How deep, small river?

Often the depth can be determined by what colors you paint the bottom of the river...with darker colors suggesting deeper water. The colors become lighter and more rocks are visible as you get closer to the shore.

I assume you're modeling the Colorado Rockies. Most of the rivers or stream banks are very rocky with less water depth (in comparison to the Mississippi River) so you should also consider that the water runs through rapids and contains lots of sediment. The Colorado River, for example, is deep in places but also has rapids...some areas are crystal clear and others are very brown. The depth of your river is generally dictated by water width and the slope of the riverbank down to water's edge.

I use the 2-part Enviro-Tex. Just follow the instructions on the side of the box...it's easy. I do not make rivers (streams or creeks) very deep because thicker Enviro-Tex takes much longer to dry and tends to crack.

I'd check out Mike Danneman's book for some ideas Amazon.com: Scenery for Your Model Railroad (Model Railroader): Books: Mike Danneman

Göra nöje och njuta av din järnväg

Faster flowing mountain rivers are fast and relatively shallow.  It will be a challenge to get "the look", but if you paint it up well, pour a two part epoxy, and then ripple it with a layer of gloss medium that is dabbed with facial tissues to get the ripples and wavelets, it should look good.

Again, preparation of the river bed will be 80% of it.  You will have to place scale rocks and the odd boulder, and the shading will have to be right.

electrolove wrote:

It's the Arkansas River at the D&RGW hanging bridge I'm talking about. I don't know how deep it is, but I think it's not that deep.

This is on Hwy 24 north of Buena Vista CO on the Arkansas River.

You're right,electro.  It's not that deep.  I live on a cliff on the bank of the Arkansas (I'm about 40 miles downstream from the hanging bridge) and depending on the season you could often walk across it and not get your knees wet.  It is a little deeper than that at the bridge, and as Crandall says often lots of small rapids.

I hope someone will have a specific answer to your question though.  How deep to model?  An inch? Six inches?  I'm wondering the same thing.

All of my lakes, ponds & streams are only about 3/8th's of an inch deep for rivers & some streams are only about 1/8th of an inch. The depth is brought on by the colors of the bottom up to the banks at the edge. The last pour of whatever I use is always a gloss to get the reflections off your surrounding scenery. I've never used invirotex in all the years I've been modeling. The thing that you have to look at is; If it's not what you want on the 1st pour, add another different color & pour it again. I have some ponds that look real deep that are only about 1/8th of an inch thick. Then I have some that I didn't like the color combinations & started all over again. These are thicker. I use a lot of rocks around the edges to hide any imperfections & then add reeds, small bushes, & other scenery & that also gives your water depth. Everyone has their own idea's & most of them were trial an error. You have to just get in their & try something, even if it's wrong. You can always start over & sometimes the 2nd, 3rd & 4th times makes what you wanted. LOL

Larry

EL, you would make no more than two 2 mm thick pours of your epoxy.  Even that would be a bit thick, but not objectionable.  Remember, you must then add a 1-2 mm layer of gloss medium to get the wave effect and the ripples or rapids.  You could bet away with only 2 mm total (!) if you had the painting done well below it, and wanted a deep, slow river with no boulders lurking in the depths.  But you will model a very fast, shallow stream with lots of "white water" around partially submerged rocks and boulders.   So, the easy way was the first way, but you won't have an easy time of it.  You will have to take your time and play with arrays of rocks and shrubs.  Then, add enough epoxy to partially submerge the rocks  (hint- pick rocks that are flat on one side and bulbous on the other.  Lay the flat side down on the painted surface, and let the epoxy flow around and over the higher portion to create the real look).  Also, when you go to dab the gloss medium over the epoxy, you should cover each little rock that is NOT fully submerged with tape to keep the tops looking dry in the sun... just like in real life.

This is going to require a small practise piece, EL.

Here's a scene where I dabbed Enviro-Tex paste directly to the surface of black & green painted table top with a small paint brush, lifting slightly to create the rapids effect. The pond is no more than 1mm deep and was done by dabbing paste, not pouring resin as I've done elsewhere on the layout.

selector wrote:

I think you have done very good work there,   Would it be possible to post a photo with a bit better focus?  Maybe it is just me, but I have trouble seeing it clealry.

Thank you for the compliment. I tried to enlarge the photo as I posted it but couldn't get it any bigger. I could send it as an email in the original size which is much larger and easier to see all the details. Plus I have other views of the stream and pond if you're interested....

conagher wrote:

selector wrote: I think you have done very good work there, Cam!   Would it be possible to post a photo with a bit better focus?  Maybe it is just me, but I have trouble seeing it clealry. Thank you for the compliment. I tried to enlarge the photo as I posted it but couldn't get it any bigger. I could send it as an email in the original size which is much larger and easier to see all the details. Plus I have other views of the stream and pond if you're interested....

Cam...  You've got some amazing water going on there !  Please, post more photos so we can be inspired by your excellent work.

Please, post more photos so we can be inspired by your excellent work. Timothy

Thanks but I cannot take all the credit. The layout belongs to my buddy although I did alot of the water, rock cliffs and shorelines....help's been needed as he's gotten older.

Here is a picture of the Ca Zepher heading your way, winding along the Feather River.

The river is painted to get the depth and I applied realistic water about 1/16 thick, used mat gloss and mat medium in the rapids after I roughd up the water with glue, the whitwater is extreamly light and is an off white(cream) Being the Feather has lots of moss and algie I went a blue green and I thijnk I capured it as per my pictures of the Feather. 

Here's Barger Run on my layout:

The rough opening is about 2 inches deep.  I then built up the bottom using drywall mud, WS course ballast and several grades of talus.   I used WS Realistic Water, poured in two 1/8" pours (1/4" total) for the water.

Nick

electrolove, I've never been into the Royal Gorge but I am somewhat familiar with the Arkansas River below Texas Creek; when I was living in Colorado Springs many, many years ago I drowned a lot of worms in those waters.
The upper reaches of the Arkansas may not be the Mississippi but it is still a rather substantial stream and an awful lot of water has to squeeze through that narrow canyon.  I remember seeing something somewhere sometime stating that the river drops as much in the ten miles below Texas Creek as in the thirty miles above it - or figures close to that - somebody from the region enlighten me.

The river flowing through the gorge itself doesn't appear to be nearly as "dirty" as, say, the Verde here in Arizona but a certain amount of sediment is being conveyed downstream so you would not want to model it as a pristine blue.  Remember, the reason for your "hanging bridge" is because there was not, at that location, any kind of bank to support roadbed.  The river is flowing fast, and relatively deep, and is always going to be scraping earth off of the walls of the canyon.

I thought Conagher's outlined methods came as close to perfection as I have seen recently.  To my experience, water is about the most difficult scenery technique to master; you know you have great scenery when people want to stick their finger in your "water" to get it wet; that's "real" water.  And remember, as was said, if you use envirotex - I do - "Thin is In"