England Expects

I have more or less finished the Frigates for Black Seas and I thought it would be handy to put another guide to how I do the sea bases here.

They still need the pennants and ratlines for everything but the Surprise but they're certainly ready for the first game. I'll rig and add the sails to the brigs later.

The bases are a refinement of the ones I did for Cruel Seas which are basically a scaled down version of the ones I did for the U-Boat diorama.

The structure is a bit of sheet styrene - 2mm thick to provide a strong base. These are then covered in polyfilla and painted with dark sea green. It's important to make sure the ships fit but you can use this stage to model them listing or cresting waves.

Then add some offwhite/dark sea green highlights to the crests but also in random places. Then coat the whole thing in still water (or gloss varnish; still water is better because it levels out any little holes you have in the polyfilla)

Then slather Vallejo Water Effect Atlantic all over. It looks very bright but don't worry....

...it dries translucent blue. Leave it for 24 hours to make sure it's cured properly.

Now mix off-white, atlantic blue and still water and sponge it all over the higher points on your wave structures and wakes.

Then slather another, slightly thinner coat of the atlantic blue  and leave for another 24 hours. 

Now do your final wave crests and waves with a sponge, making sure to leave the stuff from the layer below visible. 

Glue the ships down

And finally, dip some cotton wool in the still water and place it around the bows and stern; brush it into place with the still water and you have sea foam. 

Hope this helps! Next up, an actual game.