Is is best to tint your resin before pouring.And what is best to use to tint resin or water stuff. Or what is the best way to get your water color.Thanks for any tips.BOB
I use Envirotex Lite for my water. I tint it with just a small amount of cheap acrylic craft paint. Depending on the effect I want, I've used black, blue, dark green, light green and brown. I typically mix up 1 or 2 ounces of Envirotex at a time, and tint that with perhaps a pinhead full of paint. I don't want to make the resin opaque, merely tint it, so that you can still see through it, but there is a slight color and the details at the bottom of the pond will get "murkier" as you add more resin.
For a pond, I prefer to do multiple pours of thin layers. I use a different tint for each layer - darker at the bottom and lighter at the top. For trackside ditches, one or two pours should suffice, and I use darker colors to make the water more muddy.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Yes, you tint it prior to the pouring...that is, do it during the mixing part of the operation. It takes a very small amount...certainly not more than half a drop for a pour of a volume near 3/4 cup. And that much would only be for one layer, over which you would probably want another layer with no tint added.
Note that if you want a slightly turbid look (and it doesn't hurt to try one layer like that, probably the second from the last), add about an 1/8th of a teaspoon of Plaster of Paris powder to the mix at the same time as you add the paint.
Don't have an infarct if the mixture looks frothy or foamy. Pour it like any other once you know it is thoroughly mixed, spread it out well with the stirring stick, and then cover it all to keep dust off the surface.
The last layer should be either prodded as it sets to make wavelets, or add a final thin smear of gel gloss medium over the last epoxy layer and stipple it slightly with the side of the application brush.
-Crandell