scale photography is tricky for many reasons. mainly light needs to be scaled too, if you are going for realism. Perspective distortion needs to be scaled too. of course quality of the subject item helps too.
search for photos of the real thing online or similiar item, so in this case any large war ship photos will do, not just the specific one you've modeled. Then sort out the good ones that stand out to you for some reason. there will be tons of "just photos and happy snaps" out there but ones that are "good photos" will be rare. A good photo should give some sort of feeling to the viewer, not just something thats been over saturated and sharpened in photoshop. Ships are huge things and its hard but not impossible to convey the sense of scale and mass and power in a photo. So find those photos. look at things like framing of the shot, i doubt many or any will be a "ship in the ocean photographed from a helicopter" so why shoot a model using that perspective? next look at the shadows, they will be hard and well defined adding interesting detail to the shot. In your shot its all diffuse lighting with no hard shadows to bring out shape and detail. some parts will be shiny and others dull. Are there interesting visual points due to colouring?
these things give you pointers to improving the shot, first use the references to guide you what parts should be shiny or wet and brush on some clear gloss/satin/matte as appropriate to start differentiating those parts so they contrast more accurately. Maybe there is a certain feature of the subject that should be a focal point for a shot, like maybe an array of huge guns on a battleship or a lot of aircraft lined up on the deck of a carrier to help show how big the damn thing is etc. see what you can do to help convey the key features effectively on the model. Many model kits now you can find aftermarket parts to upgrade parts supplied in the kit. Plus you can scrap build parts too. or find decal sets to use or just print stickers yourself. every little step you can take to help get a model towards perfection will help. No matter how much you spend on a camera a toy boat will always look like a toy boat but a toy boat can be made to look better at least with scale modelling techniques. Thats off topic and plenty out there for you to investigate, point here is to improve your photo first improve the model.
Next lighting. A light tent is good for getting a nice even diffuse lighting over the whole model, they also have ground and backdrops that provide an even curve without shadows behind the model. making it easier later to add a background digitally if you like. Now you have the harsh shadows and shiny highlights to bring out. Many ways to do this but in the case of models when you get it wrong its very noticable. A light tent and good white balance lets you bring out the shape of the model very nicely. Now find a small portable worklight with flexible positioning light and dimmer. This becomes your scale model sun. you can only use one so you only get one set of shadows, use two and you have a second set of shadows in a different direction. very detracting from the photo. The closer you put the light to the model the brighter you can make highlights and deeper shadows but also the shadow spread will V out fast again removing realism and probably having too overexposed highlight areas. Its a balancing act finding where to position light. A wider bulb close to the model and shadows come to a point, a narrow bulb close the shadows widen outwards unrealistically. It'll be a trial and error process for every single shot to place lighting to best work for the shot. The shot. Here you really should plan, plan and plan again. Filming you must plan shots carefully, framing of the shot, position of lighting, position of elements in the shot, and all sketched out first and crossed off as you get the shot. Story board the shots you want to get. Set the camera on a tripod and get it framed accordingly, adjust lighting. Lens focal length comes in here, a wider lens tends to distort/round everything, the "camera adds five pounds" effect, while a longer focal length tends to narrow and flatten the subject to its true size. look at photos of a full moon: flat and boring. Aperture, that pesky misunderstood f -stop number people wrongly use all the time. you are looking at those great photos you found online every time I raise a new point aren't you??? hm, you wont find many photos of large items having the front and rear of it out of focus so you dont want to be using f2 lenses or anything fancy like that. Large structures tend to be shot entirely in focus and nice and sharp so you want to go for f8 or smaller aperture (larger f number) to get everything in focus. the problem here with models is often you dont want the background or floor to be in focus either to destroy the illusion. you can make your own light tent with two sheets of tracing paper with balsawood frames you can sit either side of the model just out of shotwith a desk lamp behind those to provide nice diffuse light from two directions and give you clear distance front and back of the model. get rid of other light sources and in the basckground distance hang a black or ****e wheet to give you an even backdrop that will hopefully be non distracting and certainly not sharp so the model stays crisp and "separate" from the backdrop (notice how portrait photos are like this: head in focus, background blurred so face is jumping out in sharp relief.)
Another effect often used that I've used with success using 1:43 scale diecast cars, is to isolate the model entirely up on the end of a stick and use a remote flash bright and very close to the model but just out of shot then use a telephoto lens from a distance with no other lighting. I got fancy showroom looking shots of model cars doing this, the bright flash up up close is not in shot and it lights well the whole model in my case I placed it directly above the cars so I got the paintwork down the side nicely, deep harsh shadows in the wheel rims but light falloff was fast so you don't see the bottom edge of the tyres, shadows have faded in by then, so you can't tell its not a car sitting on the ground.very high shutter speed so I was only catching the light starting its journey so the rest of the room was in blackness. Glass, gloss point and chrome just sung with highlights from the flash though. So the car was in total darkness looking light it was light by tubes above it in a showroom maybe. Maybe you can explore similar light effects maybe a light hidden behind the ship so you get a black silouhette effect. The best thing about digital photography is you can afford to experiment with settings etc. The cars I did took me several hours to get set up. especially tweaking flash and shutter speeds to capture a well lit shot. Once figured out I just grabbed other cars and swapped them in and shot them fast and consistently. So this might be what you need to do: build your own lighting rig/photo booth. I came from doing 3D modelling which I started in the mid 80s and I have digital lighting rigs that evolved over the years so I could throw in a model I'm working on and see how it looks consistent to everything else. I aimed to model photorealistic 3d models so having accurate ligting is essential and a well made and textured model may look great when modelling but chuck it in an already lit scene and it can become ugly and shortcuts in modelling show up fast. So I had several lighting rigs to help me model as well as "stress test" my texturing under various lighting scenarios. Some of my work was for specific projects for film/tv while others I ended up making just to sell so I wouldn't know what sort of lighting rigs they woud need to work in. so if you are getting into scale models and want to photograph often then put some thought into taking a cardboard box and turning it into a lighting stage with interchangeable ground/backdrops to give context to your models.
Even though I'm now disabled I've gotten back into scale model building recently, doing up some EggPlanes at the moment. I don't often have photos to share, I dont care for that sort of thing, its a relaxing and challenging hobby for me and I'm learning heaps listening to podcasts like On The Bench. I've got models I build 30yrs ago that I'm cleaning up and fixing/enhancing using my newer skills and knowledge. I dont try to compete with the quality of the pros, I just enjoy the progress and accomplishment at my own skill level. Havent melted any models yet at least or glued my only working hand to my crotch. I've only built planes and cars so no pointers on ships really. I'm interested in giving ships and armour a go but budget etc
and small stash to work through in the mean time.
Edit:
Here's a
post on my blog (you can hear the crickets, I rarely use it) of a 1:43 scale porsche I converted and liveried for my favourite racing driver Ronja Assmann. Her first race in Carerra Cup was this car in this livery was also the first race of hers I was able to watch live online. It started as a "can I do this at all" project and ended up good enough I sent it to her. There is a photo at the end of the post with the result in my lightbox using only the diffuse lighting, the car is very glossy but you can see how it needs a direct lightsource to add highlights to show the curves of the car but the diffuse lighting shows everything reasonably well. Almost everything I did on the car was new to me, zero knowledge or experience, so much I would do differently if I did it again. So don't get put off experimenting even if you do modelling with a child who wants everything painted bright red and green you can use washes, panel liners, highlighting techniques to make it pop still.
