Has anyone ever done an underwater diorama?

[MustangManiac]

Hi guys,

 

Has anyone ever modeled a seabed diorama?

 

I'm tinkering with an idea for later on down the road of doing a wrecked Zero underwater. What all would I need for materials for the water and seabed that I could color and give a blue/green tint to and still be deep enough to submerge a model? I may be thinking of getting myself into a project that I'll regret, but right now it kinda sparks my interest.

 

Thanks in advance,

Brady

[thierry laurent]

If you want to reproduce water, the main problem to make such dioramas is air bubbles as clear resin is generally not liquid as water. Before putting your kit or any other hollow element on the seabed, fill it with clear resin. This will help in avoiding this dreadful problem.

 

Very frankly, the best seabed dioramas I have seen had no simulated water. The dioramas were simply made in an aquarium-like glass box.

[GrahamF]

I've made two working models with real water. One was a funicular lift that we have in the UK at seaside resorts at 1:33 scale and another model a couple of years ago of a Siemens underwater electricity generator turbine. The one thing I would recommend is dont use real water and don't use lots of clear resin. The best way is to have a clear sheet of acrylic suspended to represent the water surface. Tropical fish centres have a good selection of gravels and make believe foliage.

Graham

[ssculptor]

Model railroaders have been making clear "water" on their layouts for as long as I can remember (that is going back to the 1940's for me).

The thing to understand is that model railroad layouts are really animated dioramas. Model railroaders have solved many problems associated with dioramas going back 10, 20, 50 years.

 

I just typed:

   model railroad layout clear water

onto my search engine (Google in my case), pressed enter and 10 articles appeared instantly.

Try it and have fun.

 

Two things here; first, keep in mind that our sister modeling areas, like model railroads, model ships, radio controlled flying model airplanes, tanks, and ships, etc. have solved many of the problems we might encounter and have come up with solutions.

Also thanks to the marvels of computers and the internet we can tap into their databases and quickly read what they have done.

Frankly, I find the computer internet world amazing. In the old days we had to keep hundreds of magazines about and then try to find the articles we need in them. That is why we joined clubs because someone usually could remember that there was an article written and what magazine it was in and somehow with help we could find the magazine that had it.

Now with the internet it took me only seconds to type " model railroad layout clear water" into my search engine and presto, there were ten articles on how to do it. 

I have been working with computers since the 1980's and I am still flabbergasted every time these miracles happen. 

You youngsters don't realize how wonderful the electronic age really is. Why I remember when we had to mount expeditions to the deepest darkest parts of South America to find balsa trees to get our basic modeling material. The Amazon valley was fraught with danger, Head hunter tribes, man eating snakes, lions tigers and bears abounded. Everytime we mounted an expedition we would lose two or three fellow modelers to these dangers, 

Life became much safer when plastics came in in the late 1940's. It was just a bit safer to mount safaris to the deepest darkest parts of New Jersey to get find and harvest the polystyrene plants. Well, there still was some danger from unruly natives who spoke with a funny accent but few modelers fell prey to them when we paid for "protection".

 

So remember, the computer search engine is the modeler's best friend.

Use it, you will like it. Mikey likes it.

Stephen 

[Hardcore]

Still need to know how phrase the right queries(?). Not that easy even in my own language.

[Chek]

The very talented Pierre Greutert made a 1/48 Fairey Swordfish maintenance at the dockside diorama back in 2008, at ARC I think.

It included fish in the water and a bicycle that had gone over the side, to the consternation of a couple of the figures, as I recall.

[Guest Clunkmeister]

I'm not scuba qualified.

[ssculptor]

Still need to know how phrase the right queries(?). Not that easy even in my own language.

Do what I do, try several different phrases and see what works the best. 

The trial and error method is free and takes very little time.

Enjoy,

Stephen

[Juggernut]

 

According to what I've read, this was done with a plexi box but I cannot figure out what material the top is made from.

Edited May 22, 2016 by Juggernut

[BradG]

This guy used clear resin.

 

http://www.network54.com/Forum/110741/thread/1303378895/Saipan+beach

[Juggernut]

This guy used clear resin.

 

http://www.network54.com/Forum/110741/thread/1303378895/Saipan+beach

I did see that.  That's amazing too.  The only drawback from what I read is that the entire thing is extremely heavy.

 

Edited May 22, 2016 by Juggernut

[Guest Smitty44]

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/99774.aspx

[Bill_S]

 

 

According to what I've read, this was done with a plexi box but I cannot figure out what material the top is made from.

 Try this:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000B6OSWE?ie=UTF8&tag=stormthecastl-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000B6OSWE

 

If I'm not mistaken, Woodland Scenics is a model railroading brand.

[LSP_Mike]

Pierre also did an incredible 1/32 Tamiya Phantom right here at LSP, many years ago.

[LSP_K2]

I've given some thought to doing something similar (probably a Corsair), and had determined to use lightly tinted green plexiglass for the sides, with bluish green plexiglass on the top.