Water is the driving force of all nature - water tutorial

Water is the driving force of all nature.  Leonardo da Vinci

I recently did revamp number three on my Soyokaze Harbor water section and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. This latest round had me using Mod Podge and I'm super happy with the results.


I've had a few people ask me about my process for this, so I thought a more detailed blog post might be a good way to go.

My first round of water from ages ago. Woodland scenics water product. It was ok.

But, it needed a face lift.

First thing was looking at the real thing - fishing boats in Japan. I found several water shots that I liked and aimed to match the color.

I didn't want to go TOO green and I did want a little more wave action, so I went with a similar green and thought it might be a windy day in Soyokaze, so there would be more whitecaps. Very common in Soyokaze. :)

EVERYTHING  off...I have work to do! :)

What a mess

The painting was rather straight forward once I had my color mixed. I used standard, cheap Michael's Art Supply acrylics.

Now, the old water was created back in 2015 or so and when I did it, small cracks had developed in the Woodland Scenics water material I was using. (Very sad) I thought that i might kill off the cracks if I laid the paint on thick and heavy.





After the paint dried, I used MOD PODGE and followed the method that I picked up from a few YouTube videos. It's rather straight forward. I applied the Mod Podge with a brush, starting on one end and working back to the other end. I made some areas a little thicker than other to get white areas in the water.

When it was a little tacky, I placed my boats and added some Mod Podge behind them to create wakes and engine froth. I was rather happy with it and thought....THOUGHT...I was done.

However....there were two major OOPS moments here.

First, I actually didn't kill my cracks much at all. They were still there.

The second major OOPS came when I checked things out the next day. I had used my MATTE Mod Podge instead of my GLOSS one! hehehehe   Nice...non-reflective water. D'OH!

However, I want to see the GLASS HALF FULL rather than GLASS HALF EMPTY moments with my hobby time. It's supposed to be relaxing, not upsetting. So, I thought that I might be able to use the inevitable ROUND 3 of this process to make things better still.

The cracks. I needed to address the cracks for sure. I also wanted the waves to be more natural.

I needed to fill the cracks in - I saw that as the most simple method rather than sanding stuff and creating more mess. I went with simple and just globbed in Elmer's Glue over the major cracked areas. I let it dry, then did another round of painting to tweak the color and add some more variation.

I laid the paint on thick.

The Elmer's and thicker paint application really helped to kill the cracks. The old cracks are on the left and the stripe of paint through the center is the new paint application on the next image.

MUCH better! 

I did the round of painting, then went in with some white and black paint is spots - blending them in to create some more color variation.

 Once the paint was dry, you could really see the paint variance. This shows difference in depths.

Now, for Mod Podge three.

I needed more chaos in the application. The paint brush was to small and even, so I went with a 1 inch foam brush on this round. This gave me a wider coverage range and added a little texture into the mix as well. When I put it on, I put some upbeat music on and tried to let loose a bit. I thought I might have gone too far the other way with things.

But, once things dried, they were much calmer and gave the effect I wanted. I was super happy with the depth I managed to get with this flat style in lew of a "depth pour" where you melt water or pour it thick into a contained area.

My next steps will be to get all the buildings, water barriers, and boats back on, then go in with yet ANOTHER round of Mod Podge and a smaller brush to add in water hitting the walls and wakes from the boats and their engines. I'll do a separate post with some shots of everything after it dries.

I tried to keep this short, sweet, and to the point, so if you have additional questions, feel free to ask away in the comments section! 

Cheers!

Malco

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The layout - March 2014

Another old post from 2014 that I never finished. Interesting to see the layout when I first started it.


I've made some progress on my layout. Small steps, but steps all the same. I've......

Dibs and Dabs of Items

I've spent a little time on some detail items on the layout. Little things here and there that I've had on my list. Ideal for lunchtime mini-projects.

I've continued adding foliage. It's making a world of difference for me on my layout. 

I also added a few more little detail items here and there. Like this fence section. I plan on adding a lot more.

Some power poles from Tomytec.

I did a small water pour, finally. It was difficult - I didn't really set aside a space for water. However, there were some natural spots that were natural water location spots.

Another Tomytec item went in - a small bridge. Again, it was a natural spot for it. I'm looking at it as a creek area that's dry in the summer, but flowing in the winter.

A Tori Gate went in in Soyokaze Temple.

There are so many more details that need to go in. I have a running list. It's fun adding the smaller stuff. I really enjoy the smaller detail items and stories. It's going to be years of these mini-projects and I'm really looking forward to it. :)

"Water water everywhere..."

I just love what some modelers are doing with water these days. Some amazing and interesting dioramas here. I enjoy the planning that must be behind some of these. Figuring out what you want under the water, weathering and setting it in place, then making that final commitment to the scene before you make your pour. Wild stuff.

And the depths on some of these are really impressive. Working with that amount of material must be interesting. I ran into issues just pouring some water for my layout that was a mere 1/8th of an inch thick!

Check them out. I tried to include the original links from Pinterest along with the images.


I believe I'm interested enough to do a little scene with a large water element. And underwater wreck or monster or both. I think another cool item might be to include lights with the underwater element. A sub with lights or a submerged car with the lights on as some THUNDERBIRDS-like team tries to rescue the folks within.

Yeah...I need to try this out! :)