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| Subject: | [Chapter] Preparing for the Water |  |
| Date: | Sep 2, 2007 |
| From: | James Wechsler | |
Preparing for the Water
In the photo I included some of the products I’ve found to be very useful in making water. By far the most important is a product called ‘Envirotek Lite’. This is sold at most art supply stores and is considered a varnish. But it can be poured in thick layers and makes really nice water. It’s a two part product that you mix together 50/50 so that’s pretty straight forward. In general I’ve found that it can be poured to a depth of around ½ inch without any serious heat build up. Above that, there is rapid heat build up and I’d strongly recommend against it. At about 1/2 inch depth, it takes about 12 hours to fully cure so I’ve come to simply plan around making a ½ inch pour each night until I reach the depth I want.
Of course you must first build a dam before you can pour the water. Trust me, you must make sure that this dam will not break! I know from first hand experience. When I was making a beach landing diorama, I was testing different tints to try to get the right water color. I had made a rapid dam for a rectangular piece of about 3 inches by 2 inches. Well, one corner came open and the Envirotek poured out, onto the model bench, over the side, hit the Envirotek box (thankfully), dripped onto another model box, and then got on the carpet (which was only about 3 months old at the time). What a massive mess! It took me several hours to clean it up and the carpet is definitely ruined in that area (and I think the model desk is glued to the carpet too). So be extra careful building the dam.
What I’ve found works best for a dam is to use a piece of sheet plastic (about 0.030 inch thick or greater). I cut it to the height I want and make sure there is plenty of overlap with the side walls of the base. In this case, I cut it to a height of 3.7 inches and used the bottom of the base as a reference point.
To this strip I glued two pieces of masking tape. I glue it so the sticky part is facing out towards where the water will go. I affix the tape to the plastic strip using spray glue such as the one in the orange can in the photo. I’ve tried several types of tape for this. If you’re making a very shallow pour, then clear cellophane tape works really great. But if the pour is deep, then it gets tough because the cellophane tape is usually only available in thicknesses of 1 inch or less. For thicker pours I’ve used masking tape which works OK. The problem is that the tape tends to tear apart when you remove it and it takes forever to get all of the bits off. So for this pour I’m going to try a product I found in the hardware store called ‘poly tape’. It looks to be a super tough version of the clear tape frequently used to assemble boxes. If this blog suddenly ends in about 2 chapters, you’ll know this didn’t work.
So with the tape glued to the plastic strip, I then simply pressed it against the side walls of the base. Note that I also put a little bit a cellophane tape on the edges of the sidewall to protect the paint as much as possible. With the dam pressed to the sidewalls, I then used a large amount of the blue masking tape to make sure it was securely fastened. No more spills!
Up next: Pouring the water – part way |
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 | [BLOG] Firefly IC Diorama - James Wechsler - Jul 15, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] The M4 Conversion - James Wechsler - Jul 15, 2007 |
| . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] The M4 Conversion - Martin Dogger - Jul 15, 2007 |
| . . . . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] The M4 Conversion - James Wechsler - Jul 19, 2007 |
| . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] The M4 Conversion - Michael Bedard - Jul 15, 2007 |
| . . . . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] The M4 Conversion [IMG] - James Wechsler - Jul 19, 2007 |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] The M4 Conversion-James [IMG] - Michael Bedard - Jul 22, 2007 |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] The M4 Conversion-James - Jim Wechsler - Jul 27, 2007 |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tasca Firefly - Michael Bedard - Jul 28, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] The hull from the front - James Wechsler - Jul 16, 2007 |
| . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] The hull from the front - Rob Stout - Jul 18, 2007 |
| . . . . . . . . . Both - James Wechsler - Jul 19, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] The hull from the rear - James Wechsler - Jul 18, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] The Turret - James Wechsler - Jul 20, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] Painting - James Wechsler - Jul 22, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] Markings and Detail Painting - James Wechsler - Jul 27, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] Weathering - James Wechsler - Jul 27, 2007 |
| . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] Weathering - Martin Dogger - Jul 28, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] Figures - James Wechsler - Jul 27, 2007 |
| . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] Figures - Andrew Herbert - Jul 28, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] Putting the Firefly together - James Wechsler - Jul 28, 2007 |
| . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] Putting the Firefly together - Ronald J. Lopes - Jul 31, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] Starting the Diorama - James Wechsler - Aug 3, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] The Base – Initial Construction - James Wechsler - Aug 3, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] The Treadway Bridge - James Wechsler - Aug 4, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] The Panzer I Command Tank - James Wechsler - Aug 16, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] Shaping the Base - James Wechsler - Aug 17, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] Boxing in the Base - James Wechsler - Aug 19, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] Groundwork - James Wechsler - Aug 20, 2007 |
| . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] Groundwork - spencer - Aug 23, 2007 |
| . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] Groundwork - Glenn Bartolotti - Aug 28, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] Preparing for the Water - James Wechsler - Sep 2, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] Pouring the water – part way - James Wechsler - Sep 2, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] Pouring the water – completed - James Wechsler - Sep 2, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] The Surface - James Wechsler - Sep 2, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] Attaching the Bridge - James Wechsler - Sep 2, 2007 |
| . . . [Chapter] The Final Steps - James Wechsler - Sep 2, 2007 |
| . . . . . . Fantastic as always, and yes I am inspired - Hans Haase - Sep 2, 2007 |
| . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] The Final Steps - Christopher C. Tew - Sep 3, 2007 |
| . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] The Final Steps - Glenn Bartolotti - Sep 3, 2007 |
| . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] The Final Steps - John Geigle - Sep 3, 2007 |
| . . . . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] The Final Steps - James Wechsler - Sep 4, 2007 |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] The Final Steps - Christopher C. Tew - Sep 4, 2007 |
| . . . . . . . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] The Final Steps - John Geigle - Sep 4, 2007 |
| . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] The Final Steps - Andrew Herbert - Sep 3, 2007 |
| . . . . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] The Final Steps - James Wechsler - Sep 4, 2007 |
| . . . . . . Re: [Chapter] The Final Steps - Trenor Scott - Sep 10, 2007 |
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