What fake water for our models is the best?
Envirotex Lite
Unless you like gloss medium. Look for Mod Podge in the crafts section, near the small plastic acrylic paints. Pour in thin layers. You can tint it, but not blue. Blue doesn’t look like water. Maybe a bit of medium green, but just a third of a drop, not even that much. Mix it in very well.
I used as a base layer a two part epoxy. It dries clear, and glass flat. Not like water. Adding a top coat of gel gloss medium and stipling it makes it look more naturally disturbed.
-Crandell
It depends what you want it to look like, see:
http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/scenery/ballon_pond/
Thank you if you visit
Harold
I have been playing around with Water Magic on our club layout, and it seems to do a good job. A couple of cautions however:
Be very sure there are no holes of any size in your river or pond. The resin will will find even pinholes, and will leak out on to the floor. Seal around everything with clear silicone caulk if there is any question. You can use duct tape to form a dam if your river runs off the layout.
Be ready to do a bit of post pour scenery repair. Epoxies like Envirotex and Water Magic like to wick into ground foam and other scenery materials and will leave them shiney. Sprinkle a bit more scenery material on the shiney “land” to cover it up.
The epoxies dry completely flat, if you want waves, you will have to add them later with a product like gloss meduium jell.
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Way to go Harold…that’s what I love the most about this hobby, the endless ingenuity of people like you (and me sometimes!!).
The people in that senseless, pointless thread about “advanced” modelling ought to get their noses out of their +++@@@ and take a little gander at this little pond…and by the way thanks for the how-to link.
Thank you! There is a decline on the forums because there is no “meat” just endless talk about nothing and no new ideas. Model Railroading is declining. My website has 25% fewer visits than last year.
Harold
I prefer real water…mixed with Durabond patching plaster. [swg]
Painted with appropriately coloured latex paint, then covered with clear, high gloss water-based urethane, it’s easy to use and extremely durable. It’s also a lot cheaper than most commercially-available “water” products.
Wayne
Harold this is amazing. Thanks for sharing this.
The clincher for me is that I’ve had some of these silver carboard ballons before…and threw them out! [:O]. I find stuff like this all the time that people on my job throw away. I’m going to get a couple more of these as I have a small lake planned for my wall layout. I work with automtoive paints frequently and I’m considering experimenting on a silver ballon by airbrushing a very light, thin mist coat of a pearl green/ clear mix on the surface (after applying a transparent adhesion promotor) . Theoretically, the silver would be unaffected yet the “greenish” accent would be visible as the viewer moves his/her head around.
http://smallrails.blogspot.com/2009/10/magic-water.html Some photos of my use of Magic Water – and I second the part about the pinholes. Make sure everything is sealed. Overall, a nice product that is really easy to use with hardly any smell at all. I would highly recommend it.
There’s probably no single best way to model water. Much depends on what kind of water you are trying to model. For example, though Envirotex renders the water in a nice still pond, it is a poor representative of any sort of turbulent water. For modeling the sea shore, take a look at the techniques of Troels Kirk, who many are now regarding as the premier model railroad landscape artist of our time. He has his own blog (http://coastline.no13.se/#category0) but the best discussion of his water making methods appear on the erailine forum (http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=23577&whichpage=90).
Voyager
Thank you! There is a decline on the forums because there is no “meat” just endless talk about nothing and no new ideas. Model Railroading is declining. My website has 25% fewer visits than last year.
Harold
Bear with me if you will, I have three things to say:
1. I agree with you Harold 1000 percent (as McGovern used to say).
2. I really wish I could visit Doctor Wayne’s layout, man o man. I can’t wait to get to the water end of my freight yard to try both Harold’s and Wayne’s water techniques.
3. Two or three days ago, my son showed me something on the you tube he said I have to see and it just happened to be this Troelle Kirk’s layout…it’s worth checking out, I think:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsPkN5rmk9s … holy smokes if you want to talk sea water!!! and there’s a bunch of other movies of his work there too.
This has been a great exchange gents, thanks.
It certainly is a craft, and requires a healthy dose of artistry.
I mixed and poured several small layers of a two part epoxy, and it came out clear and glass smooth…and flat. After about a year or so, I added a single top layer of epoxy, but to this one I mixed in a half-drop of Hauder Medium Green available from Wally’s craft section. I also threw in a pinch of Plaster of Paris for turbidity. The epoxy seemed to go quite foamy, and I thought I had made a boo-boo, but once it was poured and spread, it began to rid itself of the bubbles.
When it cured, it was a nice colour, and nicely turbid, but still glass-pane smooth. I spread a thin layer of gel gloss medium and stippled it with the side of the foam brush applicator. When it all cured, this is how it turned out…just like the South Thompson River looks in southern BC in July after the run-off. An overhead shot…
May I ask a question Doc? Are the ripples and other variations in the surface of the water accomplished with the Durabond or with the urethane? Thanks.
All of the three dimensional effects are done in the Durabond. I had originally intended to mix it to a fairly soupy consistency to allow it to level itself, but instead ended up with something more like a cross between peanut butter and pancake batter. [dinner][;)] Dragging a medium-width drywall knife over it levelled it reasonably well, though, and because I used Durabond 90, I had plenty of time to spread it out to the river banks and to work it around the bridge piers. The “swells” are simply the result of not smoothing things too much, but the “white water” was teased and prodded with a suitable drywall knife - most of the relief was introduced just as the setting process began. A damp sponge, dabbed on the surface, will create small waves or ripples, and the breakers in the lake inlet were done by dragging the knife towards the shore, then reversing direction and lifting at the same time. To impart a curl to a wave, reverse direction a second time. Most of the “water” is between 1/8" and 1/4" thick, although the small lake inlet is well over 1".
If I recall correctly, the two rivers were done the same day, and the inlet sometime later. I thought that they turned out fairly well for a first try, which attests more to the ease of application than it does to any particular skill.
Here are some “before” pictures:
The urethane was used mainly to get the “wet” look, but it also makes it easy to dust, when required. [swg] The finished product is very durable - the camera is often placed in the river for different photo angles, either directly on the “water” or atop blocks of w
No one mentioned Woodland Scenics Realistic Water.
That works real well for me.
You beat me to it. I was going to say that. That’s what I use and I like it. It works well for me.