The Jakeville & Keirton in HO Scale

 From:

       Mike Schwarze

To:

       SMRF@LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU

 Subject:

       Re: [SMRF] Modeling murky water with ... FUTURE!!

 Date:

       Mon, 6 Mar 2000 13:33:10 PST

 I've not yet tried modeling water, but want to do one of those slow-moving,

murky brown creeks typical of Alabama. Unlike water moving past greater

degrees of elevation, these creeks have gentle swirls instead of rapids

much of the time. Have any of you attempted this kind of murky southern water

and the swirls of a slow-moving creek.  How did you achieve the right color for the water?

I would use -[drumroll, please]- FUTURE FLOOR WAX!  I'd fill an old Ragu

spaghetti sauce jar about 2/3rds full, get some CHEAP acrylic craft paint

from Wal*Mart, etc., in appropriate colors (browns, blacks & dark greens)

and add it a drop at a time to the Future. *Don't stir or shake it - you

DON'T want it to mix*.  Instead, with a toothpick or sprue, gently stir the

thick paint around in the jar just to make waves, etc., like a lava lamp.

You'll see what I mean if/when you try it.

[I'm going to assume the creek is going into an area with no other finished

scenery around it - so you'll first have to draw it on the layout. I use

foam as a scenery base, so I'll further assume that you are, too, but some

of these things shouldn't be hard to do if you're using hardshell scenery.

I'm also assuming HO scale - if another, add or subtract to the size of the

bank accordingly.]

Now prepare the creekbed. Make sure it's at least 1/2" (REAL size) below the

banks - build up the banks if you have to with foam, plaster, etc. and

feather them into the sub-base like so:

Bad ASCII drawing:

Cross section of banks:

    Left                                Right

 _______________                   ________________

               \                  /

     1/2" foam  \     creek bed  /      1/2" foam

_________________\______________/__________________

Start with your earth color and paint a heavy-ish coat on the banks and a

heavy thin line of dark brown or black down the center of your creek -

again, use the el-cheapo acrylic craft paints from a craft store rather than

your loco-painting ones. Feather these two colors together with a 1" brush

(2" is better), letting them mix & mingle in an irregular pattern where they

meet and being sure they don't leave a straight line anywhere. While that's

still wet, sprinkle on a light coating of dark green, tan, brown & yellow

foams, keeping the lighter colors toward the banks with an occasional splash

of a really dark green to simulate the slime that accumulates close to the

shore. Add some twigs, weeds growing on the sides, trash, whatever you want

on the bottom and hit it with wet water from a spray bottle & some 50-50

dilute white glue.

While that's drying, head on over to Home Depot, Lowe's, etc., and get a

piece of plexiglass big enough to fit the area - if you have to cut & paste

a smaller pane of plexiglass to fit, that's okay. Now lay the plexiglass

over your creek bed - cut & paste it to fit; it should only overlay your

banks by about an inch or so - just enough to keep it in place while the

next step comes in -

Now it looks like this:

           ______________________________

__________|__________plexiglass__________|___________

               \                  /

    1/2" foam   \    creek bed   /     1/2" foam

_________________\______________/____________________

Now, on either side, cut & fit a piece of foam to be the remainder of the

bank - feather these out as steep or as sloping as you want - and lay them

on top of the plexiglass so they *slightly* overhang the bottom layer of

foam like this:

       _____________                         ____________________

            FOAM    \                       /    FOAM

       ______________\ <_slight_overlap__>_/_____________________

     X_GLUE_HERE|__________plexiglass________|X_GLUE_HERE_____

                      \                  /

                       \   Creek bed    /

                        \______________/

Still with me? Okay, now with the Future/paint mixture you made to start out

with, slop it on top of the plexiglass in a random way. The colors should

mix & meld into a colorful glop. Let that dry at least overnight, and then

add a second & third coat - or more, if you want - I have a creek on my

layout with about 25 coats of brushed on Future that is about 1/16" thick.

Finally, add a bit of foam, texture, etc. along the edge of the bank to

disguise the seam - plant a dude with a straw hat and a cane pole, and your

SE bog is complete!

Mike

____________________________________________________________

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