Rivers, Rapids & Rushing Streams - Pt 5

Part 5

To continue this multi-part saga. It does take time, over several days, but hopefully results are worth it.

• Re-evaluate - this is key. Before starting new work, look at where you are. Note any needed corrections and determine if you need to correct them.
  
  Below picture shows rapids right before Black Hawk Trestle. To me they are too flat, even with highlighting. Also height does not allow another pour of resin if desired. Note a bush in the middle of the water, luckily it was loose and easy to remove. If it had been stuck you can remove and then hide with some caulk and then treat as part of rapid, or a rock, nut be careful to make sure rock does not look like it is floating.
  
  
  Here caulk is added to add volume and height.
  
  
  Using technique shown previously caulk is shaped.
  
  
  Moving towards Black Hawk, here you can see the matte gel effect. This kills reflections (big deal if using led's close to surface). It also establishes a subtle flow in the water.
  
  
  Further upstream just to show what the results are in each step.
  



• 
  Adding Gloss medium. Picture below shows what is used, gloss thick medium and a short brush. This step goes on after matte medium and adds both flow and a slight reflection or sparkly to the top of the water. Use sparingly, with little streaks going with water flow. Hard to see in pictures. Once dry will provide a semi transparent clear streak that catches the light.
  This photo is before gloss gel.
  
  
  
  After addition of gloss gel. Will dry clear. Sparkle not apparent until after dried.
  

That is Step 5, let dry and come back in a day and evaluate. Step 6 in a day or so. Hope this is useful to someone.

Thanks Cameron

Couple of follow-up items.

The Rock wall from Forks Creek to Black Hawk was bugging me. A friend Dave pointed out the rock mold joints were too noticeable. I looked at it over the course of a week and he was right. So out came my tool of choice, Sculpt-a-mold. Now at first I did not like using Sculpt-a-mold with plaster as Sculpt-a-mold does not stain well. Turned out it does hold washes well so with a little practice and some feathering in it can match plaster just fine.

Before


After


Still a little more work to go to bleand better needed to let dry to finalize) but I think it looks much better.

Moral of that story is listen and don't be afraid to rework something to make it better. Thanks Dave!

On a second note: worked on the roughly 5-6 ft by 2 ft high section of rock wall from Forks Creek to Idaho Springs. Here is the result. Needs a little more painting, plants, weeds, dirt etc. but it is doing what I intended.



So a good time off. Rain really messed up our roof plans, but we did make some progress around the house and I got in a good bit of work on the layout.

Thanks Cameron

Sunday - Rivers Rapids and Rushing Streams

Sunday - Rivers Rapids and Rushing Streams

Part 4

Got a good bit done. The third coat was dry so on tho details:

• Added Rapids to act as dam below trestle on creek.
  



• Now comes the "Secret Sauce" - these 3 products are used to reduce the glare and flat look of the water, create little eddies in the flow and lastly to add a touch of sparkle back. Short stiff brushes are preferred as you more dry brush / Highlight that paint. You want the lines running with the water path around rocks and other objects. This will establish the flow. Begin with Matte Mod-Podge, it is thin and mainly cuts glare.
  
  
  
  
  



• Next we highlight rapids with titanium white. This is a dry brush technique. If you mess up it will wipe off if your gentle. Make sure lines follow flow of water. This is what really gives the movement impression so go light at first and add more as needed.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



• Now to fine tune some more. Some of the rapids were not full as I wanted so went back and added more caulk.
  
  Before
  
  
  After
  

Time to Let it dry and hopefully revisit tomorrow evening after work. Hope this is useful information.

Thanks Cameron

You guys thought you had layout problems!

First it was bugs eating sculpt-a-mold, now Godzilla's little sister is
terrorizing Clear Creek.





This is the abandoned Iguana we found last year. My wife was carrying her and
she (the lizard silly) crawled on the layout. Wife took a bunch of pictures,
then the silly 4 ft lizard turned around and climbed Forks Creek Bridge. not too much damage but it had me sweating bullets.

Thanks Cameron

Good Sunday Morning

Up early wanting to get a few 2 hour work sessions in today. Today will be a big day on rock work and the creek may get another coat, or we may begin the detailing that will make it come alive.

Now for a 'learn from my mistakes' moment. Preparing the creek bed really should be done after all plaster work done, below is a prime reason. sometimes I get excited about a project and get a little ahead of myself. No a huge issue but it will mean touching up the creak bed one more time.


Note nice little bits of soft white plaster on creek bed, these leave a white mark when you remove them. Might be best if I had waited til after plaster work to paint creek bed.

Part 3

First hings first lets look at results:

• Here testing resin is completely dry. If still wet a little string would lift up when you lift test probe, or you would feel a tug when you tried to lift. Careful now finger prints are hard to hide, so use only some kind of clean pointed object to test.




• On this picture look at point of xacto knife, see the shiny strip just above the resin. This is creep caused by the capillary action of the resin on the face of the object. Saw a great article on Railroad-line forum on using a light coat of vaseline to prevent this. Joe Fugate in his video's just fixes with scenery or paint. My recommendation is to view the results after all water is done, then experiment. The matte medium we will be using can help, scenery can help, or in some cases, it is not an issue.




• Now lets see what we have accomplished. In the below picture we see the detail coming though the water but less distinct. This is the effect we are working towards. Note as you go to middle you see darker and no detail, this shows depth. Once we add matte and flow this will become more pronounced, shallow will show rocks, dirt, etc; deep will not.

That's all for now, will update later on hopefully both on the new stream bed by the wall and on this current project.

Thanks Cameron

Rivers, Rapids and Rushing Streams

I'm liking that title hope to use it on the booklet I've been asked to do.

Wanted to post some more on water creation and a few pictures.

Once you determine what type of water you want to model the steps are straight forward:

• Cut out stream or river bed


• make stream bed and banks - Plaster cloth or sculpt-a-mold work well


• Paint stream bed, use 2-3 colors, blend light to dark getting darker towards middle. Depending on the depth you plan (darker = deeper). Streams and rivers are rarely blue, recommend using tan, raw umber, green, and payens grey or charcoal



• Seal stream bed with white or carpenters glue (I use red top tite-bond in the gallon bottle for about everything to do with scenery. Seal with full strength, not diluted. Let dry 24 hrs.


• Prepare banks with dirt, stone, or whatever your choice of material is. Again let dry.


• Add rocks using either glue or clear Chalk. Let dry.



• Add any details like tree trunks that will disappear into depth of water.


• Now use clear Chalk (I use DAP bathroom in squeezeable tube)to form rapids. You will probably due this a few times, so you will have opportunity to improve look as you add layers. Remember water piles up on the surface it hits then trails to sides and forms a trail behind the rock as ti goes downstream. Use end of artist paint brush or any pointed object to spread chalk. Will dry clear, highlighting in later stages will determine look and flow. Let dry.



• Prepare whatever you plan to use for water. Lot's of brands out there, any work. My preference is Envirotex. (I have also used Woodland Scenics water but find it stays a little soft on top making harder to keep clean, this can be overcome by going ovr top with another covering like gloss or matte gel). A gallon goes a long way. Mix up only what you can use for a single pour no thicker that 1/8". Don't worry about adding color in first pour.




• Making sure stream bed is clean and dry, begin to pour a tiny bit of water material. Use a clean pointed object (toothpick is good or a skewer) and drag about edges to make sure you get a fill. If there is any holes, the water material will leak out and you will have a mess (don't ask how I know). Keep layer 1/8" or less.


• use a paper tube (a cardboard roll from paper towel works well, as does 1/2" pvc) to exhale gently on surface of water material, this causes any bubble to come to surface and pop.



• Let sit for 24 hours, do not do anymore work as any dust will land on your water.

Second Pour
So you've waited (I hope as I tend to rush and it never turns out well) 24 hours and are ready to look over your work. Evaluate depth, use clean toothpick to verify water material hard. Check any rapids or dams you created with chalk to verify if they are high enough for another layer, if not add them now and let dry.

Ready to proceed:

• Make up another batch of water material, once made add a tiny amount of the tint color you want to use. I have tried several types and find simple craft paint to work best. Use just a little, adding if needed. What I do is use a clean popsicle stick to dip just enough to cover a 1/4 to 1/2" of the popsicle stick and then mix into water material. Important, check color on white paper to verify it is still see through and not too dark.


• Once mixed and you verified color, begin pouring a tiny bit on top of your previous pour. Use toothpick or skewer to drag so it covers stream bed.





• Let dry as above, making sure no dust is introduced.

Congratulations you are well on your way to a nice looking stream.

The next steps I'll add in a day or so with more pictures, these will include additional pours, more coloring, finishing rapids, adding flow to water surface, adding highlighting to rapids, and adding that little sparkle back to make the water look alive.

Hope you enjoyed.

Thanks Cameron

PS - have many high-re pictures if you need them with more detail on steps.

Adding Light to General Store

Finished the General store for the Narrow Gauge Chat Module to be displayed at NNGC. Figured I was wimping out expecting someone else to have time doing the lights. So went basic, cut a 3 led strip off lights I use for layout. Happened to be brite white so tinted using the Tamiya clear yellow and Ailenes clear glue. Since these have resisitors they work straight on 12v. Added lead wires, used a little black liquid electrical tape and it was done.







On a side note, used the liquid tape to simulate tar around chimney, looks ok to me.

Thanks Rabbi