Experiments with 3 methods of modelling water

Come on…throw a 'sickie', I want to see the end of this, soooon!

Thanks Marty, for doing this, 'cos sure as eggs is eggs, if there does turn out to be a 'wrong' way, I'd choose it without this thread.thumbs:thumbs

Having just returned to "normal service" I am also starting to catch up on posts over the past month.

This topic is really very helpful indeed as it doesn't just show "what I did" but compares methods of "what I did" showing the results obtained.  That is where real learning arises.  Astute manufacturers might also wish to take note …..

Good work Marty and please keep it coming for the benefit of someone who will need to add quite a lot of water over the coming months.

Some fantastic stuff here,Marty.For my money,the varnish is a clear winner(pun intended,feel free to chortle!),but the PVA wins for areas where you need agitation,swift moving water,splashes at the bottom of a waterfall,etc.
   I love the clarity of the varnish and how you can see the rocks in the riverbed through it.Marvellous!!!

Cheers,John.B.:thumbs

Hi Marty.  The varnish is looking good.  Another trick I was shown - blow gently across the surface of the fill once you have poured.  Apparently the CO2 in your breath (nothing personal) causes the bubbles to rise to the surface.  I don't know what the science is - but it worked for me.  Cheers  Max

I'm only guessing here, but blowing across the surface would probably (possibly??) lower the pressure slightly, encouraging the bubbles to rise into the low pressure belt.

I'm happy with that, Jeff.  The CO2 idea was floated on the Magic Water pack.  Maybe it only works with that product.  I figure as long as Marty is breathing out, what can it hurt? - unless he's been on the garlic . . .

Could be interesting if he's been on the old alcohol! ;-) :cheers

[user=321]SRman[/user] wrote:

Could be interesting if he's been on the old alcohol! ;-) :cheers

Gotta make sure I don't breathe out over any candles.

OK, next update….

The winter has finally arrived here in Perth.
A cold front with strong squally winds has contributed 40mm of rain to the city and surrounds over the last 3 days.
The temperature has dropped significantly, the Indian summer has gone, and I have spent several days with my SES unit repairing storm damaged houses and applying a chainsaw to fallen trees.

Drying times have, as the temperature dropped, appreciably lengthened but the next layers are now dry.

3^rd Layers and PVA tinting with acrylic.

The 3^rd layer of varnish was deeper than the first 2 but not as deep as I was intending.
It is still quite see through with the bottom of the river still clearly visible.

It does however shrink as it dries; the moisture evaporates leaving a shiny high tide mark along the banks.
Nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a little work but something to be aware of none-the-less.



 

The far river is the varnish one again in the photo below, the way that the “water” forms around the base of the reeds, the tree trunk and the log aren’t too bad at all. A bit of prodding with a toothpick helps, thanks Max.



But … WTF happened to the PVA river in the foreground.

Well I’ve been experimenting by mixing acrylic paint with the PVA while the glue is still wet.
Green to reflect the leaves from the surround trees and a bit of brown to tone the green down a bit was the go…. The green mixed in first throughout and then a paintbrush of brown trailed through the green mix as an afterthought.
Hmmmm… I now have toxic sludge and green algae in my river bed.



Ho hum, back to the drawing board… NURSE!!!!

 

That's coming along well, Marty.  Toxic sludge has a place, also.  We need to know how to make that effect as well!

Toxic sludge does have a place no matter how we might feel about that fact.  Some of us model industrial scenes where water courses (or even puddles and spills) could look very realistic done that way.

But Marty, oh Marty, why did you have to send your weather this way?  I get back from 5 weeks overseas and find everything in order then three days later next door's tree crashes through my layout roof during a rough night meaning I need new Laserlite and a tricky weekend on the duckboards fixing things up.

Hope you have a good Insurance Agent , Rick !!

Hope you have a good Insurance Agent , Rick !!

:roll::cool:

[user=15]owen69[/user] wrote:

Hope you have a good Insurance Agent , Rick !!

:roll::cool:

Where's Neil when I need him;-)

Actually the job is too small for insurance but I might as well replace all the old Laserlite in one go and improve the lighting on the layout.

Until then it better not rain too hard or I'll have my own "Three Rivers" to tell a tale of.

You know how lucky you were if the only damage caused is to the laserlite Rick.
No damage to the supporting structure or fence?

Now that the majority of the Module Standards are sorted out

Here is a little more on progress with The Three Rivers.

If at first you don't succeed…

Lets agree that the toxic sludge of the PVA river isn't quite what we are after. Don't panic, the river was deep enough to have another go.

This time a blue/green tint was mixed through a PVA/water mix of about 40/60.
The tint is quite light at this stage.



Although I've talked about the two pack Resin river before in this topic here are a couple of photos of the container that was used for mixing and pouring.
The flecks of blue are poorly mixed acrylic paint. I need to stir it in better. Maybe they are fish?



The odd shaped container made pouring pretty easy. Although the mix is pretty fluid I made sure that it was poured in fairly evenly up and down the river.



… and here is the wet resin, the edges will have the tension broken with a toothpick and the resin will be encourage to flow into the bank a little more.
In the background the PVA river is starting to get darker as the moisture evapourates off.



More coming…

The first one looks vaguely nuclear :exclam  Where are the EPA when you want them :question 

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

The first one looks vaguely nuclear :exclam  Where are the EPA when you want them :question 

"EPA" ? hmm:hmm

The first one looks vaguely familiar - I lived in Leeds for nearly 10 years !!!!

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

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

The first one looks vaguely nuclear :exclam  Where are the EPA when you want them :question 

"EPA" ? hmm:hmm

The first one looks vaguely familiar - I lived in Leeds for nearly 10 years !!!!

EPA = Environmental Protection Authority. A relatively toothless government body charged with monitoring and enforcing the Aussie Environment.

I must admit I was a bit sceptical with the sky blue colour but the result, as part of the testing process, was interesting.

Here's a shot of the PVA now dry in comparison with a single layer of resin (top) and a couple of layers of varnish (bottom) over a "landscaped" and painted river bed.




Note that any river bed detail has been completely covered by the opaque, tinted PVA.

For me Marty - even without the evil blue/green,  the PVA is a non starter.  Both the resin and varnish look very good.  For that clear "beer chilling" mountain stream (or, come to think of it, the peat laden Highland "Whisky" stream,  the resin has it but for a more "normal" stream,  maybe the varnish - if you can get rid of the surface tension or "plant" to hide it.

Are streams around Perth crystal clear or do you also have the odd supermarket trolley decorating them ?