Creating Camp Water Rock

    MATERIALS
  • Woodlands scenic cement or a mix of 50% elmers white glue and 50% water
  • Green Fine Turf
  • Green Blended Turf
  • Green Coarse Turf
  • Yellow Turf
  • Lightweight Spackling
  • Foam
  • "POUR-ON" High gloss Finish (2-parts)
    Envirotex Lite-Pour-on High Gloss Finish 4oz
    It is a reactive polymer compound. It cures to a thick, glossy coating in about 8 hours at 70F, and reaches full strength and toughness in about 48 hours.
  • Elmers White Glue
    TOOLS
  • Files
  • Metal Ruler
  • Water bottle
  • Wire Brush
    PROCESS
  1. Spackle completely the river bed.
  2. Basecoat: Brush on flat latex wall paint.
  3. Re-spackle if necessary.
  4. Re-paint if necessary.
  5. Add dirt: With putty knife dust on regular dirt that has been baked to remove moisture.
  6. Brush off dirt at top of rocks to expose some of them.
  7. Dust on Green Fine Turf from container.
  8. Dust on Green Blended Turf from container. Just a little
  9. Dust on Green Coarse Turf from container. Just a little
  10. Dust on Yellow Turf from container, to highlight some flowers.
  11. Mist from on high on WATER with a drop of dishsoap in it.
  12. Mist from on high on Woodlands Scenic Cement or a mixture of 50% Elmers White Glue and 50% water
There is a series of "how-to" videos by Everett on YouTube about sculpting this kind of insulation:
Spackle

Add Coarse

Add Fine

Add Yellow

Spray On Water

Spray On Scenic Cement

EnviroTex



Water
The water on my layout was done with a low odor two-part polymer coating manufactured by EnviroTex.
Although relatively expensive, the advantage of minimal obnoxious odours is worth the extra cost as long as you are not doing very large areas.

The creek bed is prepared by finishing the edges of the embankments with rock castings and rubble.
The creek bed was floated with very thin plaster and allowed to dry thoroughly. The rocks and creek bed was painted and finished before application of the EnviroTex.

Shale was spread across the bottom of the creekbed and up the sides above the intended waterline. Twigs, branches are added and held in place with a liberal coating of white glue.

The EnviroTex comes in two containers, one being the resin and the other being the hardener. Equal amounts of each were mixed for two minutes along with small amounts of green and amber resin dye to reduce the transparency of the resin.
Mix slowly so as to introduce as few bubbles as possible. The bubbles will work their way to the surface and disappear during curing. Shale is piled up at a bend on Ojito Creek Typical of resin applications, a meniscus curve forms at the edges. This is why I have lots of pieces of stone along the banks. After the resin hardened, I carefully added more shale so as to disguise the meniscus curve as much as I could. Small shrubs struggling for survival can be added as well as reeds and grasses in areas where the stream current would not wash them away. This same technique can be applied when using other types of epoxy resins. Be sure to follow the manufacturer's recommendations for mixing and ventilation. Another popular product for water is gloss medium. Greater care must be taken when preparing the base of the water area especially when a large body of water is to be modeled. It is imperative that the bottom of the pond is perfectly level. Plywood or similar material would make a good base. It will have to be painted a dark colour to represent deep water. Lighten the colour as you get toward the banks. Underwater objects are a little harder to model as there is relatively no depth to work with. Apply the gloss medium with a brush making sure that you do not overwork the brush strokes. A hair dryer can be used to "blow" ripples onto the surface as it sets up. Don't forget, left over material can be put to good use as puddles around.