Never, never pour the varnish. Paint it on, even paint it on heavy. If you pour it on, it will run, never dry and seep into areas you dont want it. It took around 2 weeks to paint each layer, one almost every day. It had dried nicely and was quick and easy to do. And there is no real depth here either. Max 5mm
For a flat area with no real ripples, this method is good. If you paint it on a bit heavy it will even itself out. When the skin starts to harden on the top you can run your finger over the skin and "Pull" it a little. This makes nice little ripples. This would be perfect for making a puddle, like envar has used in his schwimmwagen dio.
For rougher water, you might have to look into resin type methods. My base for this was quick drying moulding plaster. I see no reason why it wouldnt work to make "waves" the same way. I havent tried that though.
This was a first time attempt at making water and something i was very please about. the thing is, it is a very forgiving method as you put on so many layers, you can hide little blemmishes or mistakes. Give it a go.
