Experiments with 3 methods of modelling water

John,

Sorry, didn’t mean to get the worms excited mate… a lot more salad in these photos…. Think lean and green.
Real running water, so I have read, doesn’t scale down that well apparently and looks like 1:1 water running through a miniature landscape. The engineering required on the layout you saw is impressive but how did you feel the water “looked” on the n scale model?

No chance of using real water on Newcastle Emlyn anyway, I have enough trouble keeping the track clean and operational let alone worrying about pond pumps!!

 

Mike,

Thanks, as always for the comments, toothpicks and some attention to detail as the resin drys? More experimentation will be required to find out “when” would be the best time to apply the toothpick. Too wet and the convex edge would just reform, too dry and the smoothness of the water could be damaged. Hmmm.. interesting, I’ll see what I come up with.
Varnish will take longer to dry than the resin I'm guessing?

 

Greening the Chocolate cake.

 

Gradually adding vegetation along the banks and in the river beds.

Reeds, grasses, brambles and shubs.

Attention has been given to the earthen banks themselves, the painted rocks and the sandbanks. A dusting of pastels has reduced some of the shine.

The river bed, where not covered by sand and rocks has been painted dark blues and greens to represent depth.

Some fallen logs are glued down, one per river, to see how the various “waters” flow around them.

 

Afternoon light conditions for all three pictures… and the background is still propped up behind for inspiration.

 



 



 



 

Comments welcome as always.

I'm guessing that you will have a dam at each end, Marty?  I used Magic Water.  Mix it up 2 : 1 and pour it in - a kind of epoxy.  Trouble was that it wicked up into the sand on the bank, despite the fact that it was saturated with PVA 60 : 40 which had dried.  I'm watching with interest.

Yes Max, a dam at each end and a gradual build up of thin layers is the plan.

I'll keep an eye out for the wicking.
Did you do the Magic water in a single pour?

cheers

Yes, Marty.  I have two lakes.  One I did with a single and one with a top up.  They both wicked.  Your stuff might be different.  The magic water looks fantastic. I just masked off the banks and sprayed dullcote on to the wicked area.  Problem solvered.

I used Woodland Scenics Water Effects to create ripples.  I think I've got a pic on Photobucket if you're interested.

Looking really good Marty even without water. There are many scenes here in Spain of dried up river beds which look very similar to yours.

Watching with interest, mate!

  JohnB - Marty,           This thread is making me HUNGRY!!! Those pictures in post no.12 look like chocolate cake sprinkled with nuts,

…..you were reading my mind, Walnut Chocolate cake was the first thing that came to my mind, followed by Christmas Choccy Log!!!!

Marty,

Thanks for including such great pictures. The features look excellent.

Connor

[user=269]MaxSouthOz[/user] wrote:

I used Woodland Scenics Water Effects to create ripples.  I think I've got a pic on Photobucket if you're interested.

Max, a useful comparison I would think.
If you're happy to put the photo in here I'm happy to have it.


Thanks Doof, Bob and Connor,
A rambler then Bob… could be, I've seen photos.
Maybe I'm channelling my grandfathers place in Las Negras.

Walls, posts, trees and some more vegetation.

Each river bed/bank now has a tree planted in it.
The trunks of the trees are just twigs from the garden; the big one has several twigs grafted on with PVA glue. The meeting points between the two twigs were shaved flat with a craft blade to provide a tidy, clean join for the PVA to work on.


 

Each river bed now also has a post and two small walls, possibly the remnants of some long washed away railway bridge.

One of the walls in each river has been made with plasticard, the other with printed brickpaper wrapped around a slab of balsa.

Both types of construction material have been used on the Pentrecourt Halt diorama and it will be interesting to see what, if any, effects the different “water” has on them.


 

An overview along the long abandoned line of the bridge.


 
Seeing this is just a test piece and I’m not modeling any particular prototype or location that will just about do I reckon?
Next step, adding the water.

Well just caught up on this thread and boy what a brilliant job you done, love it mate. Well done.

Phill

 

 They look superb Marty and a great idea with the trees :doublethumb

I couldn't find the jolly things, Marty, so here are some new ones. 



 The big lake.



 The little lake.



 Both lakes.



 More both lakes.



 The big lake.



 The small lake.  I've tried to get different angles so you might be able to see how it works.  The water is Magic Water, done in one pour and then once it sets up, Woodlands Scenics Water Effects on top.  I put some on a pallette and then dipped my brush into it and began to stipple the surface, leaving some calm water on the windward side where it is protected by the lee of the land, and wetting the banks as well.  It is water soluble, so you can wipe it off before it sets up if you want to try again.  If you put it on thick, it looks like a windy sea, but I wanted an inland water body look.  I hope this makes sense.

 

Looking good there - to both Marty and Max.

Just reminded me of a slight mishap that occurred to a friend; he has a lake / pond using a resin mix (not sure whose but might be the Woodland one). He did this some years ago but didn't quite get the mix right. He recently had to do some work on the layout and needed to lean with quite a bit of weight on the "water". No, the water didn't give way! He did have to call his mate over to assist him to lever his hand off the "water" as it had stuck fast!   

That's looking stunning Marty thumbs

If that's a "test piece", can I have it when you move onto the real thing !!!  I'd be delighted with that anywhere but as a test…..:roll::roll::roll::wow


Max - your lakes look great too - the woodland ripples look very good against the still, deep water on the edge - I even think I can see some blanket weed and "foam" algae :roll::roll::roll::roll:

Some amazing shots there,Marty.I was about to say,"now we're cooking with gas…",but I thought no….that's going to make me even MORE hungry!!!
   Can't wait to see 'em with water added.I particularly like the 'broken bridge' idea…very well executed,too.
   Another scenic genius on the forum!!!

Cheers,John.B.

Marty, other than the lack of the very hard shadow line of   natural sunlight  these are absolutely spot-on, (IMO), great work!  thumbs

Top class stuff, Marty. Those are begging for water! So are we

 Mike

Amazing Marty!

Fascinating stuff here Marty, in fact it's another masterclass.
Ken.

Marty, can't wait to see how the "water" looks and reacts with the surrounding banks.
Can you tell me, how deep and wide is each river section is? It's very hard to tell from the photos.

Thanks,
Wayne