1/700 HMS Aurora (FlyHawk)

Inspired by one of my idols here on modelwarships.com, Kostas Katseas, I tried to create my own idea of an English coastline with lighthouse and some other buildings, cows, vehicles and people. The lighthouse was made with a rawlplug and other things I could find in my workshop. The houses were built, using remnants from an old wooden ship model. The cows are 3d-prints, the cars are resin models. The sailors and all the other people are PE parts from Eduard. As I would not dare to work create such tiny vehicles, people and animals myself, I usually come back to great manufacturers who are much more experienced than me.

My diorama features HMS Aurora with her 1945 camouflage passing a coastline at slow speed. As always the Flyhawk model was big fun to build, with all its incredibly well elaborated details. To get it a more realistic look I used PE parts and the wooden deck by the same manufacturer.

Against a lot of recommendations I started airbrushing with Revell aqua colours some time ago and must admit that I am quite happy with the results achieved. It needs some fiddling around with the correct proportions of colour and water but once you’ve got the feeling, it’s quite simple. Nothing special about the rigging. I used threads by Uschi’s as well as stretched plastic sprue where more stable rigging was needed.

For my dioramas I usually use Styrofoam as a base and sculpt whatever I want to with some kind of “light-plaster” available in our Swiss shops. This time I tried to create tiny waves rolling in from the sea by shaping relatively wet plaster with a brush. On this diorama I tried not to add too much of NOCH’s “water effects” but to dilute some of the amazing stuff with distilled water and then using is as some kind of varnish. I applied about 2 layers and added cotton wool to create the waves around the ships waterline. When it comes to the spindrift, I learned by coincidence a technic, which involves NOCHS “snow effects” mixed with transparent modelling glue. After having dried out, the first cloudy mix, becomes white again, with nice sparkling effects due to the “snow” particles. I am really happy with the result.

Gallery updated 4/5/2019

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