"Magic Water" -- any tips?

[dknelson]

Well I am about to create a shallow creek using the Magic Water product.  Anybody have any tips and suggestions to give me?  

Dave Nelson

[rogerhensley]

Magic Water makes for a beautiful 'still' water. If you want it to look like it's running, then add Mod Podge to it to get swirls, etc.

In other words, just follow the directions. 

[UP2CSX]

Yes -don't use it. The stuff never dries, picks up finger prints and dust, and looks terrible in a month. You can do just as nice a job using gloss matte medium or a water based acrylic gloss product. I just did a pond and stream using Minwax Polycrylic Clear Gloss and it came out great. You can get it at Walmart for $5 a pint.   

[mondotrains]

I've used the Woodland Scenics "Realistic Water" which comes ready to pour, has no foul smell and dries hard and clear.  I made my river 4 years ago and it still looks great.  Before Woodland Scenics came out with this product, I tried their "E-Z Water" which is beads of some sort of plastic which you need to melt and pour.  It looked good at first, but it scratched easily when I dusted it with a cloth.  Their new product doesn't require any heating and melting which can be dangerous.

 

Hope this helps.

Mondo

 

[modelmaker51]

Take a piece of styrofoam create a small pond and do a test pour.

[rogerhensley]

Yes -don't use it. The stuff never dries, picks up finger prints and dust, and looks terrible in a month. You can do just as nice a job using gloss matte medium or a water based acrylic gloss product.

I certainly didn't have a problem with it drying. It didn't pick up finger prints, dust and looked terrible in a month. I put it down about 6 months ago and it still looks as good today as when I poured it.

[UP2CSX]

Whoops, sorry, cancel my previous bad-mouthing. I was thinking of Woodland Scenics "Realistic Water". I got "Magic" and "Realistic" mixed up - I think it was late at night...or something. The WS product never really dries out and remains soft enough to show a fingerprints and sticky enough to pick up dust. Now that I think of it, I don't even know who makes "Magic Water" but sorry, whoever you are.   

[jwar]

I was very impressed with realistic water a few years ago. However as the pic below you can see dust, grass, foam particales inbeded in the river, this product does not seem to ever get real hard, is a dust magnet, and two or so years later I sat a hair spray can overnight, ring in forground. I am going to have to pull three bridges and redo this area with another product. So when you get this magic water in, let us know how it went, any problems, does it dry hard, does it look good, and post a few pics.....John

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I have four words of advice. DO NOT USE IT. Based on my experience and that of others, the product is not what it's cracked up to be. I was extremely displeased with it and ripped it out and went back to using gloss medium.

[nufee]

I have used Woodland Scenics "Realistic Water"--It is great.  No Problems.  Be sure to keep it level when you pour it or have a backup dam.

[wm3798]

I haven't used either of the above products, so I can't speak to their effectiveness.  I have used acrylic gloss medium applied directly onto a flat painted surface and I find it very easy to control, very durable, and easy to maintain.

The same scene before the "water" was applied.  No dams to build, no leaks to plug, easy easy easy.  And probably a darn sight cheaper.

Lee

[jwar]

Lee....Your river looks fantastic, did you build up under your rapids, or are they wet brissled in. Your trees are just as awsome, great work....John

[wm3798]

I outline how I did the scene here:

Evolution of a Scene

An article about my trees is here:

Cheap Trees from Your Garden 

Lee 

[david53]

I have four words too!  Why havent you called?  If it wasnt satisfactory and didnt work its news to me as in the 2 years its been out the only problem I have had is with people not mixing it thoroughly.  Otherwise I have thousands of satisfied customers.  Ask Dave Frary, Paul Scoles, Larry Smith to name a few.  I purposely include my home phone in the instructions for any problems a customer might have.  Before you bomblast what is the easiest product available for modeling water you might have contacted me.  But thanks for trying it anyway.  Sincerely, Dave Williams, Unreal Details

[david53]

Hi Jeff.  Maybe I jumped the gun.  When you said dont use it were you referring to my product "Magic Water" or Woodland Scenics Realistic Water?  I just wanted to set things straight.  Thanks, Dave

[fmilhaupt]

The only real tip I can offer when using Magic Water is to try not to sneeze when pouring it.

I was using some during allergy season and sneezed while I was pouring it. As a result some of the adjoining bushes and vegetation got a nice glossy sheen I hadn't planned on. It was easy enough to fix up, but I wish that I hadn't had to.

Anywhere else I've used it, it's been perfect for over six months now- it dried hard and is still nice, clear and shiny.

Mixing it isn't particularly tricky- I've just eyeballed the proportions every time and gotten good results. I was just certain that I stirred it well enough and paid attention not to introduce bubbles into it while I was stirring. If anything, I may have stirred it longer than I needed to.

One of the things I like best about it is that it flows so freely. This keeps it from climbing up the sides of embedded rocks and trees as much as other brands I've used in the past.

Magic Water's free-flowing nature startled me a little bit the first time I used it, because of the scenery base I was using. The ground forms on the layout are made using a geodesic foam method- sheets of foam-impregnated nylon screening which starts out flexible, then sets up firm. This method leaves air pockets and other voids in the material, but ones which are easily covered when adding ground cover. My first pour of Magic Water left me a little surprised the morning after I poured it. After I poured it and turned in for the night, it seeped into the underlying ground form and dried there. None of it went through to the floor, but it looked like it had pretty much disappeared, leaving the pond bed just looking moist and without the 1/8" depth I'd poured.

What had happened is that as it sought its own level, it filled in the gaps and voids in the underlying ground form, as it should. The second layer I poured went more the way I'd expected it to, since the first layer had done the sealing work I'd neglected to do earlier.

 

[dknelson]

Well at the risk of reviving a rather old thread (and I know some guys hate when that happens), I finally got around to the Magic Water product "pour" that I first asked about -- jeez it was last September!   But I wanted the creek bed to be detailed and shaped exactly right, and to fit perfectly under my double arch bridge.  So I took the extra time.  After an initial experiment with a little pond on a piece of styrofoam, I was finally ready for the "big pour" last week.

I started with a perfectly clean mixing tub and plastic spoon for stirring (both are cheap and disposable and will not be reused).  I stirred for a solid 6 minutes.  The pour itself was easy and this time I had perfectly sealed the creek bed including the ends (on my experimental pond every tiny gap leaked and I had not stirred enough).   My seaweed creek bottom (ground foam) released bubbles which just as advertised went away when I exhaled over the creek.  I gave it a good solid 4 days to harden and solidify and I am very pleased with the appearance.  There is no odor at all with the product.

Rather than "tease" the product into little swirls of water, etc., I let it dry flat and will use gloss medium to create a little variety around the rocks and tree trunks that stick out of the water.  I tried this out on my experimental pond and know how to do it now.

The product did "wick" a little up the creekbed but I need to detail dirt, stones and vegetation right to water level anyway. 

So all in all I am completely satisfied.

Let me clarify that Magic Water is the name of the product.  This is not either of the Woodland Scenics water products but its own brand of product from "Unreal Details."

Dave Nelson