I prefer to display flying boats and floatplanes in their natural environment, ie. on the water rather than on a beaching trolley. It makes them look more graceful and the water effect sets them off well. There are many ways of replicating water on a base, here are two modellers who inspired me, firstly this article by Patrick Roach which appeared in Fince Scale Modeller in the Nov-04 issue:
The other modeller is Stefan Bernet who posted a build thread of his amazing LVT amphibious diorama over at Hyperscale.
http://www.network54.com/Forum/110741/thread/1129553334/%22Land+tUnfortunately his photos are no longer available in the thread but I did save down a couple for reference.
"1) The base of the water is plaster. The waves were formed by putting a transparent kitchen foil onto the wet plaster and pushing it in with the fingers. When dry the base was painted with acrylics (dark blue, light blue and white).
2) The dark blue part of the water got 5 thick layers of gloss acrylic medium to achieve a impression of depth. Some wave tops were highlighted with gloss medium plus a little white. I kept this very subtle in order to get a stark contrast to the splashes of the LVT.
3) The splashwater section (base colors white and light blue) got 2 layers of gloss acrylic medium as a start.
Then I took kitchen sponges which have a rough side which is white. This white stuff was torn apart and ruffled up. Next I superglued this to the appropriate places and brushed it with acrylic gloss gel. After that the next step was to brush acrylic gel onto the white stuff. This gives it a transparent body when dry. It took several passes to cover each and everyone of the white threads
4) The white foam is a mix of talcum powder, acrylic flat medium and a little white paint. This needs two stages, one which is rather transparent as a base and a thicker one for the heavy foam layers.
Just to clarify: acrylic medium has about the consistency of honey and is used to make acrylics more transparent without thinning them (sold in bottles). Acrylic gel is like tooth paste and comes in jars or tubes. A well known brand is Impasto gel from Lascaux.
On my first attempt all went well though the blue colour I used was too bright, even for the Dardenelles
Second attempt went better
Next time I would use a coat of Future/Klear on top of the Mod Podge to give a rock hard finish
I reckon a WNW Hansa Brandenburg W.12 or W.29 would look brilliant speeding along, just about to lift off
