Envirotex Lite Questions

I'll leave more detailed answers to others, but will respond to at least some of your questions.

1.  Yes, you can certainly paint the water feature bottom with latex paint.

2.  Tinting colors are available at just about any arts & crafts store.

3.  Yes, you are better off making several thin pours rather than one thicker one.  I would use at least two pours to arrive at a 1/4" depth.

4.  I never had a whole lot of problem with wicking, but in areas where it does wick up the shoreline I simply covered it up with various Woodland Scenics materials.

5.  To prevent ending up with a perfectly smooth surface, I always wait until the pour is partially cured and then pick at it with a large nail or other disposable metal object.  It will look pretty darn crappy when you first do it, but the surface will slowly level out on its own and provide an appropriately rippled surface that looks far more natural.

Great tip for #5, Allan. Thanks!

Rick

Yes, white glue is fine.

Yes, latex paint is fine.

I used a product called Chemco Resin Dye.  I mixed about 6 ounces of Envirotex Lite at a time and used 10 or 12 drops of dye in each batch.

Yes, for 1/4" finished thickness you'll definitely want two pours.  Use a clean piece of cardboard as a squeegy to spread the resin.

If the resin has wicked where you don't want it, get a small brush and paint some white glue over the shiny resin in the wicked area.  The white glue will dry to a clear but dull finish and the wicking will disappear.

Like Allan says, Envirotex ends up perfectly smooth like glass.  The HO guys have figured out what to do.  After the Envirotex is completely dry, you use a different product to make your waves.  You can pick at the resin before it dries, but that is hit or miss at best.  It always wants to lay down flat so you need to guess at how much to pick it and how cured it needs to be first.

There are two products I've seen used to make waves.  If you want small ripples on a pond or currents in a stream, use Mod Podge Gloss.  Use a fairly large brush (1/2" to 3/4") and stipple the Mod Podge on.  It will also level itself a little as it dries, so make bigger waves than you'll want.  If you want larger waves then the product to use is Liquitex Gloss Super Heavy Gel Medium.  Stipple this on in the same way except it will essentially dry exactly as applied.  I used it on a fairly large body of water where I wanted a wind-blown look.  I wound up with rough water that looks good.  I'll take a photo later and post it.  The HO guys use Mod Podge Gloss for ponds and Liquitex Gloss Super Heavy for ocean waves.

Thanks guys. Some very useful information.

Does Envriotex have a smell to it when it's going on? Wife has a very sensitive schnoz. She doesn't even like it when I'm painting scenery with latex and that's when she's upstairs and I'm in the basement.

I don't know about the smell yet. From what I heard it's not as bad as it used to be.

It has been several years since I poured mine, but I do not recall any odor. Of course, I will say this with a warning….I don't remember many things these days!!!!!

If it has any odor to it, it's certainly not very noticeable.  I have used the stuff for years and one of the things I really liked about it is that it doesn't have the very pronounced smell of most other types of casting resins.  Certainly not anywhere near as pronounced as most latex and other paints.

Joe the smell is not that bad to me, my wife on the other hand did complain of the smell going through all the house and was lighting scented candles for days. I use Modge Podge now for water.