I have a small pond at the top of a mountain on my layout (strange place for a pond…I know…no flaming please…maybe it’s formed by a spring or something…anyway…) It drains to a small pond at the bottom of the mountain via a narrow waterfall. The surronding rock is coloured using woodland scenics earth colour, so the rock is light to medium brown/buff in colour. To keep the ponds looking as real as possible, what colour should I paint their bottoms? As an add-on question, should the bottom (or is it the back) of the waterfall be the same colour?
Thanks,
Trevor[:)]
The darker you make the center of the pond, the deeper it will look. I use cheap acrylic black for the center and then lighten up to surrounding rock/earth color at the edges to give the impression of shallows.
as simon said a black or a very dark green works well for the deep parts of the pond then the shore is blended with earth tones…there is a variety of things you can use for the water…envirotex epoxy, woodland scenics water, and even matte medium can be used for the water effects painted on in thin layers…be careful when applying it around rocks and shoreline edges…sometimes these products will absorb into the dirt and rocks on the shoreline that can ruin the water effect…if it happens, stain the shiny absorbsion area with dilute acrylic paints applying it with a small brush
Its a subjective query, the deeper the water the darker the base color should be, conversely, the shallower the depth the lighter the base color should be. I feel Black is too much in any situation given typical indoor lighting, kinda like i’m recreating the Mariana Trench, dark green or a deep grey seem right to my eye.
The medium one uses to model water is a matter of personal preference. I’ve seen some great bodies of water modeled from nothing more then few coat s of flat Polyurathane.
If I could suggest, take a sheet of cardboard or something of scrap, paint it at bit like your layout in that location, and then do some blending of grey and green, yellow and green, brown and green, and even as suggested, black and those colours. Practice blending them to look like actual changes in depth. When you know you have it right, apply that to your pond, and cover it with an epoxy or WS Realistic Water or Acrylic Gloss Medium.