Water

You can get a clear casting resin from model shops for about $30 a can, and the same stuff is available from places like mitre10. Look in the fibre glass repair section. I've never tried it, but I've heard you can pour a lyer of resin, paint a layer of dark ink over it, pour more resin, paint lighter ink, more resin and so on to create the effect of really deep water.

I always just use pva and varnish, but I've never tried going for a really deep water, for that I would use the casting resin. or, woodland scenics do a water product that is little plastic beads which you melt then pour over your ground. I haven't tried that yet but i plan too.

You certainly can use resin but by god it's expensive. Again Spotlight can sell you a 500ml kit of two part resin for around $40 (people use it for making jewellery and for 'encapsulating' effects...things like paperweights). This doesn't get you a lot of very deep water effect but can be used for pools etc. Topmark also sell resin that's suitable for water effects...for pretty much the same price by volume. Beware of buying resin from Spotlight as a lot of their stock can be VERY OLD. Resin in particular can age with exposure to UV I believe. Avoid kits that appear to have a yellow or brown tinge to one or both bottles.

For cheaper water effects you can use what I tried. Polyurethane floor varnish! This pond from my blog was made with some old floor varnish I had in the garage:



You might be able to pick up a small pot of floor varnish from your local Bunnings or Mitre 10 for less than $40. The advantages, disadvantages imho are as follows:

Resin:

- Bad: Expensive.
- Bad: Very rigid once set and can be brittle although it depends on the resin.
- Good: Can do river and deep lake effects with multple pours and a lot of patience.

Gloss Varnish

- Good: Cheaper.
- Good: Very flexible once dry.
- Bad: Can only really apply in thin layers of up to 3-4mm. After that you'll have problems with 'crackling' effects in my experience.

Imho flexibility is important because in my experience most terrain will get knocked around when gamed with.

Both resin and floor varnish take a LONG TIME TO DRY. And both will happily trap dust, bristles and hair in them while not completely dry. Make sure your terrain is fully painted and sealed before applying either! Also make sure your work area is clean and dust free and you can leave the pieces of terrain in a covered container or area for up to 48 hours while the water effect fully dries. Also apply the water effects after all the painting but before any flock or grass effects are applied. Do flocking after the water effect has completely dried.

One thing to watch out with floor varnish is that the manufacturer will recommend you thin most varnishes with mineral turpentine before applying. However if you're applying your water effect over a surface painted with acrylic paints DO NOT THIN THE VARNISH WITH TURPS. Believe me I found out the hard way that the turps (even if thoroughly mixed) will attack the painted surface underneath (I've made 8 of those ponds above...2 of which I had to thrown away because of this problem). Just slap it on thick with a wide brush. You'll see brush strokes but most floor varnishes will 'smooth out' as they dry to a high gloss finish.

Phew! Hope that helps! And I still want to see pictures .

One more thing. Floor varnish usually has a brownish tinge which is excellent for dirty water. If you want to add other pigments (say green) make sure you use a paint that's not water based. Oil paints and maybe enamels should work. Heh...I tried colouring varnish with acrylics. Needless to say it didn't work. I haven't tried oild paints yet but I've read it works on the web.

Everybody I can't stress this enough AVOID THE WOODLAND SCENICS PLASTIC BEADED WATER. It's crap. I've tried it any found it to be totally useless. It doesn't dry clear, doesn't pour well over acrylic paint (as it's got to be melted it's very hot) and is just a hassle to use. Don't do it Phil! Honest! You'd be wasting your money .

I'd also avoid buying Woodland Scenics 'water effect' bottles because as far as I can tell that's just some kind of treated PVA. Stick with PVA it'll be cheaper .

Fibreglass casting resin you reckon Phil? Haven't tried that one myself! But I'll have a look next time I'm down at Bunnings!

Phil, you don't have problems with shrinkage with nail varnish? This is the main reason I avoid PVA. I guess ladies don't want their nails ruined do they .

I'll try that out as well! I'm all for a cheaper solution. My polyurethane floor varnish was actually inherited from the previous owner of our house. So I paid nothing for it (hmmm...or did I have to buy a house to get it)?

Don't worry about the photos, I can get those for ya and I have a plan with regards to filling up the whole inch: lots of layers of 4-5mm! It's gonna take forever but It'll be worth it in the end, unless someone knows a cheap alternative that will have the same effect...

It's not fibre glass resin, i think it's the same embedding resin was mentioned earlier. You find it next to the fibre glass repair kits though.

I use PVA when I don't wan't clear water, but for different effects like the bubbling liquid in my chemical vat.

Never had any trouble with nail varnish, I swear by it, although as i said, I've never tried it too deep. The best thing about it is it's drying time. Becuause it sets so quick, it is quite easy to get ripple effects in the dried surface (easy to get them, not so easy to get them looking anything like what you planned) I've never had any problems with paint liftinf under the varnish or anything like that, and being imiscible with water based paints, the pigments don't leach inot the varnish either.