Today I was in a chain Hobby Shop and looking at water. There were beads you heat and pour. There were water effects. And then there are the home remedies–resin, artist’s mat medium, etc. There’s even Harold’s mylar balloon.
Anyway, for some reason I’ve been intimidated by water–I’m not surprised, I’m intimidated by all new things until I actually do them.
On my next project I have to create a rock-filled river. Right on its heels I have a narrow canyon with stacked waterfalls. I have a log pond in my future.
Is there one product that is the Cat’s meow for all of them, or do some work better than others for particular applications?
Chip, you are right about there being so many different ways to make water… Personally I like the Envirotex Lite for ponds and slow moving rivers, etc. I use the Woodland Scenics for running water like waterfalls and ripples on rivers. I hve often pianted it on over the envirotex.
I think you have to go ahaed and try some of the various techniques out there and decide which one works the best for you.
I have used both the Woodland Scenics products - the pourable product and the melting pellets.
The pellets were dangerous and unforgiving. I melted plastic track with a hair dryer. It did work OK for a stream and pond. I did find that the “water” shrank after a year or so and I had to relandscape the edge with ground cover.
The pourable product works well. For a rock stream it looks great. You can use their water effects product for waterfalls, but you may have to use some white paint as when it eventually dries it ends up clear. Check the price as the pourable product is really expensive and many bottles may be needed for a large pond, especially if you try to cover logs.
Another hint for log ponds: Glue the logs to the bottom before you poor, or use 1/2 logs. No one believes me, but I swear that my logs “float” up because I did not glue them to the bottom. A year after I thought the logs were almost covered, they seem to be floating very high in the water … so I added more of the water product … a year later it seems the same has happended again. Anyone else have this happen?
I’m an avid supporter of acrylic gloss medium. I’ve used it for wide, slow moving water…
As well as a faster moving stream,
and combined with a puff of white poly fiber, it worked great to make a water falls.
It’s cheaper than anything from Woodland Scenics, and in my opinion, gives better results. It does take a little bit of “technique” to get the different effects, but with a little experimentation, it’s really easy to use.
It took me a while to figure out what you did, but then I got it. Seems like a great idea for the application you used it for. I think the sand flow off the pylon is my favorite feature. Would you use the same technique for a rocky river or a water fall?
I’m thinking I’d want the water clear enough to see the rocks through the water.
All-in-all this is a very unintimidating way to achieve the results.
Lee,
It so happens that my other half keeps gloss medium in the house. I like the effects you’ve created, but I have a couple questions?
Is that fall Ohiopyle inspired?
What is the technique you use with cotton and acrylic medium.
How do you get the texture for the ripples/whitewater in the river.
I haven’t had the sinking log experience, but I sort of suspected that it would happen. Yes, the pourable stuff (Realistic Water) is expensive. It continues to “flow” for months - it’s slow but it does keep moving. I dropped a piece of rail on it and forgot about it; it is now at the bottom. It’s weird stuff, but I like it.
Marty, You have a great looking layout; I’d like to see more pictures. Rather than take this thread off topic, would you PM me with photos and track plan? Or, if you have a website, please tell me the address.
Here’s a water pic from my layout (using 2 bottles of Realistic Water):
Chip, I use Envirotex Lite.You can get it at any big box for around $20.You’ll get enough for alot of water. It’s easy to use and no smell.I’ve poured 6 rivers/creeks and am only 1/2 way thru the second kit.Dries hard, but it does “creep” up the banks abit.:
Put what you want in the water and pour right in.You’ll need a dam at the facia edge, I use 2=3 layers of masking tape. Make sure any pinholes are plugged and the bed is pretty level. It will find the lowest place, just like water!You can pour as many times/layers as you want.
Technically the track is my Connellsville Sub, so you could say, yes to Ohiopyle. But it actually more closely resembles Blackwater Falls along the Thomas Sub near Hendricks, West Virginia.
To get the falls effect, I use white glue to secure a puff of poly fiber at the top of the falls. Once it’s dry, I soak the puff with gloss medium and “comb” it over the falls, matting it down so the underlying rocks show through. The white poly fibre gives you the foamy color, and the gloss medium makes it nice and translucent.
The ripples and white water were achieved simply by brushing on a coat of gloss, letting it set up to where its getting tacky, then teasing it up with a paint brush. Between coats, I dry brush a little white on the peaks to get the white water look. I think there’s about 6 coats on the river in the second picture.
Chip, I think that you could do the rocky riverbed version, but I’m not sure if a waterfall would be that convincing. Most of the effect is illusion: the sandbar formed in the lee of the bridge pier is done with paint - it’s at the same elevation as the surface of the water, although I did intend it to represent a sub-surface build-up, not an exposed bar.
The three areas shown were my first attempts at this technique, so it obviously doesn’t require much skill or practice. [;)] The patching plaster (Durabond 90) is what I use for my landforms (over wire screen), and the grey/green and brown latex paint are both used to colour the basic scenery, so my only additional outlay was for a litre of high gloss urethane. The plaster contains a catalyst, (there are several versions of Durabond available - the number following the name is the setting time in minutes) and it comes in several sizes, from a one pound box up to the 33 lb. bags that I use. It will set regardless of the consistency - I mixed some about the thickness of tomato soup, and it still set, although it took a long time to truly harden. I prepped the plywood surface with a spray of “wet” water before pouring, to prevent too much water from being drawn out of the wet plaster. The batch for the wide river was mixed a little too thickly, so it didn’t level itself as much as I wanted. I used various drywall knives, dipped in water, to trowel the surface and raise waves
I also like acrylic gloss medium. For my rapids, I use a clear sealent call Lexel.
I don’t like the WS Realistic water very much. I one place I used it, it shrank, and it never really sets hard, so my water has dust and bugs stuck in it. It’s on my list to be replaced.
Here are nearly all of my techniques in one photo:
The pond behind the dam is acrylic gloss medium. The rapids and stream under the falls are Lexel.
The Woodland Scenics Realistic water ( the pourable bottle one ) was easy to work with, and its big selling point is it never gets hard, which they seem to think is a benefit, what they dont say is it also stays tacky, so if you place a canoe on it and later want to move it you will need to pry it up and then reglue the canoe together[banghead], also my work boat left a really nice hull shaped divit in it!. I ended up sealing over it with clear acryic sealer and it seems fine now, also remember that you will have to dust at some point, so if you think that glueing some fly fishermen to the riverbed and then pouring your water around them will look more realistic ( and it does! ), that at some point you will need to be able to get a dust rag near them and those tiny fragile fly rods they are holding[banghead]. Not that any of the above has happened to me[:-^], just thought i would mention it, hope this helps you Chip, go for it and keep us posted.
I have used acrylic gloss medium for a small pond and ditches. I liked the result, after a few years it looked a bit dull, but I restored it with a thin coat of medium.
ON our donated layout at Boothbay RR Village, the builder used Envirotex for a couple of rivers. It was probably 5 ot 10 years old, and had turned yellowish and cracked. It also creeped up the sides. We chiseled it out, smoothed the bottom and painted it with gloss paint. We did not want to spend a lot of time on it as we were planning and fund raising for our new layout. We knew the old one would be demolished in a couple of years.
I’ve tried two different products for water: clear ultra high gloss varnish and two-part epoxy resin.
Varnish was used for the river. I did this almost two years ago and it still looks fresh.
Two-part epoxy resin was used for some puddles…
The epoxy resin doesn’t like to lie perfectly flat in small areas, making it perhaps not the best choice for puddles, but it’s totally clear and lets you model submerged rocks etc. [as does the varnish] It also can be tinted with paint. I think it’d be great for rivers, and I’m itching to try it.
