OK, Forum friends. I've got yet another one that I need assistance with: I am trying to cover the fact that the my riverbed is nowhere near level by making the river opaque with mud. (It would also match a prototype waterway in my neck of the woods.) I have some latex paint that was tinted to a Muddy River color. (Yes that is the name of the color.) I already have a good coat of gloss medium on the bed. Which would be the best: to put a layer of paint on the medium and then cover that with the gloss medium or tint the gloss medium with a quantity of the paint and use that mix to coat the area? If I tint the medium, what ratio would I use?
As usual, any assistance that can be provided would be most welcomed.
I tried matte medium for a small lake. Tinting it with with a tiny bit of craft paint was semi-transparent giving it a bit of depth. Painting it, kills any illusion of depth. I tried adding various colors, and you could swirl of colors as if muddy water is flowing into fresh water.
https://tinyurl.com/y6fcalzf
A heat gun didn't get rid of the bubbles BTW. Eventually I pulled the whole thing out, it came out like a scab, and switched to Mod Podge. Similar, but hardly any bubbles.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Check out Doctorwayne's river.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/268601.aspx
Done with plaster and gloss medium. Scroll down a little.
Mike
My You Tube
The only problem with that idea is that the river is already poured with a fairly thick layer of gloss medium in spots. In others, it is fairly thin. I am almost tempted to tint an amount of the medium and then put another few coats of clear medium. I was also planning to have the "mud" flow into the lake. The lake is a dark blue.
My understanding of gloss medium is that it's applied with a brush (sized suitably to the area needing coverage), then "worked" using a smaller brush, to create ripples or small waves, simply dabbing at it with the brush to lift peaks of the gloss medium. Since it takes some time to "set", you may have to keep poking at it with the brush until it begins to dry.Don't paint over the gloss medium: its purpose is to create the look of "wetness", imparted both by the glossy finish and by whatever ripples or wavelets you can create. I had some success creating small waves in the Durabond by using a dampened sponge, just lightly dabbing at the surface. Since gloss medium is also water-based, the sponge treatment might work - if so, it should be less labour-intensive than using a small brush. Perhaps try a small test, not on the layout.
There are some photos of nicely-done water, using gloss medium, HERE, HERE, and, if you scroll down somewhat HERE, too. There's also some info with the pictures indicating methods for achieving the desired effects.
(I didn't intentionally link to threads with my photos in them, so simply skip by mine, as none of them were done with gloss medium.)
Wayne
Gloss medium will act as a great sealer for your uneven river bed. You could then pour a resin product over it to represent water. If you dont want to do that, even out the river bed with plaster or joint compound and go from there.
Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale