Building my river - a cautionary tale.

[barrymk]

I've been busy finishing off the Rio Bozo and Plughole Falls on my layout.  Magic Water I can highly recommend as long as you follow the instructions and mix, mix, mix etc. Don't ask me how I know....
The problem with MW is that it sets dead flat and shiny, I think you can work it if you're prepared to wait for hours until the exact setting moment and then play around with it.  That wasn't an option. So I brushed on a coat of gloss medium running parallel with the banks and let it set.  That gave some texture but still looked ho hum so having read that mod podge was PVA adhesive, I spread some PVA on and impressed ripples from bank to bank with a brush.  Once dry I had convincing ripples but the shine was lacking, so I cast around for a way to improve the finish.  Here's where it went squirly.  I slopped on some Future floor polish, which is in fact a gloss acrylic varnish - should be OK? and hey presto! It sent the PVA opaque and stripped it off.  My mistake in not testing a small spot. So back to applying more PVA once it was all cleaned up. I've just tested dabbing some Acrylic gloss medium over the new layer of PVA and it works fine. I'll add some pics later.

[ACL1504]

Barry,

A lesson learned. We've all had our "lesson learned" in some way or the other. Mine was being burned with hot glue. I now have a pair of cotton gloves in the box with the hot glue gun!

Some "lessons learned" are certainly more painful than others but I guess cleaning you water was painful enough!

Tom

[barrymk]

It's a big club Tom, experience is earned with the help of pain, at least at my workbench.   

[DaveInTheHat]

I sort of had the same problem. I used Magic Water which I think is really great stuff. It dried smooth as glass and no bubbles in it at all.



I used "Water Effects" from Woodland Scenics. Kinda spreads like Elmer's Glue. This was the first time that I did anything with water. I should have been a little more consistent with the way that I put it down so that it looked more like ripples. It looks sort of scary when it's wet.



After it dried it looks pretty good. It's been a couple years since I did this and it hasn't changed at all.

[ACL1504]

Dave,

Your water looks good.

Tom

[clevermod01]

what a great scene

[LongHornCaddy]

Nice job!!