Anyone ever done a river and/or a harbor/bay?

[Matthewd5]

My layout is going to have a river running from the top to the bottom (4' long) ending in a harbor with lobster boats and a fish/lobster shack

I'm going to use 1" thick foam for base and cut the river al the way through...

Should I make the river like 3/4"?

Also not sure how wide to make it, I'm thinking to make it useable for a couple of small boats it needs to be 1/2"-3/4" deep and at least 2" wide?

I'm pretty sure I'm going with the magic water product

I'm concerned how much of the fake water I'm going to need, mostly concerned that I'll screw up the first run and have to spend the $$$ more than once!

Matthew

 

[Selector]

How wide is a river? 'Bout yay wide. So, you pick what yay means. Is it to be the Mississippi or the local creek? Whatever you decide, you have to scale it for your HO scale. Take the real world feet and divide by 87. The figure you get for the quotient will be the width of the river in feet. Multiply by 12 to get the inches.

When you dig down, you will have to seal the seam where the foam meets your board. Otherwise, you'll leak. I use wood putty, but you could use wall patching plaster, Durabond, Durham's water putty....anything that you can apply smoothly and paint afterwards.

Then you paint the river bottom and harbour black or turquoise with some black and grey added. Lighten the mix to a brighter coulour for the edges.

Pour the medium you intend to use in at least two separate pours. Let each one cure before you add more medium. You would not likely need or want more than three pours of about 1/8" thick. You can spread the medium while it is mobile, or just let it find its own level.

Cover each pour with stiff foamboard or cardboard to keep dust off the surface while they are curing.

You can tint the medium in most cases. A small drop of a suitable medium green acrylic craft paint should do. I use Hauser Medium Green from Wal Mart's craft section. You can also add a small pinch of plaster of Paris to the mix in the top layer to provide some turbitity.

I used a two part epoxy for the main pour, and then apply a thin layer of gel gloss medium to the top when it is cured. Turning the foam brush on its side, I then stipple the gel medium.

 

[Matthewd5]

I should have said , it's a n scale

I guess I wand the river to be big enough for small boats canoes etc and have it widen when it gets to the harbor

I'm still really new to this and am still trying to get used to thinking and planning in scale...

Thanks for the tips, you must have spent a lot of time just on that one look of the canoes near the bridge abutments, it's very photorealistic

Did you add another product on top or did you use a brush to create the peaks with your primary water material??

I'm dreaming of coming up with water that is that realistic with a few small boats and probably a couple of fisherman on shore

Matthew

 

[Selector]

Matthew, as I described earlier, atop the glassy smooth epoxy I painted a light smear of gel gloss medium. Turning the foam applicator on its side, I stippled the surface to form peaks and wavelets.

 

[Matthewd5]

I'm firming up my dimensions of the river and harbor and it seems like I'm definitely going to need to buy the really big jug!

Luckily I'm going to the biggest train show in the northeast and I should be able to get a deal on that, at least no shipping...