What Color Do You Paint Your Lake?

Hi Art

     I use those Acrylic Paints from those big box art stores and GE Silicone for water falls and action around rocks on a lake.

2 FL-OS Bottles

Ocean Reef Blue & Navy Blue

Cobalt Blue

Forest Green

White & Black

    Mix to the color you like..... or look at my article in the OGR Magazine, Run 278 June / July 2015 Page 48 to 53, view photos.

Gary

• Cheers from The Detroit and Mackinac Railway 

Art,

If you can go look at water near you. Most water or rivers near here are ugly brown or green. A clear water lake has high acid content? Many guys model crystal clear water with all kinds on scenery on the bottom. Around here don't think you can see 2 feet down.

the most realistic model lakes i've seen have varied the color with apparent depth... light around the edges and very dark after a few dozen scale feet in.  i would stick with a blue shade.  while green or brown shades are certainly valid, everyone likes to see a nice blue lake, unless it was in a city location where you might also think about throwing in a few sunken tires and other scrap.

cheers...gary

Depends on your preference for realism or just creating the appearance you prefer.   If going for realism I suggest darker colors since from a distance,  with some exceptions,  most large bodies of water appear darker in color.

Small streams,  running brooks, etc..........  totally up to your preference as you can see blue to almost black.........  take a picture of something similar to what you are modeling and copy the color would be my suggestion.

Mark

Art- I painted mine medium blue/green and then put a sheet of tinted blue rippled glass on top for the water. The result looks almost black, but I think that it looks real to me. Yes I know it is N scale, but I think it would work just as well for O scale too.

I like the darker colors for the reflections. Dark blue and brown for the deep and lighter for the shallows and beach.

I used a medium green, darkening to almost black at the center for my backwoods pond.  Going by the photo it looks like I should have been more subtle with the gradation, but it was my first try.

I've always wanted to try putting sky pictures with clouds under rippled or flat glass.

You see this a lot when you look at ponds and lakes.

The big cumulus clouds are usually on breezy days that would ripple the water.

Boy, that's a beautiful picture, Rich.  It would take a true artist to replicate that in a layout lake.

depends on what is next to it and behind it.

Hi Art - Update to my post above.

     I use a lot of blue, because I am a Toy Train Layout, from the Great Lake State.

In the Toy Train World, water is in the blue range.

The Great Lakes are Blue but rivers and streams have more a green / brown cast to them.

Gary

• Cheer from The

Glacier National Park. Grinnell Lake from Grinnell Glacier trail.

Crystal clear water with white stone granite sediment.

Early morning sun.  A place called "No Name Lake".  Hike-in from Two Medicine Camp ground.

Art....I always enjoy discussions about modeling water!  The pictures below which have been posted before here on the forum show a couple of places on my layout where I have attempted to model water.  The greenish looking water was achieved by first by laying out a layer of masonite and painting it with Krylon Camouflage green.  Over the top if it I installed a layer of shower door glass.  Aquatex glass looks great as far as replicating waves in water but there are many other patterns from which to choose.  This is not a new technique as it has been used by various modelers for many years.  The blueish looking water was done the same way but I used paint that was custom mixed at the paint store based on a color chip sample that I liked...  Water can take on all kinds of color hues depending on the time of day, weather conditions, angle of the sun, the number of clouds above it, etc.....

Painted blue & green.

Nicely done Johnny and a good example.  The lake looks deep to me due to the color.  Another good tool of the color will indicate the appearance of depth of the body of water.

 

I like what Jeremiah had to say in the seventeenth also

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the kind words Mark!

Thank you Martin!  The "water" can be made to look different depending on the kind of "rippled" pattern the glass has.  There is a large selection available...

Alan

You can also use flat glass and paint on the waves with Mod Podge.

I went with an acrylic sheet cut to fit my layout area.  Painted the bottom Rustoleum camouflage green.  Used the silicone wave technique with a light brushing of white for waves.

-Pete

Personally I like the deep blue color, tapering up to a lighter shade near the shore to symbolize the depth of the water.

However, if you are modeling a western Colorado railroad and the EPA is anywhere near your layout then you might want to consider the color orange. 

If the EPA has not been near your layout, then a dark green color would also be appropriate as in the lower middle of the picture below.  The orange would certainly generate questions and curiosity. 

Pete...your technique of using silicone on top of the plastic sheet really looks like real waves....I like it a lot!!

Alan

Thanks, Alan......working with the silicone, kinda gets your frustrations out!   The more you beat the silicone , the more wave effect you get!

-Pete

CT Mike are you visiting GP now?.If so email me your probably close by. I live in Kalispell.

Steve

OMG, wsdimenna, I had to scrutinize and re-scrutinize to discern if I were seeing real-life or modeling. I mean, all the elements were familiar as models to me - the trees, building, truck in the background, and babe in the foreground (not noticed at first) - but the impact of this masterful craftsmanship is sooooooooooooo convincing. perfect, really.

Wow. And WOW again!

FrankM.

Water?  Oh yes. There it is. 

Verra nice. 

I would like to expound upon what Alan said in his first post on this thread. It is true that using glass to simulate water has been around for a long time. In fact, Bill McClanahan, in his book, Scenery for Model Railroads, first published in 1958, describes the process and notes that “This popular method of building a pond or lake has been used by such craftsman in the hobby as John Allen, Frank Ellison…” However, back then, the idea was to look through the semitransparent surface and see the lake bottom. In effect, the glass was suspended over a cut out with a completely modeled lake bottom.

So while the use of glass is not new, the technique of opaquely coating the underside is. This essentially allows the glass to act like a mirror when viewed from the proper angle. And just like in real life, when you peer down into the harbor it appears murky, but as you lower your angle of view, reflections come into play. 

There is a significant difference in realism obtained between the two methods (transparency vs. reflectivity) and as other products such as casting resin became more economical, the use of glass diminished. When I was designing the Sandy Harbor, I ruled out using anything that you had to pour. This was mainly due to the relatively large size of the waterfront. I wanted something simple and I resurrected an article I had saved from a 1989 Railroad Model Craftsman by Phil Chiavera. He had used a friend’s discarded shower doors to create a harbor for his HO scale NYC West Side Freight Line.  Other than painting the underside green, he supplied no specifics. An internet search yielded nothing, so I set out on a proof of concept.

Experimenting with various pattern glass samples obtained from a glass distributor, I found that one particular pattern called Aquatex with its underside coated with Krylon Camouflage Green provided the look that I was seeking. I wrote a magazine article about this in 2008 and  thoroughly covered the creation of the harbor in my book. It's wonderful to see this technique now being embraced by other modelers.  

Dennis is spot on with this approach.

after reading his book I used it on my layout harbor with great results.

 I am a big fan, and it is very simple.

I wonder if this could be extended for a frozen lake on a Christmas layout? Use the Aquatex patterned glass and paint it with a white or grey underneath (or even a green that has been mixed to nearly white), then spray it with a semi-gloss clear? Just thinking while I type. I think the use of mirrors for ice is pretty unrealistic.

Since a frozen lake would be perfectly flat, I think a regular flat piece of glass or plastic that is frosted on the underside might work. I'm going to have to give that some more thought. It would make an interesting project.  

I'd probably be doing a river (should've said that in my first post), and where I live, we have a river that doesn't freeze flat, in part because it's fairly wide and catches some good breezes, and also because it's tidal and the ice as it's freezing rises and lowers and cracks and doubles over itself. That's why I'm thinking something with some texture would still be good in my application, though I may be wrong.

Dennis....I always liked that particular picture of your harbor!!  It is so beautifully done....WOW!!

Alan

I am just getting started at the scenery making but here is my first attempt at a river/lake about 4 ft long filled with Petosky stones I picked up in Michigan back in 1958 when I was a kid and visited my aunt in BayView. I used Envirotex Lite with acrylic paint tinting. I routered my table top out about 3/4" deep and put sheet rock plaster in to smooth out.

Very well done Quizshow904!!

Alan

This looks really good. Cool you used those stones from your childhood, as well.

On my last layout, I used acyrlic paints to paint the water along the dock a dark green color. 

   Tom 

It looks like it could be a small body of sandy Northern Michigan water too