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I have used both water products on my layout. I found them good, but I have no experience with other mediums. The Realistic Water needn't be deep -- an 1/8th of an inch is all it takes to look like deep water -- with the base painted black to resemble depth. My first mistake was painting my "lake" to look like various depths and when I added the "water" it looked like something out of an atlas depicting ocean depths. I remembered hearing that I could paint over the "water" and after it had dried I painted until I thought it looked more realistic, then poured another layer of Realistic Water overall. As the "water" dried (several days) the surface changed to a "bumpy" look that everyone compliments me on for its realism -- it looks like waves and water currents. I have no idea how I achieved that unless it was the way I used my gloved hands to "smooth" out the Hydrocal used to seal the Plaster Cloth base, or if it's because there are multiple layers with paint sandwiched between them. I, too, like the uneven, more realistic look of the water surface. My only complaint is that I think somehow my lake lost the shallow color at the edge as the plastic dried and it now looks black all over. I have a waterfall that feeds the lake and I used Water Effects for the falls. I first measured the length needed, then squeezed out toothpaste-like strips of the Effects side by side on a flat surface. Using a toothpick I roughly joined the "toothpaste" strips and let them dry -- it took more than a week. When dry, I picked them up and glued them to my mountain outlet and "glued" them to the water surface with more "Effects" that I stirred up with a paint brush and toothbru***o resemble turbulence. I did that about two weeks ago and parts are still not dry. There was no real odor using the products and I found them easy to use. Well... I found Water Effects really tough to squeeze out of the bottle. The Woodland Scenics video shows laying out the strips on a non-stick skillet that I didn't have. I tried aluminum foil -- didn't release; so I next tried waxed paper. It came off the waxed paper with some gentle persuasion. I scraped bits and pieces of the paper off the dried falls for a couple days, but it did come clean. (I tried washing it -- but it turned a milky opaque that eventually did dry clear, but I won't repeat that experiment.) I have now purchased some gloss medium I intend to use for water in another location to compare the two effects. I've read about gloss medium in many of the scenery books I have. What interests me about it is that it can be tinted and applied in layers. If anyone endures through reading this entire response and knows if I can use tinted gloss medium over my Realistic Water so it doesn't look so deep at the edges, I'd be interested.
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