[Model] realistic watern - review
Myrmidon
Well, I'm working on some more Tyranid terrain and I'm currently
working on a small slime filled reclamation pool for the Nids. I'm
currently testing out a new woodland scenics product called (surprisingly)
'Realistic Water'. The bottle I snagged was $15 for 16 oz (473.2 ml.)and
so far I'm liking it.
I started with a heavy plastic sheet as a base (like 3.5 mm thick for
solid support of the resin/water) and I carved a roughly oval shaped pool
wall out of 1/2 inch blue construction foam using a hot knife tool. I
covered the foam with gesso and painted it in shades of purple to match my
bugs. I then placed the pool walls on the plastic base and traced the
inside shape of my pool to use as a guide for painting the bottom of the
pool. (Use a pencil to trace the inside as you'll find it's much easier
to paint over pencil than it is to paint over felt tip marker.) To paint
the bottom of my pool I went with shades of green (as that's the color I
planned to tint my water/slime for the pool.) I started with shades of
light green and worked my way into dark blue/green as I painted the center
to give the illusion of depth to the bottom of the pool. A couple of
painting tips...
1. If you're working with acrylic paints - you can get an acrylic
retardant that slows the drying process and allows for longer opportunity
to blend colors smoothly.
2. If the base is light in color (mine was white plastic), you may have
to put down more than one layer of paint to get good coverage. You can
speed the drying process for acrylic paint by using a hair dryer on the
paint (yes, even with the retardant in it.) Note: I would NOT recommend
the hair dryer trick for drying minis - heat can dull the colors a bit.
Not so important on terrain, but not so good for minis.
3. Remember to paint larger than / outside of the guide line for the pool
interior. This gives you a margin for error when you go to glue down the
pool wall later so that you don't have any unpainted base showing around
the inside edges of the pool.
Once I shaded the inside area of the pool to my liking, I decided I wanted
to add some 'ripples' effects to the paint job. To get them to line up
with the edges of the pool, I taped the pool down to the base temporarily.
To do this, I used transparent tape, and simply rolled little loops (like
double sided tape) and put them on the bottom of the foam pool wall. Once
I had the pool positioned where I wanted it on the painted area and taped
down, I set about painting the ripples. I mixed up a very light shade of
yellowish green and used a fine brush to paint a set of broken and varying
width ripples roughly following the interior shape of the pool two or
three deep around the inside of the pool wall. I also painted some
circular ripples around where I planned to place a ripper in the pool.
Once everything was done and fully dry, I used a hot glue gun to glue the
foam pool wall to the base on top of the painted area. Make sure you use
a good unbroken bead of glue all the way around the inside edge of the
pool so that when you glue it to your base there are no openings where the
water/resin can leak out when you pour water into the pool. It's ok if a
little bit of the hot glue oozes out under the edge of the pool wall into
the pool when you're gluing it down. It'll be completely invisible once
the water/resin is poured in on top.
Now for the good part. I've previously tired a product called ...
"Enviro-Tex" - and frankly it SuXoRs! Enviro-Tex is a two part product
that is VERY slow to dry and in general a pain to work with. First off,
you have to mix it in equal parts and have to do so in expendable cups or
similar items as the container you mix in can't be reused. Second, it
takes AGES for the stuff to become non-tacky which means any dust that
lands on it will be a permanent addition to the surface if you aren't
careful (and it does take days to dry). To top it all off, the stuff
reeks, and the fumes it gives off are toxic. All in all it is NOT
something I'd recommend.
Well, the other day I was in the local (Railroad) hobby supply store, and
noticed a new Woodland Scenics product - the a fore mentioned 'Realistic
Water'. After speaking with the owner, he recommended it as he'd also
tried the enviro-tex stuff and disliked it as much as I did. So I decided
I'd try this with my Nids slime pool terrain and see if it worked any
better. Well, right off the bat - it doesn't require any mixing. Since I
did want to tint it I poured some in an expendable plastic cup, and mixed
in some Green ink. It does seem to take a bit more ink to tint it than
I've needed to tint batches of 5 minute epoxy in the past - but in this
case I was tinting a good bit more at one go. Pouring was very easy, and
this product does a fine job degassing itself (all the bubbles rise to the
surface and pop) without having to agitate it - the enviro-tex isn't so
forgiving. It also has very little odor which means you can store it
indoors where it's less likely to get dust and dirt on it while drying
without stinking up the house.
Now the instructions recommend pouring between 1/16th and 1/8th inch thick
layers at a time and allowing them to dry for 24 hours before pouring
another layer. I screwed up here and ended up with about 1/4th to 3/8ths
inch thick layer for my first pour. Whoops! Myr do bad! Bad Myr, Bad!
Hopefully this won't be a major problem. Since most resin products cure
more quickly with heat, I set the piece on top of my stove while I'm
cooking some fish fillets in the oven. The top of the stove gets
noticeably warm without being hot enough to melt the plastic. I'm hoping
the extra heat from the bottom will help the lower layers cure while the
upper portion cures as normal.
(The real hard part will be being patient long enough for it completely
cure before I start working on the rest of the base.)
Overall, I'm pleased with the new Woodland Scenics realistic water. At
the recommended 1/8 layer or even at 1/4 inch thick (2 layers) one could
make a number of river sections or rather large pools, swamps, etc, from a
single 16 oz. bottle.
Hope that helps,
Myrmidon
P.S. If you're using static grass on your minis and terrain - do NOT buy
GW's packages of static grass. GW charges $5 for a relatively small
ziplock baggy of it. Meanwhile - you can get a 32 oz. shaker type
dispencer (YES 32 OZ! - roughly 8 times as much!) of the same exact static
grass for $8.50 from Woodland Scenics. They even carry it in multiple
color choices. On the bright side - GW's consistant. They screw you over
price wise on the minis, paint, glue, and flock too.
--
#1582. I think they call it Warhammer "40K" because that is how
much you are going to have to make per year in order to play.
- Eric Noland
# 1082. Pound for pound I can buy cocaine cheaper than
raise a Warhammer army
- Roy Cox
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/gwprice/
****
RGMW FAQ: http://www.rgmw.org
Or...
Toaster
"Myrmidon" <Im...@home.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.18ec0caa1...@news-server.woh.rr.com...
> Well, I'm working on some more Tyranid terrain and I'm currently
> working on a small slime filled reclamation pool for the Nids.
<review snippage>
Thanks for the review - I can't wait to check out how it came out. I may
need to pick some up for when I finally put my table together . . .
Toaster
Berto
it a week ago and it did a very good job for a large pool/swamp. highly
recommend for people with little skill like me.
Berto