I tried using a product I bought a while ago (but havn't had an excuse to use until now) called 'Scenic Water'. This product is a meltable jelly that can be poured and shaped as required. But what I didn't realise was that when it cools it remains in a jelly like state. Once set it looked truely terrible and didn't even provide a shiny water like shine to the surface. This was the first time I used this product, and it'll be the last time as well! In the end I was forced to strip the whole model and start again.
Second time round I still had problems with paint coverage but I tried to keep coats to a minimum, allowing each to dry thoroughly before moving to the next stage. I then used three very thin layers of Winsor and Newton Gloss Varnish to give the surface a shiny 'wet' look. The final coat took over 24hrs to dry fully so this was a very slow process on what should have been a simple paint job.
Despite the problems I'm reasonably happy with the finished piece. I used some of the grass 'tufts' I bought at Skirmish and I think they make a lot of difference. However for such a 'simple' piece of terrain it gave me a lot of grief and I'm glad to move on to other projects.
Brilliant - this is one of the many things on my list of builds to do.
ReplyDeleteI also bought a pre painted resin 'marsh' (a bit smaller than this model) at Cavalier and now I wish I'd just bit the bullet and bought two of them! This pond turned out ok in the end but I'm not as happy with it as I would have liked to be.
ReplyDeleteStill, it's a learning curve and I won't make the same mistakes a second time!
Look great to me Lee, it would grace any wargames table. I like the murky effect, reminds me of the water Fran gave us at his last zombie game!!
ReplyDeleteAll part of a cunning experiment I'm conducting, Lee is reasonably safe for the moment but I've been adding it to the water cooler at work aswell. (cue maniacal laughter)
ReplyDeleteFor all the troulbe it gave you that came out pretty good. And you are right the grass tufts do make a good addition to the piece.
ReplyDeleteIt's a lovely pond. Just needs ducks!
ReplyDeleteI'd be more than happy to get the same results.
Reasonably happy? It looks great to me. Some well places tufts are the icing on the cake.
ReplyDeleteatleast it turned out looking good.
ReplyDeleteI think that looks pretty good, Lee. I really like the rocks.
ReplyDeleteIf it is any consolation, I had exactly the same disappointing result a year or so back with "Scenic Water". Since then, I've been using "Solid Water" (http://www.modelshop.co.uk/product/Solid_water_90gm_FT00102). Unlike "Scenic Water", "Solid Water" is two-part resin, dries very hard and really does look like water. It's more expensive, but worth it in my view as the results are a lot better. You also get a cool set of syringes with the "Solid Water" set which come in useful in all sort of things.
Excellent work! Everything looks like it has to be to me. Even after all the problems you had!
ReplyDeleteGreetings Peter
Happy St. Patrick's day!
ReplyDeleteI've had some success with artist' gel mediums which dry to a high gloss and can be moulded while drying in various wave-like shapes. Another trick is the imfamous future floor polish which dries to a high-gloss wet look. Really does look like it is still wet even when it is not.
ReplyDelete