Making a sea base for the Airfix Severn Lifeboat

1
February 24, 2023
I started by making a sea base with the top of a wave diagonally to its center. I used my trusty foam cutter to good avail, glued the individual segments with PVA glue and filled seams with DAS modeling clay. My usual stippled coat of white wall paint brought the desired texture.
2
February 24, 2023
I had looked into images of Severn boats at speed and had identified "segments" of waves and spray. To produce these in a structured manner, I cut a number of "wedges" from foam board. These would act as the cores of the various spray segments. Once fitted, they were numbered and then painted white.
3
February 24, 2023
The base was sprayed in my usual manner with shades of green.
Some swirls were added into the wake by spraying white primer.
4
February 24, 2023
Test-fitting the vessel.
5
February 24, 2023
The individual segments were coated with fresh cotton wool glued with clear gloss acrylic gel. They were teased into the desired shape and then sprayed with Future to make the fibres cling together and loose that fibery look.
6
February 24, 2023
The base received a good gloss coat.
7
February 24, 2023
Adding the various spray segments, taking care that those at the bow would stand proud from the surface to add some more dynamic to the scene. The segments were glued using acrylic gel.
8
February 24, 2023
I wanted some crew figures and ended up with these Italeri items.
9
February 24, 2023
They needed some modifications, and I had to make the paint stick to the soft plastic. I gave them a good bath in silicone remover, washed them and let them dry. Then I sprayed them with white Stynylrez primer. That did the trick.
10
February 24, 2023
I added some details like the lifevest and the boots using Vallejo acrylic putty from a tube. That needed some drying time and would not become really hard and crisp, but worked for me.
11
February 24, 2023
Following images from the net, I sprayed the figures yellow and hand painted the rest.
12
February 24, 2023
After a wash and a flat coat, the figures were placed on the vessel using Bindan RS PVA glue which cures flat.

Comments

8 24 February 2023, 12:23

Chris Baer
Thank you for taking the time to document your steps, particularly for those of us working up the courage to take the plunge (pun mildly intended!) into creating custom bases . . .

24 February 2023, 13:38

Michael Kohl
This 101 comes at the right time after I bought a search and rescue vessel myself which I want to display it in a similar manner. Unfortunately it is a waterline model and I will have to make at least the front part of the hull myself.
I particularly like soft rolling wave as basic layout. It is easy to overdo it. This looks just right to me.

24 February 2023, 13:53

Frank Spahr
Very glad you like it and found my album helpful!

24 February 2023, 16:08

Project info

Severn Lifeboat at speed

20 images

1:72

Completed

1:72 RNLI Severn Class Lifeboat (Airfix 07280)

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