Model Train Journal

All:

I'm interested in your thoughts on creating large bodies of running water, e.g. the Ohio River. My preliminary plan is to:

1) Caulk around the mid-stream piers.
2) Paint the river bottom some combination of blue / green / brown / gray. What colors / kinds of paints have you used for this?
3) "Plant" some cat-tails and debris along each bank.
4) Use Environtek in layers to create the water.

Below are some photos to stimulate your thinking. Primarily my questions are related to colors (paints) you have used to achieve a good color for water? But I would love to have any advice regarding this task. This is entirely new territory for me.










Many thanks!

George

George,

If I were you, I would make a trip over to the OGR Scenery and Structures forum and look down through the topics for "water".

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/forum/sce ... structures

Happy Holidays,
Rich

Water is one of the most difficult materials to model. It doesn't "scale" well. Reflected light, color, surface effects are all hard to duplicate.

Some of the most convincing examples use textured glass. You can find examples/samples by googling "rippled glass panels". When placed over a painted surface (usually mottled browns or grays) it can make a very convincing river, especially if there is a backdrop (which you have) to be reflected off the surface (for the blue and green effects). Having said this, glass if very heavy and difficult to work with. The bridge piers may not look right "floating" on the rippled surface. While there are tools to allow you to rout into the glass (diamond bits) it's expensive and time consuming and makes the glass more difficult to handle (each hole weakens the sheet).

Poured resin. Main objections are making sure the "well" is a) leakproof and b) absolutely level as in laser level. c) stuff usually stinks d) working times may become problematic on a large pour e) bubbles Most of us don't have access to a vacuum pump to de-gas and a large pour may introduce "fresh" bubbles. f) making the ripples look like ripples instead of frozen brush marks. This stuff can make great water effects but it isn't always suitable for large bodies of relatively calm water like a large river. Great for ponds or running streams.

Hybrid solution. Try experiments with a thin layer of resin poured over a clear (but rigid) sheet of acrylic. Use an airbrush to gently push it around as it is beginning to set to get the ripples. Maybe tilt the sheet to get mean old mr gravity to help out. This can be placed over a painted surface (aka the "bottom" and it should still retain enough reflectivity to show the backdrops.

George,
FWIW. When I lived in that area, 1934-1952 plus many visits for a while, Pittsburgh and the rivers were all highly industrialized.
The Ohio River seldom had a blue cast to it. It was more greenish-brown. It has a very different look now than it had then.

E7 wrote:George,

If I were you, I would make a trip over to the OGR Scenery and Structures forum and look down through the topics for "water".

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/forum/sce ... structures

Happy Holidays,
Rich

Rich, I actually did do that. I will take another shot at it (my search may have had too many or too few terms).

Thank you,

George

chuck wrote:Water is one of the most difficult materials to model. It doesn't "scale" well. Reflected light, color, surface effects are all hard to duplicate.

Some of the most convincing examples use textured glass. You can find examples/samples by googling "rippled glass panels". When placed over a painted surface (usually mottled browns or grays) it can make a very convincing river, especially if there is a backdrop (which you have) to be reflected off the surface (for the blue and green effects). Having said this, glass if very heavy and difficult to work with. The bridge piers may not look right "floating" on the rippled surface. While there are tools to allow you to rout into the glass (diamond bits) it's expensive and time consuming and makes the glass more difficult to handle (each hole weakens the sheet).

Funny you should mention textured glass, Chuck. I actually used that technique for Panhandle 1.0.






Unfortunately, the glass is too small to use for Panhandle 2.0. This version of the Ohio River is wider.

chuck wrote:Poured resin. Main objections are making sure the "well" is a) leakproof and b) absolutely level as in laser level. c) stuff usually stinks d) working times may become problematic on a large pour e) bubbles Most of us don't have access to a vacuum pump to de-gas and a large pour may introduce "fresh" bubbles. f) making the ripples look like ripples instead of frozen brush marks. This stuff can make great water effects but it isn't always suitable for large bodies of relatively calm water like a large river. Great for ponds or running streams.

I am leaning towards this approach, but don't know what problems might arise for large bodies of water.

chuck wrote:Hybrid solution. Try experiments with a thin layer of resin poured over a clear (but rigid) sheet of acrylic. Use an airbrush to gently push it around as it is beginning to set to get the ripples. Maybe tilt the sheet to get mean old mr gravity to help out. This can be placed over a painted surface (aka the "bottom" and it should still retain enough reflectivity to show the backdrops.

I'm going to have to think about this one.

Thank you!

George

rogruth wrote:George,
FWIW. When I lived in that area, 1934-1952 plus many visits for a while, Pittsburgh and the rivers were all highly industrialized.
The Ohio River seldom had a blue cast to it. It was more greenish-brown. It has a very different look now than it had then.

Oh yeah, absolutely! The Ohio River was very dirty in those days - no blue. And algae blooms contributed to that greenish hue.

I will definitely keep that in mind. Thank you.

George

Based on the lack of clarity for the water, you should only need about 1/4" of resin. If you could see even a foot deep in the stuff I'd be surprised. The Hudson was maybe 6" and that was looking at a piling attached to a dock.

G3750 wrote:Rich, I actually did do that. I will take another shot at it (my search may have had too many or too few terms).

Thank you,

George

George,

Here's a LINK that will give you some results:

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/advancedS ... sort=SCORE

I used ADVANCED SEARCH and the "exact words" option using "modeling water" You can play around with that advanced search and probably find other posts on the subject. "ADVANCED SEARCH" is accessed from "MENU" top left of the page on OGR.

Rich

You might be able to find textured acrylic material that would be lighter and easier to work with. Some of the patio table tops may have a texture similar to what you are looking for.

George,
I have no ideas on what to use but what are the dimensions of that section to be modeled?
You may have given them and I missed them.

Here's another batch of search results just using the word "water" Not ALL of them are about making water, but many of them are:

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/advancedS ... sort=SCORE