I will model a river on my Royal Gorge hanging bridge project. But it’s a very big river so the plan is to fill it with envirotex (or other water material) a bit at a time. My question to the forum is: Can I fill the river a bit at the time without any seams showing after I’m done? I’m not talking layers here. I know that layers is possible to do.
Envirotex is very fluid, and will settle out itself, filling in the space. It won’t stop at a particular spot unless you make a dam to stop it. I’ve never stopped it to see if a joint would show, but there is that possibility depending upon how you stop it and if it makes a visible joint. Maybe try it first on a small scale to see?
I would expect that a vertical seam would be visible.
I’ve got a related question - how is the shelf life of Envirotex once you open the bottle? Is this a product that will harden in the bottle if you don’t use it all in a few days, or can you use small amounts and keep going for months, until it’s all used up?
As long as you don’t mix it, the stuff in the bottles should last indefinitely. I have partial bottles that are still liquid.
I can’t answer your question about Envirotex because I’ve never used it, but the Arkansas River is not really very wide at the location of the hanging bridge, and is very fast flowing water with some rapids and white water.
If you were to accurately model the Royal Gorge route, you would’t even be able to see your track or the bridge because it is at the bottom of a very deep and narrow ravine.
electro:
If I were doing your project, I would not model the river using envirotex … when you have a wide flat river like you show in your module, I would model any rocks or other things in the river, paint the river bottom appropriate dark blue-browns (make it kind of uneaven, to simulate some bottom details showing through), feathering up near the shore to the dark brown-gray colors of your rocks. Depending on the time of year you are modeling, you could even get away with just painting it a muddy brown from shore to shore.
Then I would apply several coats of acrylic gloss, brushing in the direction of the river’s flow, and deliberately making the surface uneaven to simulate ripples in the river. With acrylic gloss medium, you can paint it on and stop at any point, then come back later and continue on with no worries. You can also apply several coats until you are happy with the effect. Gloss medium goes on milky white, and takes 4 or more hours to completely dry to a clear glossy finish.
Multiple massive pours of envirotex will be hard to control and your resulting river will be smooth as glass – not very realistic. The extra layer of clear plastic over your flat river bottom won’t get you anything a good couple of coats of acrylic gloss medium won’t give you. The key is to first paint your river bottom some good dark blue-brown colors and feather the shore to your rock colors. The effect will be most effective. Here’s a scene from my layout done this way:
(click to enlarge)
As you can see, a flat painted board with some acrylic gloss medium makes a great looking river! Envirotex works best for small mountain streams or clear still ponds where you can see the bottom.
Thanks Joe for telling me this. I have looked at your water so many times. It’s very realistic. And the bridge in this picture, wow, you are really good. I think it’s one of your layouts best scenes. I will follow your advice. Where can I get acrylic gloss medium, in what types of stores? As always I must translate this to something here in Sweden.
electro:
Any store that sells art supplies and acrylic artists paints in tubes should have gloss medium. It’s an additive to acrylic artist paints to give the paint a distinct gloss finish. Matte medium is the opposite material, making the paint more dull and removing any gloss.
If you google on Acrylic Gloss Medium you’ll get pages and pages of places you can go to order it online. Most places that ship internationally ought to ship to Sweden. [swg]