Bridge and Boat Diorama

Got into adding more water texture today. It sure takes some doing. Almost 2 square metres of water.

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Currently about 3/4 of the way through it.

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Tomorrow I should be finished (with the first coat). Yep, you read it correctly.
Will need to go over it again, for the following reasons:
  • Discovered that the mache, when dry, reveals where I missed small areas.
  • Some areas are very thin and flat as a mirror. Too obvious.
  • Thinner areas show tannin leakage. Quite amazing actually. The wet 50/50 water-PVA, used for the paper mache, soaked through four coats of undercoat. This allowed the tannin to wick to the surface.
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I am pretty sure, that after painting it will look very realistic - Are you still planning to do the paint-schema like discussed some time ago?
 
Uwek said:
I am pretty sure, that after painting it will look very realistic - Are you still planning to do the paint-schema like discussed some time ago?
Click to expand...
Yes Uwe. I know you and @Pathfinder65 liked #7, @Peglegreg liked his own version #8, and my boss at the museum likes #6 because it is closer to actual than the others.
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I like #7 too. But the damn boss like #6, which is understandable. I am a bit confused by the whole lot. So I made another test strip to combine 6 and 7, and I get X.
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Okay, here is my other issues:
As usual, I get apprehensive with my next move/task, because this is all new for me. But so far, things have turned out okay. In say this, I am apprehensive about blending the colours to suit the sample #X. Also apprenhensive if I can mixing those colours into each other on actual application. If I run out of a particular colour, can I again make a mix of exact shade. I have little concern for a small scale paint wash, but this is large (24 square feet); and there is a bridge in the bloody way, with piers going into the water. . . I better stop writing or I'll scare myself too much.
 
Thank you @epicdoom for your comment, and @Uwek , @Pathfinder65 , @prutser , and @Peglegreg for your 'likes'.
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Trimmed off the mache hangover bits, along display edges.

Made a thin shelf to hold a card strip against back edge of display. This card will get painted along with the water. It will later serve as a colour reference for when I paint the backdrop for the display (that large orange canvas in background).

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Pathfinder65 said:
How many layers of tissue did take to get the final look?
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Three to four layers.

At first it was two layers, but I got too many flat areas. Had to go back and fill them in with more tissues. Also, the tissues become too easy to break/tear, leaving gaps. Had to fill them in with folded tissues.

Four to five layers got a bit bulky, but would be good if you wanted to create some swell. If you use lots of PVA liquid, the tissue mache breaks up into a pulp. This comes in handy to push around and spread it where you want it. But it loses its sheet like surface. It becomes like carpet, though it can be smoothed out a bit by using the flat sides of the brush.

The sheet-like mache traps air. Also, after an hour or so, air/gas bubbles become more evident. It's as if the pva is reacting to the acrylic undercoat. Some bubbles I left alone, but the larger ones I used a pointed stick to make a hole and a wet brush to tack it down. Don't use you finger, for the mache will stick to it and causing more problems
Tissue or toilet paper is best. Paper towels are too stiff.

It's all fun. As usual, before actual application, test it out on a test srtip first, to get a feel for it.
 
Oh boy, I sure stuffed up the paint job. Only done 1/10th of the water. Started along the river banks. The dirty water look became too brown, opaquish, blotchy, and dark on outer edge.

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It's been a long time since doing any painting, and have forgotten basic principles. The rest of the river will contain blues and greens, which is not mixed with the brownish areas already painted. Need to repaint what I have done with a better colour mix. But first, I need to paint a background tone to get rid of that stark white as a comparison.

Hope to improve on this.
 
G'day Peter
May I suggest to repaint the water the same colour as the bank for 75mm or so. Then when its dry .......
Question: are you using acrylic paint? If you are, paint over the river section with a water base matt enamel, to seal it.
Then when it's dry do a wash of the blue water over the mud in the river and make the wash thicker as you go out.
This way the bend will be easier.
Ring me if you want.
Happymodeling
Greg
 
Peglegreg said:
G'day Peter
May I suggest to repaint the water the same colour as the bank for 75mm or so. Then when its dry .......
Question: are you using acrylic paint? If you are, paint over the river section with a water base matt enamel, to seal it.
Then when it's dry do a wash of the blue water over the mud in the river and make the wash thicker as you go out.
This way the bend will be easier.
Ring me if you want.
Happymodeling
Greg
Click to expand...
You mean to paint the water effect with oil paints? That is, once it gets sealed with enamel, only enamel/oil paints can be used from there on.

There is a problem with washes in either acrylic or oil, both will pool in the hollows of the paper mache (I've tested it). This may at first seem okay, with the lighter tone on the ridges, but there is no transistion between light ridge and dark hollow. It ends up looking distinctly two tone.

Like the idea about using similar colour to river banks. Have been thinking about that as well.

Thanks for the tips. It got me thinking a bit deeper.
 
G'day Peter
I've been thinking again.
1st step:
Use a white water base paint and redo the river.
2nd step:
Paint the same colour of the bank on the river and slowly bend it to wash so you will get a whitish mud colour at the end. Just use water to thin it down.
3rd step:
Paint matt water base enamel, like Aquaclear from Bunnings over the water area.
3rd step:
From a water thin blue paint wash over the water area until the full (undiluted) colour blue for the water.
What you should get is a gradual blend of muddy water to blue water.
With the white water base paint, I don't think you will get any problems because it SHOULD seal the tissue machete....I hope!
Hope that you can decipher my description.
Greg
 
Thank you Greg for suggested tips.
Will first try not to buy more paint, and use what paint I have already bought at museum's expense.
The acrylic is opaque enough to paint straight on top of the brown coating. If anything does come through, it will be brownish anyway.
Keep your suggestions in mind, I will do test strips, and show in later updates.
 
Well, I painted the white area into a Bianchi Green, not that I wanted that shade, but it will do. The idea is to eliminate the bright white, so I don't have to compete with it psychologically when painting the river.

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Okay, here is my reason why I don't like using acrylic paints. When it is wet, it looks lighter than when it dries.
Also, it dries unevenly (blotchy) to how it looked when applying it.
This makes it very hard to match the colour when you wish to add more paint of the same colour/hue.
The end result undoubtedly will become blotchy. May have to introduce blotchy clouds into the background painting (cloud shadows onto the water) :D

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Experimenting with acrylic paint application. I thought of using washes to build up depth of colour, but it does not work on rippled surface. Best is to paint the surface with as much opaqueness as applicable, then dry brush ridges with a lighter shade. I am hoping to recreate #3 throughout the whole water surface (blotchy or not).
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