"Ships at Anchor in the Port" Topic

I have finished three ships at anchor for the port now. The only thing left I want to do is put some small rowed boats to or from the ships to the dock. I haven't ordered them yet so it may take a while. There are more photos on the blog site. volsminiatures.blogspot.com

nice one.
Rory

Very nice.

Really nice touch with the new ships. I know you voiced concerns on some of your previous posts about the town looking too busy. Now with the new ships at anchor the focus is really on them and their rigging. They really blend well with the town.

Beautiful work.

Very nice.
Cheers
paul

Vol,

your harbour gets busy! This looks really great!

What techniques and materials did you use for creating the water?

Did you buy 2 harbour sets or does Langton sell ships "under construction" separately?

Aquarius.

Stellar! An inspiration.

Wow

That is all

Ferg

Aquarius,

I just answered the same question in a personal message from Murphy on Saturday. Unfortunately no one can retrieve personal sent messages through TMP and I am in Alaska now for 2 weeks and don't remember all of the material brand names. I will list as much as I can remember.

Americana Navy Blue acrylic
Ocean Blue (can't remember the brand, but it is a dark aqua blue/green color) acrylic
Black acrylic
Americana Snow (Titanium White) acrylic
Rustoleum Spar Varnish
Modge Podge (a decopage)
Americana Ultimate Gloss Glaze
Dimensional Clear Silicone (can't remember the brand name)

1) Mix the paint thick (no thinning): 4 parts navy blue; 2 parts ocean blue; 1 part black (I increased the black a little for the port inside the breakwaters.)
2) I used a 1" flat brush and put it on thick in long arcing strokes with the arcs toward the wind direction.
3) After completely dry, apply a coat of the varnish.
4) When dry I glued down the breakwaters where I wanted them and set the dock pieces.
5) Using a ½" stiff flat brush with a stabbing motion, I applied thin white lines along wide arcs simulating light waves pushed by the wind toward the breakwaters. I also stabbed in the breaker lines along the breakwaters, island and mainland shores.
6) When this was dry I took a folded damp paper towel and rubbed the white lines to subdue them and make them more subtle.
7) Using a flat toothpick I applied the dimensional silicone along the white lines. This sets up pretty quick so you want to only apply about 4-inches at a time, then go back and dab them with the flat of the toothpick in an up/down motion to raise the wave peaks. When you are done wait until it is completely dry before moving on.
8) Next I covered all of the water with a thick layer of the Modge Podge.
9) At this point I did some touch-up along the shores and did some dry brushing of the breakers with the titanium white.
10) When I was satisfied with how it all looked, I applied a final coat of the gloss glaze.

This is the first time I have done it this way and like the way it turned out. I will use this method again for other large terrain pieces, but will continue to use the other way for my single ship bases.

Hope this was useful to you.

The second construction hulk is plaster of paris modeled from the metal hulk. If you blow up the photos you will see all of my imperfections in the duplication process.

Vol

Amazing work as always! The ships really bring it to life very impressive. Just a thought maybe a block of irregulars 2mm infantry on parade in the fort might be interesting, I've looked at using them with some of my 1:1200 ships for combined operations all be it for the wars of the Spanish succession. But the scale works to me eyes, it's like using 1:1200 aircraft with 1:3000 ships.

I had been wondering if 2mm figures would be compatible with 1:1200 scale and asked the question in TMP link
I received mixed responses, so haven't made up my mind yet. Thanks for the kind comments Ben.

Those look very nice I really like the effect on the water.

Sir Beaker,

Thank you. And welcome to TMP!