"Rivers, Waterfalls And Fish"

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Water is perhaps the most difficult thing to model because it comes in so many forms, colours and depths and, unless it is a standing pond, it has movement. We must model water in a form that captures it as though it were a photograph, i.e., stopped in time. It can be relatively straight, but this can mean fast moving water and is somewhat uninteresting and unnatural. If you have only a straight area to model, consider a meandering trickle. Rivers are large versions of streams, and can seldom be incorporated in a layout. Streams meander, eroding soft material or carving hard material over an eon. As a river widens, the water may slow. As it narrows, the flow increases, sometimes with torrential speed. There are high and low water levels. Sometimes the low water levels create serpentine courses within the larger route, detail within detail! There are times when the creeks are only a trickle and times when they are completely dry. This situation can also be very interesting in that the sand bottom can reveal the last coursing of the water along the river bottom. This is typical of what happens in areas such as the Badlands. Motionless standing ponds can best create reflections of waterfronts, bridges and structures for accent. They too can have some minor ripples, indicating open water and breezes. It is important to choose the colour of the water carefully. Larger bodies of water are usually clear but may be a little brackish. Deep water is dark and may be clear for a short depth but rarely for more than a few feet. A half inch can be enough to create this illusion. Shallow moving water can be clear to the bottom or can be more opaque due to pollution or muddy sediment. You can create this opaque water on the surface of the substructure. Keep in mind that the water's edge is clearer as it becomes shallow. It will either flow gently across the sand shore or mud banks or remain deep between the rock walls. Water that has both high and low levels, and especially water contaminated with pollutants, will leave stains around boulders and along the rock faces. You can see a good example of this along the Animas River near Silverton where leaching from the old mines pollutes the river. Finally, you must consider what detailing you will be adding to the river, stream or pond. Will the shallow bottom show tires, boots, logs and so on or will these only be seen partly submerged along the shoreline? Will the shoreline be bare or have grasses and reeds? Will the shrubs and trees, such as willows, extend right to the water's edge?

In the following outline, I'll describe how I built my river. Although it was not wide, it had many of the elements discussed above. You will be able to use the ideas as a guide and combine some of your own observations to create an interesting river. You must first decide what type of river or pond you want, how deep will it be and what amount of transparency and colour it will have!
Falls
falls
THE DECISION
My river would follow Black Canyon and the tracks would follow the river as frequently in the prototype. I needed it to be several feet below the roadbed (approximately 3" to 5") and to fall off at the end past a waterfall (to about 15") with a rock face on both sides. The river would be a few feet deep and swift in areas. This would allow me to model a few rapids and a few waterfalls of varying heights. Further down the river would widen, slow down and become shallow. A big lazy bend would create a small sand bar as the river meandered under two trestles of the wye.
BASE PREPARATION
I laid heavy corrugated cardboard across the joists and stapled it in place. You could also use plywood. I cut notches into the joists where the river was to drop. Where the river dropped enough to effect the structure, I cut out a section of the joists and reframed it to reinforce the stability of the framework. The cardboard followed and folded over each drop. Randomly spaced tiers varied from 1/2" to 1". The main falls at the end was about 4" high. The most important thing to always remember was to keep the river bottom level or else I would have found the river flowing downstream and perhaps onto the floor.

After the cardboard was in place, I used brown paper grocery bags torn into approximately 6" x 6" squares and dipped into a soupy mix of hydrocal for the scenery base. I used this technique for preparing scenery throughout my layout. This mix of plaster and paper was applied to the complete river and up into the adjacent banks, sealing the cardboard. When this first application had set I poured a loose soupy mix of hydrocal into the river bottom allowing it to flow. It covered the joints in the paper, providing a smooth river bottom and ensuring all holes were sealed. I worked in one tier at a time. I completed the riverbanks according to the landscape that followed the river. When satisfied with the rock work, I then developed detail rock outcroppings in the river and boulders within the river with rock molds.

At this stage, I moved back to land and completed the adjacent scenery of sand, stone and ground cover. I stained and painted the rocks along the river. I washed the river bottom with a mix of grey brown stain. Remember, rocks and boulders slowly wash downstream. Sometimes these rocks vary in colour from the native material, so it is not unusual for the rocks along the river's edge not to match the adjacent land material. I found some stone that I broke up into a mix of sizes that did not match the native rock and glued them in place along the river's edge, blending it out into the river. I infilled with some fine granular mix of the same colour out into the river where I thought I might still see the bottom. I poured the sand bar using fine play sand, mounding it and shaping it into a couple of bends as it passed under the trestles. I piled rocks and debris around the footings of the trestles where the current would have carried them in the spring. I added other details at this time, such as buried logs, branches and discarded railroad ties and rail. Remember also, that lightweight material would be carried away in fast flowing water. Once I was satisfied that I had detailed the riverbed enough, I was ready for the river itself.
Falls Framing
Falls Framing
MATERIALS
There are several materials that can be used for the river, each with its own advantage. 'Envirotex' is a two equal part mix and is slow setting, odorless and has an excellent glossy finish. It can be coloured with the same dyes as the following products. As a result, it is excellent for standing water, such as a pond, but it is very difficult to add ripples to it. Any air bubbles that are caught in it can be drawn out by blowing over the surface. Acrylic varnish is similar in use, advantages and disadvantages. Both can be used over a painted subsurface, i.e., you can paint many features on the surface of a pond, such as ripples. I have seen many excellent examples of this technique. If you use it, I would recommend that you use a base product known as MDF board, (medium density fibre board), intended for a paint finish. It is smooth, unlike plywood that will show the texture of the raised wood grain through the painted finish. My personal choice is casting resin by Lewiscraft because I can control its curing time. The odour is strong and good ventilation is necessary. Unlike 'Envirotex', casting resin is mixed with a few drops of hardener. I use Lewiscraft transparent resin dyes to colour the resin before adding the hardener.
Because the river has many tiers, pouring too much resin will cause it to flow over the falls and downstream. It will cure part way like a cooling lava flow. For this reason, I had to create dams to contain each level. To do this, I glued rocks and cast plaster rocks to the face of each falls and built up shallow ledge rocks across the top of the falls. Then I mixed a batch of epoxy and built a dam across the top by pouring it between the rocks, filling any gaps and extending it to the bank. I allowed about 1/2" depth to work in for the finished depth. I also used large mounded lumps of epoxy for the rapids where the water would flow over but where the rocks wouldn't be seen.

I mixed enough resin in a large clean coffee can to cover the upper level of the river to about 1/8". The first pour would have the most dye and had to appear muddy. I combined a few drops of amber, avocado and emerald dye to the resin and stirred it gently until completely mixed. Don't whip it because you'll get too many air bubbles in it that cannot be removed. I am not giving exact ratios for mixing because it should be by trial and error. Each person will find their own formula. If the colour is too clear, adjust the next. If the resin sets too quickly, use less hardener, and so on! I added a few drops of hardener next according to the directions, although I must admit I usually added a few extra so that the resin would set faster. Be prepared to have several containers ready for use and don't use the same container twice unless the remaining residue is completely cured or else the contamination will ruin the resin mix. I repeated this process but I added a little blue dye and a little less green dye. I kept the first two or three pours quite thin to allow better control of the colour intensity and visibility. There are several dye colours which you could experiment with, but be cautioned about one. White is opaque and will give a milky appearance to the resin. When the depth was about half filled, I added some more debris and detail that would be partly submerged along the bank. I also thought at this time that I'd like to add fish -- salmon! I took a little pink Play Doh, pinched a tiny amount that would do for a fish and rolled it between my thumb and forefinger, tapering one end a little. Then I pinched it flat for the tail. I placed it in the river with tweezers and turned the tail. I made a school of several fish this way in just a few minutes. They didn't need much more detail than this as they were barely visible when submerged. I made several schools along the river and in one spot added a fisherman on the river bank. Fish can be added at different levels for more depth. Adding the figure a this time allowed the line to descend into the water. A float could be added to the top layer later if desired. It certainly was fun to see peoples' faces light up when they discovered the fish.

Now it was the time to build the waterfalls using a product called 'Angel Hair', commonly found at Christmas time and used for tree decoration. I pulled out a group of strands and cut them to lengths that I could attach at the top and bottom of the falls using ACC. A little experimenting will be very rewarding. You can overlay the strands and distribute them in bands. The more you use the fuller the waterfall will be. Brush a little of the resin over the 'hair' in a downward direction wetting all the strands. They will mat together and start to appear like water very quickly. At this time you can assess whether you have used enough. I wanted a little turbulence at the base of each falls, so I added little tufts of spun aquarium filter wool and wetted it in place also using the resin. Remember, that I was working at this time at a level that would be underwater. When this resin had set, I then used paint to add a small number of bubbles and streaking from the water flow. I dipped a small piece of torn foam sponge into white paint and lightly dabbed spots on the foam and water surface to represent bubbles trailing downstream from rocks and the falls. I added diluted washes of streaks and ripples along the shoreline. Remember that experimentation will often lead to success.
Falls River
I continued to develop each level of the river and the falls in this way, working from the upper level to the lower level. Where there were to be rapids, I added some of the tufts of filter wool behind a submerged boulder and wet it with the resin. I also added a little paint to give the illusion of water flowing over the rock and eddies flowing around it. I also used sparkles supplied by Vintage Reproductions from their Sparkling Tint kit #720. This 'water kit' comes with a selection of materials and colours. The sparkles come in little pump bottles that you use to blow the sparkles onto the water. They create the delicate glitter that you get with sun reflections.

The second to last pour had very little dye in it and would pull everything together. I now used a transparent opalescent white paint base from 'Great Glass', used in creating stained glass, to paint the falls and the ripples extending from the falls and rocks. I also used the sponge foam as previously described. The final pour was clear. I added a lot of hardener to it, not by the drop but by the squirt. By overdoing the hardener, the surface of the resin became rippled. The only caution here is that enough resin should be poured to fill the dammed area at one time. One of the common problems you have probably seen in other layouts where water has been created, is that the finished edge does not extend smooth and level to the scenery. Because the resin is so viscous, it tends to stop with a rounded edge. To avoid this, I used a paint brush in the last couple of pours, brushing the resin up into the scenery to where I expected the water's edge to be. As the final pour cures and settles, it tends to capillarate into this prewetted area. I then added more filter wool to the base of the falls to create foam. I lightly brushed it with the resin and painted it with white paint in a dry brush effect. Then I brushed the opalescent paint over the falls and loosely over the foam creating beads. I then blew sparkles into it sparingly.

During these last pours, I quickly added precut lengths of grass from Woodland Scenics and strands of reed from a decorative straw brush bought at a craft store. Working quickly, I pushed the grass and reeds in as deep as possible into the fresh resin. A simple detail to note is that the water is moving in one direction, and so the reeds and grasses, bent by the current, should lean in that direction and some can lie over into the surface of the water. All this in conjunction with bubbles and ripples creates the illusion of motion. While the surface was still tacky, I blew some additional sparkles into it. I then made final touchups with the paint and opalescent gloss.

If you follow a few basic guidelines, you can experiment with the materials to create a scene that will reflect the style and character of your layout. These instructions should help you keep your head above water.
Courtesy of: Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette

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