Somewhere in the back my gullet, I was not pleased with the "ribbon of blue" false color of the river and decided to give a "natural look" more of a go. Unfortunately, while the prototype river is many shades of mud or pea soup or gray or black (all depending on the season and angle of view) it is hard to get something that is real yet aesthetically pleasing under room lighting. Regardless, I painted some false depth and algae murkiness as is seen in the real life river and covered it with a goodly helping of gloss acrylic medium (that cheap and very effective cousin to "water' modeling products. Needless to say the ends of the layout needed to be dammed, even though it self levels and most went to the middle. Three days later and... (Article continued here)
Photos look great
The photos in your blog are very well done, the lighting is excellent.. The vegitation and ground cover look great. I like the way you have presented your blog, very easy to read.
I have done open water (as opposed to rough streams) by painting a smooth flat bottom with mud color at the edges blended into very dark blue at deep water and "Dabing" the gloss acrylic medium you mentioned to form low waves...
Cool, with that much power
Cool, with that much power you could evaporate your river in a flash!
Charles