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Well I have the the river base done and I painted the shores a tan and put some rocks down. Then I painted the rest of the river base black. But it does not look right. What colors should I use to to show a depth perspective from the tan shore to the center of the river?

Anyone have any photos?

Thanks for the help.

 

 

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Originally Posted by richabr:

The key was to fade the colors together using water based acrylics. 

Bingo!  Darker colors (usually browns or greens) to represent deeper parts and gradually blending to lighter earth tones as you approach the banks.  Colors also may vary a good bit depending on whether you are trying to represent fast-moving water or still water features.

Originally Posted by dk122trains:

Remember that water reflects the colors of things around or above it(sky,rock, foliage) so your base color in my opinion should represent the color of what will surround the water body itself, always look to nature for the answer. And it doesn't matter whether its the ocean, lake or stream.

Bingo!  Your water must reflect the landscape it flows thru.

Originally Posted by wild mary:
Originally Posted by dk122trains:

Remember that water reflects the colors of things around or above it(sky,rock, foliage) so your base color in my opinion should represent the color of what will surround the water body itself, always look to nature for the answer. And it doesn't matter whether its the ocean, lake or stream.

Bingo!  Your water must reflect the landscape it flows thru.

True but if you use the right type of material for your water it will reflect everything itself.  After you paint your base use a matte medium for the water. As it hardens you can brush it to create movement.  

Originally Posted by J Daddy:

Well I have the the river base done and I painted the shores a tan and put some rocks down. Then I painted the rest of the river base black. But it does not look right. What colors should I use to to show a depth perspective from the tan shore to the center of the river?

Anyone have any photos?

Thanks for the help.

 

 

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By the way....awesome bridge!

Thanks O-guager, yes that was a whole 'nother' thread, used to be called the 'leap of faith'. It took a brave man on the throttle to come down a 3 percent grade at speed with 25 die-cast two bay hoppers and take the 072 curve with out breaking a sweat!

Especially w/o cruise control! But all locomotives will pass with ease.

Ok, so lets look at the scene I am going to work on soon. 

This was a phase one area on the layout that I knew I would come back and adjust:

 

These shots show that areas of the sky are too dark. Below the upper bridge:

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So next I attempted to adjust the lighting above this area:

 

 

 

 

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This was the best I could do lighting wise, and I realized that I may need helper lights to take photos in this area.

 

Next was the lower deck bridges... the Gargrave track ties seem too big. Any votes for going with Atlas here? If I do than I should get rid of the 1X2 inch deck bridge base that is just painted black... it fools the eyes but does not let light through to the creek.

 

 

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Thanks for the comments, guys.
 
J Daddy,
I built the shorelines then poured very wet plaster in there for the water and let it dry. I painted it all with gesso to seal it. Then I painted the water area all paynes gray and let it dry. Then I painted it all very wet paynes gray again and feathered the yellow ochre and tan colors from the shorline into the middle while wet. Keep cleaning your brush after drawing it from light areas to dark. The water area mostly changed to a brownish, greenish color. For the shiny part I used layers of Polyeurathane which is pretty stinky, but you could use any of the other shiny products out there.
 
 
 
Originally Posted by J Daddy:

I used paynes gray in the center and blended and feathered it out with yellow ochre and tan colors for this shallow easy flowing creek.

Wow! Now that is great river modeling. can you tell us how you modeled the water as well?

That is seriously some of the best water modeling I've ever seen.

 

 

I would heartily concur...

 

We have an old MRR book with an American Flyer locomotive on the cover that I had as a boy. I remember their illustration of cutting a hole in the table and building a 'bowl' using paper strips attached to the underside of the rim. It was painted, a stick or two was added for a sunken log, and then a piece of glass was placed over it with the shoreline molded in plaster.  Looked good to me then!

Originally Posted by Avanti:

Instead of sky behind the bridge, you might want to experiment with a mirror. That's what I did in a similar situation:

 

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Thanks for the tip however my shelf is only 24 inches wide in this area so I tried adding a mirror and angled it a bit down, however you still see yourself in it! So I am stuck with the sky back ground.

BTW I like the PW trains and scale scenery mix... great job.

JDaddy, I start off with a dark green acrylic in the middle of the river, lake etc. with a dark blue next to the green and then lighter blues as you work towards the shore. I apply the paints when they are still wet so that they blend into each succeeding coat. When all done I used Realistic Water by Woodland Scenics...it's great stuff. I hope the pictures help. The little ripples on my river are from Water Effects also from Woodland Scenics.

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This is a skill I wish I had the patience to practice 20 times before I used it. I have tried browns, greens & greys with poor results. This last work I read all the articles and used shades of black. It worked fine for what I needed. I also like to build as much as I can on the "work bench" so you can see how I slid the river into place below the scenery and blended.

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Originally Posted by christopher N&W:

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I used paynes gray in the center and blended and feathered it out with yellow ochre and tan colors for this shallow easy flowing creek.

That scene is so beautiful, as others have said, that I found myself, when I first saw it, searching excitedly over the entire vista trying to figure out if it were real or craftwork!!! Frankly, the explanation by you notwithstanding, I'm still not sure! Wow. You are a very gifted modeler, Christopher. Everything in that scene makes you hear it, smell the fragrances, and feel the coolness. Wow.

FrankM

 

P.S. I'm a little hesitant, now, to show these examples of a shallow, edge-of-a-city effluence I crafted but do so trusting it helps answer the original inquiry, too.

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