The Little World

And not just in the Sahara – you’ll be struggling if you search in your local hobby shop.

I’ve wanted it for several projects but rarely found a good representation. Were I a dedicated ship modeller I would find the problem to be central to my builds. i suppose this would either drive me to find a solution or away to make toy trains.

The basic problem is that each ship cuts a different wake in the water and even if a kit maker supplies a plastic sea, it isn’t likely to be either big nor accurate enough.

Plastic sheets of water for the HO scale trains look too placid.

Carved foam or plaster still needs to be painted and glossed to look like water and unless you are Terrance Cuneo you aren’t going to do it artistically or well.

I tried blue cellophane from Officeworks over a plastic foam sheet but the result was simplistic. Okay for moored seaplanes but not real sea.

HO scale modellers make water around seaports or in lakes with clear resins poured into prepared scenery. It can be perfect, but that is a lot of resin and weight for a scale model ship.

And awed kudos to the modeller who encased a sunken U Boat in a resin cube. I bet it never moved from where it was cast.