of the join.

To 'lock' the panel closed I used small neodymium magnets set into the walls and  lined up to the staple butts left in the mating parts.

Making the front panel fold down has another benefit in that the diorama is extended forward by 70mm allowing the sea to flow over the panel. That is the next job.

To Part 7.

To Part 1.

Project 18 - Jetty (Part 3)

The decision as to whether to have the trawler berthed or away from the jetty was made for me when I looked at prototype photographs and the position of trawler relative to jetty in the box.

Unwittingly the scene I have created is low tide. In fact the tide is at its lowest point when the harbour mud bottom is revealed with boats stranded on it. However, the trawler hull design is such that it is meant to be floating on water. Whilst the keel may be just on the mud the water level will be modelled at the hull water line. This solves another issue as to what colour the water should be. With tide that low it will need to be a muddy colour.

The jetty side is a photograph of the real jetty. It shows the wide variation in colours and texture that is visible at low tide. This would be difficult to reproduce authentically by other means.

In the 1960s the pilings at the jetty side were set at about 11 feet intervals. The brown balsa wood pilings shown in the photo need to be embedded in the rippled harbour water and will be fitted when the water is created.

On an academic note, that does not apply to the period of this model, in the 1930s horizontal fender beams were set between the pilings a few feet below the top of the jetty.

To Part 6.

To Part 1.