Dio water the inexpensive way

Hi gang.The few times I needed water in a diorama,I’ve had very good results using woodland scenic realistic water [ I think that was their realistic water,they have 3 differant water products ] A rather expensive way.Then I found at a Michaels craft stores chains,a 2 part method,woked fine,cheaper than the.Wood scenics,but still expensive.Recently ,while over a friends having all the floors in his house sanded & redone with a Minwax fast -drying Polyurethane.MUCH cheaper & in a gallon container.I have Tamiya’s pibber & Dragon’sLSSC that I’ve been dying to do a dio on.I’ve seen quite a few In gallery’s.So I will need a lot of water.So my big que. is,will this stuff work the same if I use the same metods,I.E. many thin layers,drying about a week per application,.Because,this stuff will be so much cheaper [ even less when home depot,lowes & the like have sales in the paint Dept.Any & all advice is appeciated,.rudedog

I don’t know how well this stuff will work if you’re actually trying to build it up. If you just want to have muddy water, then it can work, as you can pour it over plaster or whatever to create a watery, glassy finish, but probably may not work so well if pured in layers to create depth.

Why don’t you try Envirotex, I think all the good water modellers use it.

I think the best material to simulate water and wake is clear resin. It’s not expensive but hazardous to your health. The choice is yours…

Best bet is to cut the boats at the waterline (or wherever you want the water to go up to if the boats will be in action maneauvers), then you only need about 1/8 inch of resin to create the water. Firberglass resin is the best to use. Its cheap and easy to work with. Pour it in thin layers as well, building up your depth. Polyeurethane is not really designed for depth and will look yellow as it gets thicker and will take looonnnggg time to dry.

My other hobby is woodworking and Polyeurethane is definitly NOT the way to go. It would be like trying to build up paint. It would take forever. A just a little correction HeavyArty the oil base does turn yellow but the water base does not.

Zip

I did a vietnam diorama with the Tamiya Pibber. I used a 3/4 inch plywood base about 20 x 16 inches, and hollowed out where the boat would sit (giving me at least a half inch into the base. I then used celluclay to make the water base giving me about another 3/4"s up on the boat, mixing it wet and smoothing (adding small waves etc.) I waited about a week for it to totally dry. _____I then painted the water area to get the mucky greenish river water. ________Then used Minwax gloss fast drying polyurathane. Mybe 3 coats to get it looking really wet. The boat depth looked right using this method.

I used the Verlinden vietnamese figures and palm tree and the Tamiya animal set. Unfortunately when I moved I had to pull the boat out and clean it in order to display on a shelf, so the dio no longer exists. It looked great however.

The yellowing of the poly did not affect the water in this case as the water was river green. I don’t know how this would work in a blue water dio.

Thanks gang.That’s what I love about this site.I pretty much walk away with not only an answer to my que’s,but multilpe one’s !!! Semper fi , rudedog

Hi Aussie& thnks for your advice.Could you tell me what on-line sels the envirotex you were talking about. Thanks again, rudedog

This is an display I just finished for a hobby show! I used a product called MAGIC WATER, expensive but awesome to work with!

David

it looks great , where do I get it from??