Displaying Waterline Ship Models

[Oceaneer99]

My PT-10 model will be my first waterline ship model, and it occurred to me that displaying it on posts on a base (like a full-hull model) is probably not a good idea.  It is quite a small model at 1/350 scale (only about 60 mm long), but even a larger warship would be this size at the typical scales around 1:1200.  I was curious to find out how others display their waterline models.  Here are some ideas I've seen:

• Glued or mounted directly onto a wooden base.  The 1:1200 scale ID models used in WW II were mounted this way, and even slid into slots in a carrying case
• Realistic water-diorama.  Lou has made a few of these.  Nice for a reasonably-sized single model.  Not really appropriate for an ID gray model, though.
• Just place it on a shelf.  The simplest solution.

I suppose if you mount it on a wooden base so that it is removable, you have the option of setting up "fleet operations" when you have built a number of models.  I nearly bought a large piece of dark blue felt a few weeks ago.  It might be possible to glue the felt to a piece of plywood to have a fleet maneuvers board.  My children use a similar green-felt covered table for their Lego trains.

Happy building!

Garet
Seattle, WA, USA

[lastvautour]

Garet, even at 2.5" the model would look good on a small base using the crinkle tin foil sea. Another thing would be to build a small dock but  smoothout the tin foil a bit more so that the waves are relatively small. There must be more ideas out there. I am planing on mounting my B314 on tin foil water. I am interested in finding out what you decide on.

[Ken Pugh]

Garet,

Among the ship modelers, you usually see the pedestal/base mode of mounting with a full hull.  That is how I like to mount my full hull ships.  I am also contemplating waterline warships and dealing with thoughts of scale, mounting, etc.  I like the idea of being able to pose several models of the same scale.  To that end, I plan to just mount the waterline models directly to a wooden plate slightly larger than the model.  I may stain the plate or paint it a neutral color, blue or gray, maybe.  If these are mounted with pegs in the base and holes in the ship, they can later be removed and placed on a sea in a diorama setting.  Gotta love that flexibility thing.  The plate is also good for labeling, either exposed or on the bottom.

I am still trying to decide on a scale.  When you are talking about building destroyers, submarines, and possibly modern carriers, you are talking a large span of sizes.  The same problem is vexing me regarding building some Star Trek ships later.  There is also a large size difference in those ships (well, theoretically.  Models of models  ).

What a wonderful hobby to have all these mental exercises associated with it, or just an excuse to discuss things with others.

Ken Pugh

[R.F.Bennett]

Perhaps you could find a picture of the surface of the sea. Print it out on gloss film paper. Mount in to a piece of sheet metal with a felt underside. Then embed small magnets in the bottom of your model. You could even mount the sheet metal in a picture frame and mount it on the wall. Just a though, never done it meself. 

[Oceaneer99]

Those are very neat ideas!  I did put a magnet in the fuselage of my Yak-1000, but haven't used it for anything yet.

Ken, you are absolutely correct about the huge range of sizes.  I want to make a PT-11 and send it to Lou so that he can photograph it with the Big-E, which is also 1/350 scale.

[lastvautour]

That would be great Garet. I would love to see other's work close up.  The Big E is a little cumbersome to send out, but your TB would do nicely. Just put lots of packing and a solid box. My shipment to Ray was lucky that the F DVII survived as the box was badly damaged in transit.

[davetunison]

This might be of use for solid ship and flying boat displays...


http://www.wingsofpeace.net/gallery/S/ShortsCanopus/canopus_short_s_23.html

[lastvautour]

I was thinking something like that but slightly bigger than what they have in your link. It appears to be around 1/700 scale. Thanks for the link. I the model was small enough one could use a hockey puck for a base. It would be solid and weighted for security..