The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

My Pit Road 1-700 Luftwaffe set has finally arrived so now I have everything I need to do my diorama of HMS Winchelsea getting bombed by JU88's in 1943.

The ship was disabled by a near miss and I want to represent the moment of detonation, along the lines of these vids & images:

Video of 600lbs bomb explosion: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8297951.stm

Still of same explosion:


Two stills of a WW2 mine being detonated:



So, does anyone have any tips for modelling such a thing in 1-700 scale?

I did my "shell splashes" for the D-Day landing seascape below the "Flak Bait" Marauder diorama using "micro balloon" powder, thin superglue and fine wires. The micro balloons are tiny glass spheres, and I built them up with repeated dipping in thin superglue then a tub of balloon powder. I'm sure you could build a bigger more complex shape by doing a bunch of "cones" and then clumping the together hedgehog fashion with some more glue and balloons. I think the micro balloon powder came from Precision Materials...

This is how they came out:


Bestest,
M.

Clydeside models do nice 1/1200 shell splashes that might do for small 1/700 scale ones.

Looking at the shell splashes as suggested above, perhaps silver foil crumpled and pressed into the shapes you want?

Try this link it shows a good way to make splash effects

Or there is other ways demonstrated on this link


Regards Splash

Some great tips here. I would try to use clear plastic card cut in spiky triangles and then spread them out like in the link, but use WoodLand Scenics Water effect.

I used cotton wool teased up into shape and then 'dyed' with colour washes of watercolour. The paint stiffens the material.

Jaime,
I sometimes use paper mache (as with this 1/1200 scale Enterprise). It is solid, but can be improved with careful painting.





regards,
Tim

I attempted to make some water explosions but like most others, did not manage to get it quite right. I used some kind of fine fibrous material that I bought in Poundland - I'm not sure what it was supposed to be used for, possibly as some kind of insulation. I found it to be better than cotton wool because it was thinner, easier to pull into shape and it kept its shape pretty well. I needed to pull the strands more vertically to make it look more realistic.








The submarine is about 30 cm long and made from a few bits of plastic card.