I will be making “water” on a friends layout. I am doing a large section of scenery. There will be a river running through parts of it. What is the best way for a first time “water” maker?
Thanks for the advice so far…
I have read most of the articles. My main question is which is best for the first time out.
Dan*
You have several options here (epoxy, glass, plastic sheet, several coats of varnish), each of which could be quite lengthy to detail in this forum. I would suggest any of the Kalambach books on scenery, plus a very recent article (past month or two) in Model Railroader. No, I don’t work for them, but they are the experts and worth checking into.
I agree.
There was also a good article in a recent NMRA Bulletin.
Gloss Medium Gel. It’s like a paste, but clear. First paint the deep end of where the lake/river is going to be a dark color such as black or a very dark green. Then get lighter as you work your way towards the shoreline. After the paint has dried apply the gloss medium. That’s not everything, but it’s the basics of an easy way to apply water to a scene. There have been several articles in Model Railroader using this method plus sevral other articles using different methods (No, I don’t work for Kalmbach either, but honestly their books are the best in the hobby, check one or two of them out at your local hobby shop).
2 part Enviro-Tex has worked best for me. Long dry time though. Use a hairdryer after about 2 hours to put ripples in the water, waves or white caps can be added by picking with a tooth pick. Color can be added when mixing and/or glossed on after it has dried.
plastic sheets are a great way to make flowing
water.-Jake
for a fast and inexpensive first time try at water, my advice is to use Elmers White Glue. Its fast cheap and has no odour. Just spread it out on the surface you wi***o ‘water’ [paint the surface first] then let it start to dry. If you want ‘waves’ push it around a bit with a stick.
Once it dries, it will be clear and hard [ about 48 hours ] hope this helps you …
Dan – I second the vote for EnviroTex. I’ve used two-part resin in the past but it smells up the house really bad. I just got done pouring a river on my layout that’s 8-feet long by about 4-inches wide. At its deepest it’s almost an inch. I used EnviroTex in 4 successive pours, letting each dry overnight. No smell, no hassle. I then used gloss medium to make ripples and saves. It looks (if I do say so myself) sensational.
I vote for Gloss medium. It does not smell and
dry quickly. It also has a thicker viscosity so that it does find every small hole in your stream/lake bed. It finds only half of them. It also dosn’t creap up the sides of the banks and takes colors dies in a way that reflects nature.
I recommend that you don’t try to speed up drying with a heat lamp. I did and burnt the medium and melted the scenery styofoam sub-base. It turn ont all right. the rebuilt stream looked better than the origonal. I hope this helps
Dave -
Sorry it took me a week to get back to you.
Enviro-Tex has no odor? Kevin talked about a 2 part
Enviro-Tex is that the same Enviro-Tex that Gerry is talking about?
Ok… let me rephrase. EnviroTex Lite HAS an odor, but it’s not pungent like the casting resins are (that’ll about knock you over!). It kind of smells a little for a little while.
What about something like bow waves off a sailboat? Would you
put swimmers in the water when you pour it or later? When you use
successiv e pours … you cannot see the division?
I’ve got kids swimming in my river. Some of them I placed after the first pour (about 1/4") had dried. The second and third pours were each about 1/8" so I didn’t “drown” those kids. I’ve also got a fly fisherman standing knee-deep in water.
While I don’t have any boats or ships, I have lots of waves (water rushing past rocks in the water, and over some rapids, and kids swimming). I created those with clear silicone caulk after the resin was dry. It’s very convincing!
And no, when you look down into the river, there’s absolutely no way to see the “layers” of pours. In fact, both ends of my river end at the edge of the facia of the layout, so you can see a “cross section” of the water, and it’s nearly impossible to see the lines between the pours.
Hope that helps.
-Gerry
Gerry & Dan … Enviro-Tex has no odor? Kevin talked about a 2 part Enviro-Tex is that the same Enviro-Tex that Gerry is talking about?
What about something like bow waves off a sailboat? Would you put swimmers in the water when you pour it or later? When you use successiv e pours … you cannot see the division?
thanks, Dave dstark@pce.net
Dave:
I have used Enviro_Tex in successive pours in a brook and some test “ponds”, with no visible division point at all. The reason is that the “division point” is buried! The medium dries slowly enough that it spreads out after pouring. Each pour leaves a level, glossy surface over the entire body of “water”. The next one is only a layer.
As to the odor, I found none.
I have not ventured into bow waves yet (They sound attractive though!). Swimmers, as well as boats, I would put into a thin upper layer, applied after all the underlying medium had dried. They should very effectively appear to “float”, that way. Applied to freshly poured Enviro-Tex, before it solidifies, they will drop straight to the bottom! Don’t let the medium’s high viscosity fool you. It has such a low density that even ground foam sinks like a stone.
That feature can be useful though. I put Woodland Scenics “Field Grass” and ground foam bits into the shallower parts of my brook, before solidification, for “weeds”. They stayed in place well, creating marshy transition between shore and water. After it dried, I dabbed isolated groups of 1/16" diamter drops of light green paint onto these areas, for “lilly-pads”.
Railman28:
I sprayed “Roof Brown” and “Pullman Green” paints, in a mottled pattern over my brook’s bottom and then mixed green and “pearl” dies into my Enviro-Tex before pouring, for a very natural-looking coloring. Brook and river bottoms do combine areas of brown with some green, in nature. The water itself carries suspended greens, like the dye provides. Both algae and silt, as introduced from a trackside drainage ditch, bring turbidity. The “pearl” dye gave me that.
I wanted to make the stream look self-cleaning, losing its turbidity as it flowed out beyond the tracks. From the other direction, I simply introduced a second pour, mixed in advance without dyes, before the first could solidify (which takes a good 24 hours), or reach the rest of the brook (it is very viscous, and so spreads quite slowly). Where the clear and dyed portions met was a very vague-looking area of gently dissipating color, just as would be found in nature!
On my drainage ditch, I left it in foam, unlined with plaster, so that it would look as though it had been only wetted in places, but formed puddles in others. I gave the puddles weeds. Nature looks that way. I checked!
For opaque water (such as muddy creeks and rivers), pour a soupy mix of hydrocal plaster into the creek bed until the top is level with your “waterline” (Tip: using a little more water in the plaster mix will help the stuff flow.) This gives you a smooth surface which you can paint with inexpensive green, brown, or orange artists acrylics. I use a dark olive color in the center and then blend in a lighter color towards the banks. This gives you the illusion of deeper water in the center of the creek. Finally, add a few coats of acrylic gloss varni***o give it the watery look. I think the results are great and the whole process is very easy and inexpensive (you probably already have all the materials on hand!)
As a bonus, you could add some river rock along the banks before applying the varnish. Applying the varnish around the base of these rocks will give a realistic wet look to the rocks as well.
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