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Ok my layout is going to be like 1/3 water with a river running all the way down into a 2 1/2' harbor
For thr top of the river I'm definitely going with shallow water lined with small rocks and will have some scale fly fishing figures but when I get to the ocean I'm planning on having it far blue/greenish
The question is where and how to transition, I'd hate to just have it be a hard cut from clear stream to dark ocean, I'm using magic water which dries totally clear
I could airbrush the waterbed from a medium earthy brown in the beginning into the blueish green/blue/black for the harbor or I could cheat and make the change under a low bridge!
Matthew
Transition a few inches from the mouth of the river. Airbrushing will be fine.
Depending on what area you are modelling, the transition into the ocean isn't as sudden as you might think. Even with selective compression a river will be washing silt and some turbulance into the sea for some distance. The "deep blue sea" probably doesn't occur until a couple of miles offshore, depending on the presence of reefs, sandbars, manmade jetties, etc. True, there can be some sudden dropoffs that would provide a deepening of the bottom, with the accompanying change in color. Are you planning on having ocean-going ships tied up at a dock? The churning of the ship's propellers will stir up mud and debris from the bottom which would take awhile to settle.
Best of luck with your project.
Somewhere I have an aerial bhoto of Belize City, taken from about 30,000', and there is a very noticeable demarkation between the river outflow and the main sea water - which is between a mile and two miles from the coast itself. The distance would also depend on the speed of the river. I'd suggest that you go for a brownish-green, and forget any clear blue .
Thank you for the replies, it's supposed to be a small harbor in Maine with the biggest ships being lobster boats...
The depth wouldn't be anything more than 30-50 ft but I need to goto my local working pier and take some pictures as I've spent a bit of time on and near the water
But i wasn't building a layout at the time and the view from a kayak is a lot different than being 25 scale feet above plus the harbor will be dead center in front of the layout along with a lighthouse
Matthew
I suggest using Google Earth to view real rivers similar to what you want. Save it as a jpeg, print it, and put it under the clear coating!

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