When developing Dreadnought, I became fascinated by the concept of bracketing (marking a two splashes with the target between them) and reading splash results to correct gunnery. Furthermore, I found it obvious only after reading about it, that in doing so you very much didn't want someone else shooting at your target at the same time because you'd confuse the splashes. So in the end I spent a lot of time about those white pegs you find in a game of battleship and how important they were to the gunners of World War I.
For the game I decided to make my own. I've seen other games use things like golf tees, which work well for those systems, but I wanted something a little more realistic looking. So I ended making about 10 out of basing spare foam. Ten seems to be enough for my needs, but I don't tend to play large games. If I were planning a large game with dozens or more ships, I'd probably make more. But for my current games of about a half-dozen, 10 has me covered. So let's have a look at how I made them:
First, I used penny bases as weights. I then sperglued wire spikes to shape the plume and give it rigidity.
Then I added the foam with superglue. Note: This bit is messy!
Once done, I covered them in superglue to harden them.
I base coated them in white, followed by dark blue, then dry brushed back up to a white.
Note: I'll probably make another batch for my ACW project as those splashes were a little smaller and also a bit more of a brownish water.
Finally, I added a generous helping of varnishes. You can't see it well in the photos, but what I did was this:
Sprayed a matt varnish all over the markers, and let dry.
Sprayed a gloss varnish all over the markers, and let dry.
Sprayed a light coat of matt varnish from directly above only, and let dry.
This gives it a bit of depth and watery-effects.
So all up, took a couple of hours tops. But only took seconds to be applied to my British battlecruisers...