The dio started off like below. (I went through a stage of trying to master the art of buildings from polystyrene trays ... free with meat and veg. etc from the supermarket. I stopped because if enamels or thinner got near it, the polystyrene melted. Excellent medium though for anybody who works with acrylic only! I even tried base painting with acrylics, but washes etc soaked through.)
Then I covered/flooded the the river area with quick drying hobby spackel. An excellent trick to convey the idea of depth is sink something in the spackel. Cutting a 200 litre barrel in half is one idea, even the roof of an old vehicle ... or in this case rubble from the blown bridge. I had to do this so one could see more of the vehicle. When ripples are added around this item it is a nice effect.
The base was then painted with a dark brown. Now the water is built up in layers with clear gloss varnish (CGV). I started with CGV and dark blue 25%/75%. Next few layers was CGV with greens and browns alternating, but the % of CGV was 5 - 10% more each time. When I got to the stage of 75%/25% CGV and colour, I added the ripples. The ripples were made with superglue gel. You have about 5 minutes to work with the gel. I used a tooth pick and flicked up little peaks. When dry, I touched the peaks with a white/pale bluecolour. Then came more layers of CGV and a little colour. The last few layers were pure varnish only.
Now the water is complete. I used oil varnish and painted a layer every day for about 12 days. Took about 10 miutes each time. I painted the figures, etc a little each day as well until all were complete, so the time was not missed.
This method works great when the water is surrounded by something that reflects in the water .. canal walls, steep banks, in buckets etc. Because of the solid colour the water, it acts like a mirror, which is exactly what real water does. It reflects the colour of the container or containing feature, or anything sticking out of it. The varnish and colour method is also good for puddles. The big adavntage is, it doesnt cost as much as resin to fill the area and is really easy to get nice effects, and about 2mm of spackel and 0,05mm of paint gives a really deep appearance. The only dissadvantage is its impossible to see anything submerged. Too many layers of varnish would be needed to convey this. Hopefully this explains the method easily. It was my first and only attempt at water, and Im well happy! PM me if you need more information.
