I am building a d-day diorama and i was thinking what to use to make water . And then i thought that i can use varnish, couple of layers of it (varnish glaze polish lacquer, dont know wich word is right) .


Do you think it will work ( i thought that i could firstly pour the varnish into a cup and mix it with something that it would gain a difrent color or atleast color*o* )

P.s. there arent any HOBBY LOBBY shops in Lithuania so i need to use something from this building materials shop :
http://www.senukai.lt/eng/main.aspx
please help me to find something that i can make water from, becouse i newer made it . And this is the bigest shop where i can get stuff

waiting your comments and suggestions

I also thought that i could use 2 part epoxy glue but still, what do you think about the varnish (laque) idea ?

I'm guessing the varnish will dry way too thin in each layer. There are a number of "water" products available commercially just for this purpose. Look in a model train shop or an atrts and crafts strore that has decoupage supplies. There's a two part e[poxy that is very close to Liquitex Worst case, go with two part epoxy.

I think that the two-part epoxy is the way to go but be sure to create multiple layers and wait for each one to dry before adding the other. Depending on how close your diorama takes place to the beach, tinting may not be necessary to get the blue/green color of water. However, if you wanted to add something like blood in the water, try adding some red food coloring mixed with a little bit of green (to make the red more like the color of blood) to Future floor wax. It is made by Johnsons and works great as a replacement for many different things, such as gloss coats for vehicles and aircraft. Hope this helps.
Kyle
PS Oh and welcome to Armorama! You will definately feel right at home with the guys and gals we have here.

Thank you all
you realy helped my

Hi. It is possible to make convincing water by varnish. But it helps if it is deep water you are portraying and that it has something to reflect in it, to give a natural colour. Below is some text I wrote before on the subject,


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.




1) Spackle. It has loads of names. Its the typical stuff used for filling small holes in walls. Usally when a wall is built with bricks, it gets a layer of hardwall to smooth and straighten the interior surface. This is basically the same stuff. It comes in tubes ready mixed also.. to fill holes. It also comes in bags .. and can be mixed for different jobs around the house. There is a hobby version that dries pretty quickly.. its the stuff that comes kids moulds and you can cast and paint disney characters .. for example.
2)Any type. I used oil based varnish for furniture. Humbrol would work well. Maybe an acrylic varnish could be used and more than one layer painted per day.
3)Not sure what you mean by this question. Im guessing where do we paint. The whole water surface area.
4) Throw on plenty. Brush it out heavy .. but not so heavy that it never dries. Dont worry about brush strokes as these will even themselves out or add to the texture of the water if they dont.
Hope this gives you some ideas!!!