Water effects - is any particular brand best to use?

Sicks

Sicks

Active member
I've been trying to do some research on this and I seem to just be confusing myself more, I understand (in theory at least) the technique to making cool water bases or scenes but I'm a bit confused about what brands would be best (I don't want to end up buying something to save a few quid that turns out to be rubbish) I'm ruling out the woodland scenics realistic water, it seems to be a bit inconvenient if you want to do deeper pools, I'm not averse to having to build up thickness in successive pouring sessions but I've read of shrinking problems and having to pour in 1mm increments which seems like it would take a long time to build up anything deeper than a puddle or stream. I've read about envirotex lite which seems popular and is available on Amazon, it seems like a winner tbh but if anyone has experience with it (or another similar product) I'd appreciate some thoughts, I guess I need something that dries rock hard and can be poured to decent depths and also doesn't play up if you need to do several layers (I have read some don't like that)

Secondly it seems you need a different thing to make waves and ripples on the top, I've read about thick gloss medium (liquitex specifically) or clear epoxy glue, is either one particularly better than the other? I like the sound of the glue option because it seems it would be multipurpose (I think there's stuff made by Vallejo and woodland scenics too for this purpose) the more I read up on it the more confused I get lol
 
Zab

Zab

New member
I use easy cast 2 part epoxy for deeper stuff. and i have a very old bottle of GW waterfx for gloss and yes to golden or liquitex heavy gloss get for making subtle waves. also i have seen folks use melted clear plastic to make more pronounced waves - was it sproket who just did that recently in an sbs on his blog, I think? Demi used a form of clear caulk to get some really big splashes on his giant skelly diorama too!

Hope that helps :)
 
Sicks

Sicks

Active member
Thanks zab, completely forgot about caulk but I remember watching a video where they used some on some clear bottle plastic to make a waterfall, the easy cast stuff seems to be a bit cheaper so that's a bonus, I think I've seen stuff on massive good where they melt plastic for water, icicles and magic effects but I think I might be pushing it enough with resin smell in the house, never mind melted plastic lol. I don't particularly have any project in mind yet other than I'd like to try it.
 
Zab

Zab

New member
the easy cast stuff is way less stinky than others i have tried :) Just do up some bases and play. It's the best way to learn and then you can find minis for them later!
 
Sicks

Sicks

Active member
Thats the plan for now, I do have some ideas that might involve submerged minis or partially submerged but I'll do up some random bases for practice first before I risk pouring it over a mini, I might need to invest in a dremel-like device for polishing the sides if I want to try a deep underwater scene with transparent sides
 
airhead

airhead

Coffin Dodger / Keymaster
Sicks said:
Thats the plan for now, I do have some ideas that might involve submerged minis or partially submerged but I'll do up some random bases for practice first before I risk pouring it over a mini, I might need to invest in a dremel-like device for polishing the sides if I want to try a deep underwater scene with transparent sides
Click to expand...

A trick for casting resins that come out not-quite-transparent on the sides: Mix up a bit more resin and brush it on the resin surface (use a disposable brush like a flux brush). If you mix it hot (a couple extra drops of catalyst) it can make some very uneven / organic type effects. Mix it slow (on the low side of catalyst) and it has times to flow out and be more smooth.
 
Sicks

Sicks

Active member
Thanks airhead, there's alot to think about, I was looking at this http://www.reapermini.com/TheCraft/49 and the list of required stuff is long, some of it I've already got but most of it I don't, I'm having difficulty locating clear toothpicks on Amazon which is only for suspended things like the shark in the article but it would be cool to have, I think I will stagger the purchases though to make it less expensive in one go because I was going to order some brushes at the same time, I didn't foresee all the extra stuff I would need (it's not quite as simple as just buying the resin) I've made myself a list though so hopefully I'll get to try it soon enough, I'll probably get the liquitex stuff with my brushes so I can at least do shallow streams and get some practice with that while I wait and I can pre build some bases while I wait
 
Sicks

Sicks

Active member
I think those acrylic rods would work, not sure about blister packaging I'm just going off that list since I'm clueless about the whole thing, they use the toothpicks to hold a shark in place before pouring the resin which seems to make the toothpick invisible, seems like the rods would serve the same purpose, can clear plastic from blister packs be used instead? Because I have lots of that lying around
 
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