Water effects for rivers

[Charlie_]

Seems like I'm asking a lot of questions on this board lately concerning the modular terrain boards I have started building!

Now I'd like some advice from those who have used fancy water effects for river terrain boards.

I was originally just going to use yacht varnish on a painted river, but am now leaning towards giving the more sophisticated methods a go.

As I understand it there is the poured resin approach, which I find a bit intimidating, and also various water effects products that can be applied on top of the resin or used by themselves on a painted surface.

I've been looking at this product, which looks pretty good - https://www.migjimenez.com/en/dioramas-vignettes/8919-clear-water-amig-2245.html
The instructional video makes it seem very easy - just paint your body of water appropriately, and then slap this stuff on top.


When using the resin pour technique, is the idea to do it over a textured riverbed, potentially with rocks, reed, etc...? In which case the resin will want to be tinted an appropriate colour?

The way I see it I have four options...
#1 Paint then varnish
#2 Paint then 'water effects' of some sort, allowing me to get nice ripples/undulations
#3 Paint, then resin pour, then 'water effects'.
#4 Textured riverbed, then tinted resin pour, then 'water effects'.

[Burgundavia]

Questions are good. I've never used any of these, but about to do some canal pieces, so am happy to see what others say

[zemjw]

I asked about water effects recently, although with a different product (Vallejo water). I was warned it shrank and cracked over time, something my brother-in-law confirmed happened to some small ponds he'd made a few years ago - although I think he used a different product.

I decided not to use the Vallejo one, just in case. I haven't used the one you have, so it could be fine, but it's something you may want to double-check first.

[Cubs]

I once used yacht varnish in multiple layers as a river - I can confirm it was a terrible idea. The varnish takes ages to dry (although it is very shiny) and I got impatient, so tried pouring it on. Jebus, what a pig's ear I made of it. I tried to shore up the ends of the river section with plastic sheet taped in place - this didn't work, it just leaked out anyway all over the kitchen table (luckily I had put paper down). But the worst bit was that the varnish just dried on top in a flexible skin, leaving runny varnish underneath.

The moral? Don't be a fuckwit like me, use materials the way they're meant to be used. Personally, after much introspection, I would either just varnish over the top of a painted surface, or if I was feeling fancy and patient enough to do it slowly, go the resin-over-rocks method (using inks to tint the resin first), with maybe the varnish in reserve as a final layer to prevent it drying out and cracking over time.