Luftschiffmotorboot 1/144

[Dirigible-Al]

Not the most exciting thing but I thought I would show the base. Insulating foam was cut and sanded to shape. I then scrunched up some baking foil and stretched it very the foam. This was covered in white glue and green painted on the high parts and blue on the low ones. Next I put Many layers of varnish with a tiny drop of darker blue mixed in with the intention of giving it depth.  The raised parts will have cotton wool glued to them to resemble foam but I cannot do this until the boat is glued into it.
Thanks for looking in, Alan.

NB: pictures are in the wrong chronological order.

[RAGIII]

I have never tried doing water other than a puddle on an armor diorama. I look forward to seeing your results!
RAGIII

[KiwiZac]

Tinfoil for water...what a clever idea! It looks great!

[AngryJazz]

Well done on the project! Base looks like a fun project too! The waves came out very nice 

[NigelR]

Nice work on the base. I've always been tempted by ships and the allure of doing a seascape but so far I've never got round to it.

[Dirigible-Al]

Thank you for your comments RAGIII, KiwiZac, AngryJazz and Nigel.
I didn't invent the foil technique, I checked out UTube videos and thought this was the most practical and time effective method: https://youtu.be/aoAaodEqO0g?si=0bKtZN0LQG3hxKQo
Progress has been slow on the boat but I have worked on the crew. Although there are 7 crew members I don't think all of them would be on the deck at the same time and I opted for 3. These are 3d printed NeOmega figures which I sprayed white then brush painted the skin and hair. Uniform was painted in WW2 Panzer grey and given 2 washes of thinned black. Flesh and hair was washed with thinned brown. The commander 'Long John Silver' lost a leg when I clamped him in order to be painted. Somehow the clamp shot him like a bullet in one direction and his leg in another. I found Long John Silver under the radiator but to my amazement, after an hour's worth of unsuccessful looking, I found LJS's leg in the dustpan after sweeping the carpet later. I will attach it at the last minute in case it propells itself across the room again.
Thanks for looking in, Alan.

[RAGIII]

Excellent work on those Tiny figures!
RAGIII

[NigelR]

Great idea to add figures, they really make a ship model come to life. And even better with a full complement of legs.....

[Dirigible-Al]

Cheers RAGIII and Nigel, I had to have figures because it gives the proper idea of scale (as well as not looking daft racing across the water with no one in it!). I have put together the only open part of the boat. I must say this is at the limit of what I can do in this scale. Some of the stuff I made got lost one way or another due to size and had to be made again. Pretty much every time I put something on I knocked something off. I needed three pairs of glasses including one with a jeweler's loop attached. Even when I finished the control board the jeweler's loop fell off and landed on the dam thing and broke the throttles again. I was going to make another smaller board on the port side of the helmsman but thought I should quit while I am ahead. Almost all of the interior is speculative anyway, the only exceptions are the rudder wheel and post it is in, the compass above it and the two very small seats in the back. I looked at many motorboats of that era and concluded this is a realistic layout. I felt there had to be either a door or open entrance into the bow otherwise no one could get in there for repairs. Similarly I felt there had to be a door behind them connecting to the rest of the boat. The plank effect was done by pencilling it on paper cut to size, painting over it and glueing in place. The compass and dials were fuse wire wrapped around a paper clip then cut lengthwise to produce many circles. These were glued onto shrunken photocopies I made of dials. The switches are just stretched sprue pushed through small pre drilled holes. The fire extinguisher is a Bic pen cartridge heat stretched, painted silver and with a piece of PE sprue cut to shape and inserted in it. The throttles were the sleeve of small circuit wire cut into crescents and glued onto the control board with gaps between them. Into the gaps I glued about 1.5 mm lengths of fuse wire with tiny blobs of extra thick acrylic paint on the ends. Map/instructions pad is a small square of paper with silver paint run along the edge. The steering wheel was a large PE gun sight from the spares box. On looking at the pictures now I think I will re do the back door so it looks sharper but I am done with building for a couple of days.














   
Thanks for looking in, Alan.

[RAGIII]

Really amazing scratch-built details. I found Myself thinking about how tiny this really is, then saw the Bottle Cap photos! WOW!
RAGIII

[NigelR]

Fantastic detail work! And I enjoyed reading about your trials and tribulations...... I have had many of the same issues (like the removable lenses from my head worn magnifier falling out and on to the model....).

[Dirigible-Al]

Thanks for your comments RAGIII and Nigel, one day I might scratch built a 12" diameter bottle cap then it will be easier to make and display small details. I covered the deck with paper cut from the GA's and this has covered up the groove edge made for the torpedo tube. It should have covered part of the cockpit but it looked out. I couldn't understand why as I measured it enough times and finally cut it as per the GA's glued on. On inspection of the drawings before they were shrunk to scale I saw that they are a little skew whiff. There is a metal armoured plate that goes around the open cockpit and I hope to fudge the difference under this. Lesson learned, GA's are great but should not be unquestionably trusted. The structure behind the cockpit (engine room) is carved from balsa but will require a lot more work. I managed to make a couple of funnels. After hunting thru my wire stash I found a sleeved wire that was the same diameter as the GA's. The wire was taken out, it was cut at 45*, superglued together and widened at the top with a heated drill bit. The rough bits have been plastered with thick paint in order to be sanded and cut to shape (it is difficult to sand this stuff because it just goes fluffy so sharpening it up will take a lot longer than making it in the first place).
Thanks for looking in. Alan

[Dutch522]

I just love following scratchbuilding threads, the ingenuity you have to possess is a true gift, and this one showcases that fact better than most... pen-refill torpedo tubes and a tinfoil sea. Looking forward to seeing this little gem finished!

Dutch

[RAGIII]

The processes are always great to watch! Looking forward to your further progress!
RAGIII

[NigelR]

Wow, more amazing work and great problem solving. This is a lot of work for a tiny model!