Last year, I poured Woodland Scenic Realistic Water onto my river bed. Given that the railroad is in the garage (not ideal) and other factors (not enough used, reaction to the paints used on the base), I've elected to attempt a do over. Has anyone ever attempted this? What have your experiences been with using Envirotex Lite? I picked some up at a Hobby Lobby and found a 40% off coupon which I used on it so that made the price more reasonable.I am open to suggestions and advice. Your thoughts?
I've used Envirotex Lite on furniture and other crafts. It's great stuff, it pours easily and cures into a hard, durable, thick and transparent layer.
But I've never tried to make a river with it and I'm not sure if it'd work... it is quite viscous and so you might have problems with it levelling out nicely around banks, obstacles, shallow areas, etc. And you basically have to let it level on its own, you cant really mess around with it as its curing or it'll just mess up worse.
Maybe if you used it to fill up the deep areas of water, and leaving it a millimetre or so shallower than your final layer of water, and use something runnier on top like a water based polyurethane.
But try it out in a small test area, you've already got it, maybe it'll work out... the nice thing about it as that since it comes in two parts, you don't have to worry so much about it drying out and becoming useless once you've opened the bottle. I'm still using bottles I opened a year ago.
Hello I have used it for a pond It worked fine. My pond was a little to deep and I ended up using almost two bottles You can only pour about a 1/4 inch at a time. Not sure what happened but mine got cloudy for about two month's then cleared up and has been fine. I think it was to thick and took more time to cure.
This is a old photo but it still just as clear and the dust will come right off. The paint on the bottem is craft paint. Hope this helps Frank
Used Envirotex lite for my pond. Did not have a deep gouge in the foam. Lined the depression with plaster. Then I used a painted bottom to show depth, sand color along the edges, a very dark green for the deep parts and blended colors to show change in depth. Since mine was to be a murky farm pond I added a drop or two of olive to give it an algae color in the first couple of 1/8" deep pours. Only did four or five pours. Be sure to follow the directions to be sure to get the bubbles out. The top layer was clear as I wanted the pond to have a still surface. There are several products that you can use to make small waves and turbulance if desired.
This was my first attempt and I was very pleased. Ii do keep a paper bag over the pond when not running trains to keep the dust off, keeps it looking good.
Good luck,
Richard
I used realistic water in a harbor. looked good but it doesn't fully harden. i left ships on it for 4-5 months 7 when I moved them there was an impression of them. I made a redo & used environtex right over the realistic water with perfect results, hardened nice still good 5 years later. Stan Trask FA-1
I've used Envirotex for my river, waterfalls, and a mucky pond. They're relatively new so I can't speak for longevity, but I like them a lot. I've needed a lot more than I thought so, like Mel pointed out, I've switched to Super Glaze which you can buy at home improvement stores for a decent price.
Just like Richard, I painted the riverbed and just left the resin clear. For the murky pond, I painted the bottom AND added some olive to the resin for an algae effect.
Regarding Speedybee's comment on its viscous nature, it does "creep" up the banks or whatever it touches a little bit. Not a big deal for me, but that could bother some folks depending on the scene.
I've heard others with less then stellar experiences with realistic water. Good luck!
I once (never again) tried using WS Realsitic Water for a small water scene with terrible results. Although I attempted this project more than five years ago and exactly per the WS instructions, this product still has what can only be described as a somewhat tacky surface! In the meantime, it absorbed the pigments from every painted surface it touched, as well as absorbed anything that fell onto its surface, including dust. An HO scale figurine that fell onto its surface a couple years after the original pour, actually sank into the surface over time and left a large dent when I finally found and rescued the figurine. At best, this stuff looks like wet mud but certainly not water.
When I needed to model a river on my current layout, I decided to use a river bottom made of stippled plaster and painted a dark blue-green color. I then added several coats of Mod Podge Gloss Medium mixed with a little bit of acrylic argent silver paint. The result was a nice rippled surface with flecks of "stuff" floating in the clear water. No critical mixing, no pouring (or leaks), no edge creeping, and easy clean-up (all water based).
Hornblower
I'm an entusiasitc Envirotex Lite user.
I did this muddy canal...
and a tannery pond
Beavers...
And swans...
The key to every scene is preparation of the river bed. I line mine with plaster cloth and then seal it with white glue. I make the bed uneven, and then use paint to add more depth to the deepest parts. I used multiple thin pours, adding different tints with a drop or two of craft paint.
Some of my water areas are 10 years old, and still looking good. If you practice good "hygiene" on your bottles, wiping the tops and threads clean and resealing them, the unused resins will also last for years.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.