I'm doing my first scenery work with the pink foam and will be modeling a river scene. Which of the various options for modeling water (realistic water, envirotex etc...) won't eat through the foam? Thanks!
Envirotex Lite will not eat through pink foam. It's the only one I've used, and I've been happy with it. You can buy it at craft stores like Michaels and A.C. Moore. Go online, and you'll find coupons for these places, good for typically 40 or 50 percent off one item. That's a good saving, because Envirotex seems expensive. I bought the big package for about $35 marked price. I've put in a lot of water, and I still have a lot of Envirotex in the bottles. It's a "binary" product, so you mix two parts together. Until you mix them, the parts seem very stable. I've had mine for several years and each batch still works just fine. Although Envirotex won't react with the foam, it will try to find any holes. If there's any possibility of leakage, make sure you cover the floor below or risk getting this stuff on the floor.
I don't really know what Envirotex is, but I think it is closely akin to a two-part epoxy of finish quality. That is what I used for my water, topped with gel gloss medium that I stippled atop the hardened epoxy in a thin layer. It made it look wavy. If you go to your local paints or hardware store, in the paints section, or finishes section with acrylics and such, find epoxies that come in two bottles, one hardener and the other a resin. You mix them very thoroughly (over about four minutes worth of stirring) in equal measures (measuring is important), and then you pour. You should use your stirring stick to help the pour to get into nooks and crannies. It will have many tiny bubbles. Don't fret! Once it has stopped flowing and has found its level, say 6 minutes or so, take a plastic soda straw, insert in mouth, hold the other end low close to the surface of the pour, and gently blow your breath over the bubbles. They'll disappear. Cover the pour with cardboard to keep it free of dust until it hardens. You can stain them with a very tiny drop of acrylic craft paint of an appropriate colour. I would use a light, slightly yellowish green. Also, you can make it a bit turbid by adding just a pinch of Plaster of Paris powder.
Thanks guys. I'll use acrylic paints on the river bottom which should help seal the foam and prevent too much absorption of whichever one I end up using.
I have had good results using both Envirotex Lite and WS Realistic Water. The Woodland scenics is easier to use, where you just paint it on in thick layers, but pours take forever to dry, looking like white glue inside until dry. The Envirotex Lite needs to be completely sealed from pinhole leaks or it will leak. Also, every so often it don't harden, staying sticky. You can then mix another thin layer batch and seal in the sticky layer with another layer. You can also mix in a few drops of Floquil solvent based paint to color it safely. Both products realistically take 24 hours to harden. The WS dries soft and semi-gel, and the Envirotex sets hard, and can be scratched if wiping off stray ballast. Envirotex water, darkened with a few drops of Floquil Grimey Black: Woodland Scenics Realistic Water and Waterfall Effects following the WS scenery manual's recommended method:
I generally use the techniques others have already mentioned with respect to the Envirotex. Although, it is extremely rare, on occasion a bad batch makes it to the store shelves. The result is a mix that won't entirely cure....not a great problem to have. I've only had this happen once in ten years but that was enough. For that reason I now mix up a small test batch the day before just to make sure it cures before doing the real pour on the layout. Lance www.lancemindheim.com
Also consider Gloss Medium for shallow areas. Paint the area the desired color, paint over the gloss medium and you are done. It has some body in it and you can use it to make ripples in the water. You can see it like this in the bottom picture of the train crossing the bridge. http://siskiyou-railfan.net/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?1270 And here is even better picture from the thread http://siskiyou-railfan.net/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?1270.30 About half way down and another train crossing the bridge. There is another picture of gloss medium over envirotex there too This from Joe Fugate's scenery clinic and was the basis from his 5 part videos series and now popular (free) online magazine. Here is a link to some gloss medium http://www.dickblick.com/products/golden-polymer-and-matte-mediums/ Steve
Like Ratled, I've opted to use another medium for some of my water scenes. For two settling ponds near a power plant, I wanted a flat (no ripples or waves), reflective surface to mirror nearby brush/trees, with a uniform color. So I spray-painted a sheet of foamboard with a shake-the-can brown enamel paint and dropped it into place. I've also used this method for a forced perspective, barely-visible-through-the-trees river located at the back of the shelf. Because it is "in the distance", the river doesn't need ripples or detailed color variations, so the painted foamboard works well.
