River Scene

Make sure to place some stones and tall grass in the river, possibly some junk like a few tires. the pour the envirotex right over it

Multiple coats of paint will cover the plywood's grain.

If the surface is too grainy use some drywall compound. The fast dry lightweight stuff is good. I then paint a color....depending on what you are modeling. I then use Gesso paste to make ripples and wakes around rocks etc. A few coat of gloss Gesso paste will make a nice surface and is a lot easier than the clear two part stuff.....IMHO only!

And please share some pictures so we can learn from it too.

Art

here's my plywood with envirotex.

I usually just cover my wood with plaster of paris, a thin application and give it a wash of "dirt" color. I do this when I am making the river banks etc. After this is dry, I pre spray the river with water and get it moist, then I start "dabbing" the river bottom with green acrylic paint (the river color). I stay just shy of the rivers edge when adding the green paint so that it "wicks" towards the rivers edge through the water that you sprayed earlier. You can add more water if you desire. This will give the appearance of shallowness. When the green paint is in place and still wet, spray the river bed again with lots of water. I like to give the center of the river some drips of black (diluted with water) acrylic paint down the length of it and then hit it with water again to spread out the dark paint. All this water will give it a really nice swirling look when dry. All this water will also let you know if you have any leaks. Envirotex loves to find any leaks. Make sure you lay down some plastic and a drop cloth on top of that to protect your work area from leakage. If the river has turbulence, I like to use various artists mediums to build it up, mixed with what acrylic too. Cheers!

Todd

WOW?

WOW!

Hats off to you! That is awesome "Scenery Artist".

Scenery Artist - I can't believe how real that looks.  WOW is the word for that work.  Well done!

Steve, Lady and Tex

SceneryArtist (aka Todd), can't wait to try out this method...with you, of course, on your next visit. Beautiful work!

Jerrman

This is how I built my river. I used a piece of plywood and slid it in under the scenery. This allowed me to "build" the river on my work bench and then slide it into place.

I love the ability to work on detailed scenery at the workbench and then transfer it to the layout. 

Art

This is a bit off the river theme, but this is how I built the background for this area and slid it into place as well. It sure makes it easy to work on!

Todd,

Perfect! I am doing a mountain now and was going to have a water fall down to a small pond.

Now you have to post some instructions and secrets on how you did that.

Steve

Clear silicone latex caulk - kitchen/bath type:

Jim

I used the silicone latex caulk also. I needed some support for the waterfall over the uneven "Rocks", so I used a thin piece of wood (balsa?) and painted it white. I layed out and cut the silicone on a piece of wax paper, and then put it on the wood support. I used the silicone to "glue" it in place and connect the top to the pond that was it's source. I painted white highlights on the silicone(water fall) and added some thin pulled cotton for the spray in places. I painted wet spots on the rocks near to the water fall. As you can see I built this on my work bench so I could make everything fit together such as the rock outcroppings. It was not formed by Nature! Try some ideas and see if they match your "view" of what you want to build. Some will and some will need some adjustment. Have fun!

This is stunning work. One of the best river scenes I have ever seen.

Boy, they all look fantastic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?l...re=player_detailpage

I have tried lots of effects over the years and for still or slowly running water I now use only Woodland Scenics Realistic Water.  It is sort of transparent, but wood grain will not show through even a quarter inch of it so you don't have to worry about it.  I paint the wood darker where I want the look of deeper water and lighter and then mix in some sand color more toward shore, etc.  

WS Realistic water looks very realistic for still or slowly moving water. For foam, I use white caulking.  WS's product is strange stuff, a goo slightly thicker than honey.  You pour it on, and thick as it is it gradually flows out level and flat - but it is a liquid: if you have the least hole in your containment it will find it and drip out.  And it stays a liquid.  The scene below is two years old - if I press hard on the surface i can leave a noticeable indention - it is gone by the next morning.  In that scene, as recommended I "installed" the water about 1/8 inch at a time, for a total depth that varies from 1/8 inch to maybe 7/16 in places.  Note in the close up of the guys fishing, there are trout in the water.   Between the second and fourth (last) layer of water, I took some slivers of white styrene I cut and placed them on top of the previous layer, then poured my final layer.  

Man, if those utility poles were strung I'd be hard put to tell those scenes from 1:1 scale.

Masterfully done, sir. 

That is 2 railer Don Smith - Industrial Models beautiful basement layout!

He might add some life into the scenes such as birds or some hikers when its completed.

I've seen a video somewhere about how to make water like that (with white caulking on top of a darker material surface) and it is tedious detailed work.  It represents a lot of time and talent, but the result is certainly worth it.  Stunning.