[Dethklaat]

I'm in the middle of planning a diorama, and I haven't worked with water effects before.. I would like a swampy look for it, with 2 small streams flowing, and was thinking of using a mirror under the actually watereffect..

I bought a pictureframe for the diorama, and would buy a very cheap mirror as well, if this will work. The diorama itself will still be elevated over the actual glass, but does anyone have any comments, ideas or experience working with mirrors in a setting?

 

[Mad Cat]

You want to get hold of some frosted or ripple effect glass to go over the mirror and distort the reflection somewhat. Otherwise your reflection will be flat and perfect and not look like water at all particulartly if you want the effect of a stream as opposed to a mill pond.

Build up the surrounding terrain with cork tiles, polyfiller and then sand, rocks and flock.

I reccomend the woodlans scenics resin water. Unlike the GW stuff the water can be as deep as you like. It looks like tiny beads of clear resin the size of baked beans. You heat it in a pan and pour it into the stream in the terrain. You can add brown, blue or green ink to the mix to tint the water colour but do a test run first with a small amount to get it looking right.

After it cures (about 48 hours depending on temperature) you can gloss varnish the surface to protect it.

 

[Leech]

I did water effects to make a Tyranid swamp, you can see pics of it here on this photobucket page which might help you.Tyranids pictures by Leech-man - Photobucket

Use very thin layers of water effects, like you are applying gloss varnish. It then dries faster and allows you to add more. Don't add too much or allow it to pool or get stuck in gaps etc. If it allowed to get deep you may have to wait a month or more for it to cease being cloudy. I'm not sure about the mirror effect. I think that it may just end up looking like a mirror with transparent, dry goo smeared over it's surface.

Water effects an also be coloured. Use inks and mix only a tiny amount with it. The ink will then give a tint to the water effects, you can use more for a stronger effect. In my swamp I used layers of green at the bottom and then used clear water effects as I applied later layers. This (if one looks closely) gives the idea that it is murky at the bottom of the swamp.

Hope this helps.

 

[odinsgrandson]

For a swampy pool, I would advise against the mirror altogether. Swamp water tends to be very dark, and a little shallow.

So that you know, you can add acrylic paint to layers of water effect to make dirty water. The best way to do this is to add in a layer of very dirty water effect, followed by a layer with less paint in it, followed by clear water effect. It will make the pool appear quite dirty.

 

[ArtificiallyEnhanced]

Try this thread for a good use of water effects.

 

[Uziel]

For shallow water effect.
First paint the watercolor you like to have, let it dry and put some acrylic gel medium on top.
bubbles can be made with a hot glue gun before pooring the gel on top. Bursting bubbles just shape the gel when it's half dry.