One of the last things I have to do with my section #1 is pour some water for my pond/lake. I could use some inspiration and some advice on what others have learned from creating a water scene like products and supplies, techniques and pitfalls.
Here is a pic of my section and where the lake will be.
I use Envirotex Lite for my water. I always do several pours, which is necessary for proper bubble-free curing anyway, but it also gives me the opportunity to tint the mixture a bit differently at each level. This is the bottom level, showing some of the surrounding base. I actually cut the stream so that I had real depth, but most of the illusion is from painting the base and tinting the water. I used some real sand and rock castings for the stream bed and shoreline.
Here’s the almost completed scene:
Downstream just a bit, I brought the trees in close to the shoreline, and ran the stream between two hydrocal rock castings, actually just small chips off of larger castings. This is typical of a New England look.
The next scene is still my favorite.
Again, the waterfowl are from Preiser. I use a lot of the light green “field grass” around my streams and ponds. When you pour Envirotex, it tends to creep up the sides of its boundries. So, I pour the Envirotex first, and after it hardens I touch up the edges. I use Aileen’s Tacky Glue to hold the field grass in place, and sometimes add bits of flocking or turf at the edges.
For a pond or lake, I would paint the ‘bottom’ burnt umber and darker, and then fade it to a greenish tan toward the shore. You can add grit for a pebbly bottom. You can make your water crystal clear or murky.
I made murky water, but with alluvial fines in it and glaciated water mixed with spring run-off such as found in the Thompson River in south-central British Columbia.
First I poured three layers of two-part epoxy found in the paints and finishes section of your hardware store. In the third pour I added a pinch of Plaster of Paris for turbidity, and a half-drop of Huader Medium Green in the Wal Mart crafts section’s acrylic paints. For the final layer, all I did was spread a thin sheen of gel gloss medium, and then I turned the small foam brush on its side and stippled the spread gel gloss medium. I am pleased to say I got the “Thompson” look about right.
Crandell
I also used two-part epoxy resin from the hardware store. No evil odours with it, thankfully. Mine was poured in three layers, each layer tinted very slightly with acrylic paint. Brown first, then green, then blue-green because I didn’t want a crystal clear trout stream.
The bed was painted so it graded to a lighter gravelly colour around the edges.
The resin dries with a very high gloss as said on the pack. To get surface ripples I had to watch over it as the final layer dried, and I repeatedly worked a bamboo skewer and a toothpick through it until, after maybe 90 minutes they started to take. If you’re doing a more sheltered pond you would probably want smaller surface ruffles, if anything, and maybe Woodland Scenics water effects might be the go.
If you use resin you’ll find it bulges at the edges and you’ll need to tease out theses bulges with a toothpick. In the next pic you can see the results if you don’t do that. The plan had been to have a bridge pier in the foreground, which is why I hadn’t bothered in that spot at that stage.
I used acrylic gloss medium to get some smaller ripples onto the surface.
Mike
I too would suggest you have a green to brown pond bed, rather than blue. It will look much more alive, like Mr B’s.
Crandell that’s a marvellous ruffled surface. I’d like to see some views from down nearer water level sometime [:)]
Mike
I use acrylic gloss medium for my water, then touch up and add ripples with gloss gel. Here is a picture of a diorama I built for Take a Model Train to Work day 2008. The scenery and figures are a little slapdash – a co-worker and I had a friendly competition, and I got in over my head with a farm at the other end, and didn’t have time to do much on this end. Photo isn’t great, either. It was taken in my cube at work, and would have looked better with a backdrop, an overhead “sky”, and better lighting. Still, notice how the water reflects the things behind it. If you have sky in your backdrop, your water will look blue.
As others have said, the river is painted black, gradually fading to brown at the edges (I actually painted the black first, then added brown in progressively more dilute washes as I worked away from the edge. The stream coming down the hill is gloss gel dry-brushed with gloss white acrylic paint to simulate the foam.
Note that the water is only about 1/4" thick. From your scenery, it looks like you’re expecting to make yours several inches deep. This may not work that well – you may want to build up the scenery base so you’re not trying to build up 12+ pours of resin / medium / Realistic Water / whatever.
Holy cow!! This…from The Master? [:O] [:D] Well, thank-you, Mike. I’ll attempt a shot of some kind, probably a WPF shot since I’ll have to set it up, and try to get well down to wave height. I’ll have to, uh…dust the water first. It has been a while.
Crandell
Yep. There is some beautiful modeling in this thread!
Some older pictures of a few water features:
“Water” is high gloss clear urethane over painted patching plaster. Very durable.
Wayne
Wayne, your high shot of the beach and waves with the switching tower is just awesome. They don’t come better.
Mike, after some cleanup and setting up the “hill” (really a scenicked hand towel draped over a larger towel draped over the top handle of a stepping stool), this is about as good as its going to get with this 15" wide shelf. Without the temporary props, you would see the milled lumber lining the operating pit and the back part of the layout.
Crandell
Great water, Crandell. Very realistic. Thankyou for that.
Mike
Thank you all so very much for your photos and advice. There’s some amazing talent out there. Do you have any suggestions for mine? I’m really hoping doing the actual water will make it look like I want it too, but I feel that I’m missing some details. [*-)]
If you do a search, using a syntax such as “How to make water” in “Search Our Community” at the right, below all the ads, you are sure to find all sorts of posts and threads dealing with the topic. There are many ways and products. Care must be taken, patience, even some throw-away experiments are often advised. Mock up a tiny lake or pond on a piece of suitable disposable material, a small piece of masonite waste, or some insulation foam board. Figure out what paint to get the bottom to look ‘close’, and also try making an edge dam so that whatever medium you use for the water doesn’t end up all over your carpet or floor. If you have escape hatches for those liquids, they’ll find every one of them…and use them. Looks like you’re going to have to dam the edge, so think about that. I made sure the edge was clean and planar, and I pressed painter’s masking tape, the green stuff, hard against the edge surface. Even then, I placed three layers of newspaper under the pour area, and they were over a garbage bag that was placed on the floor first.
Once you use your pourable product, your choice, you should cover it. Use stiff cardboard, use a length of dowel if you only have bristle board or a thin folder such as a file folder of cardstock to support the center of the folder…but do figure out a way to keep dust off the surface of your pour until it hardens. After it hardens, you can always wipe it down or use a soft artist’s brush when you see it has gotten dusty.
If you have bubbles in your mixed epoxy, and chances are excellent you will, it is normal. Let the pour sit, use a skewer or tongue depressor, coffee stirrer, to spread the pour wide, and then let it settle. After 5 minutes or more, take a soda straw in your mouth, place the lower open end close to the surface of the pour, but at a shallow angle, and gently blow against any bubbles. They often disappear on their own, but blowing on them gives them a huge kick i
One tip. If you plan on leaving those bolders in place, they should appear to be stuck in the bottom, not just sitting on top of it. You may be able to flatten the bottoms of them by sanding. Right now you can see shadows under them that would not be there in real life. And if you are going to use a clear resin for the water, those shadows WILL show up.
Elmer, you have a great eye. I never noticed the shadows. What if I filled in the lower gaps with some plaster or sculptamold? Try and blend them in a little bit. Unfortunately that is the plywood level of my benchwork so there’s no down. If I do blend them in, should I spread it out gradually or just fill in the cracks around?
The devil is in the details. Thanks Crandell, that’s good advice for someone who’s never done scenery at this level. I have some extra extruded foam and some masonite. I think I’ll mock up a little water scene and use it as my test bed. Or maybe a couple little ones to see how different techniques work. I’m interested in the woodland scenics stuff that makes water foam and I like the ripples so I have to practice that.
Think I’ll check out You Tube for some video’s on using this stuff.
I think Elmer’s advice about the rocks is right up there with his glue [tup] [swg]
Is it possible to get some replacements with flat bottoms? Then you could maybe space them less evenly as well. Just a thought.
Mike
Think of a silt bottom with bolders sitting in it. Usually only the top parts would show. This is what you need to figure out how to do with what you have. If you are using real rocks, maybe you can find some with a flat side. Or you can use some plaster castings of rock.
I don’t think that you could blend them in because it would make them look really big and tall. Maybe you could blend in some smaller rocks. If you have a scrap of plywood sitting around, try a test or two.
(PS I am glad everyone likes my glue !! [(-D] )
Think of a silt bottom with bolders sitting in it. Usually only the top parts would show. This is what you need to figure out how to do with what you have. If you are using real rocks, maybe you can find some with a flat side. Or you can use some plaster castings of rock.
I don’t think that you could blend them in because it would make them look really big and tall. Maybe you could blend in some smaller rocks. If you have a scrap of plywood sitting around, try a test or two.
(PS I am glad everyone likes my glue !! [(-D] )