"Fake Water" subsurface

what material is the best subsurface for under fake water? cdx, masonite, homosote, rigid insulation...

 

Masonite and it's best if it has been reasonably realistically painted up to represent a lake or river bottom prior to adding the "water." Avoid any porous material, anything with a texture that might show through and anything that might react with the "water". Be sure all edges of the lake/river bed are well sealed as most "water" products will otherwise find the least little hole to leak through.



NYW&B

 

My layout base is pink foam, so I cut into that, going down about 1/2 to 3/4 inch. The resulting surface was uneven, so I used plaster cloth as the "streambed."



Obviously, the plaster cloth has some holes in it, but the foam beneath it is solid, so a bit of leakage through the plaster cloth is not going to be a problem. Next, I covered the plaster with Gypsolite, to give a natural texture, and painted the streambed, using darker colors at greater depths and lighter colors in the shallow water. I added some talus here, too.



I did 3 or 4 pours of Envirotex here. The first had a drop of blue and black paint, the second green, and the upper layers just a bit of light green. This gives the water a tint, and reduces visibility the deeper you look. I'd been to a show and layout tour that month, and noticed that all the "water" on the layouts was crystal clear. It just didn't look right, and tinting the water was the answer for me.

 

I have successfully used wood putty and Plaster of Paris. In each case I painted it with undiluted acrylic paints to help seal it. The last step was to add "boulders" and grit/pebbles. I then used a two part epoxy for the two pours I needed for my shallow stream.

 

Plywood, painted black with brown and tan river banks. Best for deep, navigatable rivers and waterways:



Cheers
Dirk

 

The lift out for the home layout doorway is on wood. The liftout is a pine 1X6 with lath on the edges. As others have said the stream bed was painted with dark colour in hte deep areas and lighter near the banks. I used very dark green in the deep areas and blended it to lighter green with a sand colour at the shore.
The lath comes up about a quarter inch and was sealed with a bead of glue along with small nails. As was also said the "Water" area must be sealed. It also has to be mostly level too.
I used Enviro-Tex 2 step resin for the "Water"

 

And at a module:



I've used glossy varnish. It needed months to dry.
With the module, there was a leak and the varnish dropped to the floor. The surface was already dry and this way I've got the waves.


But what do you do with dust. Often someone writes at my water! :angry:

Wolfgang

 

Caddy 58: Did you just paint a glossy surface or make a two part acrylic pour? Did you sand it smooth before painting the colors? It sure looks nice. Thanks.

Seems like there was a thread on this?

 

Dave,
I really like the results: Perfect for the intended purpose. And I assume that your lakes would be more sturdy if you would have used wood intead of foamboard.

Flash,
yes, there was a thread already:
http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=83122

I have not sanded the plywood and the surface is just clear gloss paint. The riverbed is (unfortunately) not perfectly level, so this basically rules out any "pouring" method to create a river.

Cheers
Dirk

 

Thoughts on redering water.

I think everyone’s work presented here is excellent and my thoughts are based on collective observations that each modeler brought to the forum.

I can say this, the things you guys do are really amazing. From looking at all the images the principles of doing water comes to mind. One has to trick the brain in what the eye registers or sees.

From what I see there are three factors in rendering water. Surface, depth and color/hue each point setting registers in the mind. For example in real life stagnant water looks like glass as well as night scenes on calm waters. These are factors or images that are pre-registers in the brain. When the eye presents the image the brain builds the scene. The key is setting up the scene leading the brain to fill in the blanks with the minor details without really seeing them.

I’m thinking that glass placed over an airbrushed bed/bottom (rocks drawn in, color, hue added for depth) with a clear substrate of top will fool the eye so to speak. This will deliver the two aspect of water Depth and Color. (The glass will allow you to separate the three factors and building in layers, modify the colors without affecting the other aspects, designing and modifying until the desired effect is rendered.

The third aspect of Surface can be controlled like spackle on drywall. If one layers the surface and create the base texture when the clear coats is sprayed the ripple of the waves or the surface of running water can be rendered.

Take the swan swimming under the bridge, if a layer of glass was placed on top of a drawing or painting of the rocks the same 2D effect can be rendered. If a V shape mound of clear coat was painted on the glass creating the base for a ripple after a number of thin clear coats were sprayed on the glass a ripple effect would be slightly present. When placing the swans on the crest it would appear that the swans are moving through the water completing the scene.

When the eye sees the ripples the brains registers that it is real water. Reasoning dictates that the swans can’t make ripples in plastic hence the brain registers that the swans are in “real water”.

I think glass can give one more options or variables to control. just my 2 cents

Inobu

 

While sheet (window) glass has indeed been employed to simulate water for decades on layouts by some hobbyists, it does have a significant drawback. Because it has two surfaces to reflect light, under some lighting conditions a sheet of glass will produce a highly unrealistic double reflection of its surroundings! And the thicker the glass, the worse the situation becomes. Other materials, like resins, gloss medium, etc., used for the purpose of representing water, do not suffer from this problem.

NYW&B