PVA Pool & Puddle Terrain: My Attempt At Simulating Water With Clear Glue
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- čas přidán 27. 06. 2024
- In this video, I try to simulate water using clear PVA glue and gloss varnish while crafting some pool and puddles terrain for miniature wargaming or tabletop roleplaying games.
I have been aware, for a while now, that PVA glue can be used to make water effects in miniature terrain. Now it is time for me to put this clear glue to the test. Can it create visually pleasing water effects? This is not the best way to simulate water by a long shot, but the pieces of scatter terrain that came out of this project were better than I expected.
Follow up video: • PVA Water Terrain Part...
My Silly Gaming Channel - / @evaneezer
CONTENTS
0:00 - Introduction
2:00 - Modelling Bases
5:47 - Painting
9:14 - Water Effects
15:05 - Results & Analysis
18:51 - Outro
Are you looking for more content like this? Check out the rest of the Gaming Tome channel. You can also find me at www.gamingtome.com where I post articles about miniature and digital gaming.
Lets have a round of applause for...
MUSIC
- "Warm Water" - Underbelly
- "Sunshine on Sand" - Unicorn Heads
- "Shallow Depths" - JAde Wii
- "Nocturnally" - Amulets - Hry
There's a roofing sealant in the caulking section of home Depot. Mix it with isopropyl alcohol and acrylic ink and it dries looking just like waves of water.
Maybe build it up in layers, each with a different shade of the color you're going for - darkest in the first one, lightest in the last. It'll dry/cure faster, and the warping should be minimal. You could also use double-sided tape to adhere the forms to a sheet of wood while they're curing to help with the warping.
High gloss mod podge on the top of the glue and blow on it with a straw. This will give it a rippling effect.
You could do UV resin for smallish pools (it's stupidly expensive) you can tint it, and layer it for ripples. You could add paint when it was dry for extra detail. (It's also good if a model is missing one of a set of parts. I build a lot of 20+ year old space models)
it's funny, I kinda liked the result of the varnished piece the best :) it looked most realistic, maybe because of the gradient you did, and because the shine stayed where it was supposed to (as opposed to the other 2 where the shrinking of the glue left behind semi thick edges that would be a bit too broad to be wetness around the edge of the water.
In any case, they all came out pretty good, I especially love the texture of the ground in combination with the rocks! I also really like the way you do gradients, it looks really good!
I might have a few simple tricks for giving more depth; instead of using one single colour for the water, you could create the illusion of depth in the water with some darker colours where you think the water would be deepest.
like the varnished pond you made, after the gradient with the teal and the beige, you could then to another gradient in one or two smaller spots in the middle of the pond with a darker value (or just put a bit of black/dark brown), this would already give it a lot of dimension without having to necessarily build up a transparent layer of glue/resin/silicone. if you feel really fancy, you could make the finest little lines with a very watered down white on the dried varnish, especially around the rocks that are peeking out of the water.
what would give the surrounding environment more dimension, would be shading and highligting the rocks/the terrain. working in thinned out dark colour washes for the recessions in the piece works amazing, and drybrushing for giving the highest points a highlight make a world of a difference in my experience. the cool thing is, depending on the mood you want to give your piece, you can use colours besides black/grey and white for this purpose; for a swampy environmentyou could use deep purple for the shading, and a very light green for the highlights for example. as long as the base colours are more natural colours, and the colour values are accurate, you can't go too wrong and it opens up a whole world of possibilities .
I'm sorry I went off on a tangent here, and just dumping advice nobody asked for, but I love playing around with colours at the moment, and as soon as I realized that shadows and light aren't gray or white, but colourful, it blew my mind lol.
A trick to help with warping is to put glue on the bottom to partially pull it back but I would do a layer on bottom first so it will support the paint on top better
Disclaimer: PVA is not the best way to create water effects for miniature terrain by a long shot. I made these pieces for fun and they actually came out okay, but this is not a reliable method for simulating water.
Edit: My follow up/second attempt video is up. Link is in the description.
Have you every thought of using 2 part clear epoxy resin for your water? It pours level and cures in 24hrs. Bubbles can be removed by breathing upon the surface as you apply it in layers or using a small butane torch flame. The flame is done by quickly criss crossing the surface and won't burn anything only if you don't hold it in one place too long.
Or use the resin as a topcoat for a realistic shiny water surface. Many modelers I know of use this method.
Back on my early sign days, we used pink Styrofoam to cut out letters, latex painted the surface, once dry, painted the selected colors and after that dried... put a clear epoxy surface on that. Sides first to cure and then a heavy coat on the top . They must be level or the epoxy will drain off. Epoxy is thick and cleans with acetone.
The ripples could be dry-brushed with white or something, to give it more 3d appearance. Also, I've seen some crafters paint the underside with glue as well, so that as it dries, it's warping in all directions.
I like using resin and alcohol inks for standing water.
I used stuff called Aqua Magic by " Deluxe Materials ". I bought some Flames of wars rivers and poured this on to give it more flowing water effect . I had to block each end first but if you use a straw and blow over it you can get water motion. It doesnt shrink either . Also stick some LeadBears Tufts in before pouting . All water banks have growth in the water.
Awsome content man love it
I used High Gloss Modpodge
seems like a workable solution. the water effects tend to have more depth when additional layers are lighter than the first.
Seems like what you're actually after for this application is something like Decoart's Triple Thick - basically thickened acrylic gloss medium that self levels very nicely for a good thick varnish
It's really good for drool and things too
@@andreacook7431 Plus, because it's basically just beefed up acrylic medium you can use all your usual acrylic additives to alter it's behaviour - I usually mix in some flow improver or glaze medium depending on what I need from it
Try glue and TP for water it works really well.
I think it looks nice 😊 x
2 part epoxy resin for molding is the best
The first 45 seconds had me laughing, take my like and sub!
MODGE PODGE works stellar on the surface of water efects to give it some kind of texture and most bodies of water have some kind of ripple on surface
Thanks for the tip. I will give it a try when I get around to some more water effects.
I used clear glue for a fountain with several thin layers. The first few dried well, but the last layer pulled the paint around the edges off
I had a similar result in my follow up project.
I like to use Envirotec 2 part epoxy, it's fast drying with zero shrinkage. You can find it at both Hobby Lobby and Michael's
I will have to give that a look. Thanks for sharing.
Tried glue this year instead of epoxy before seeing this video, after using both, 100% epoxy is the way to go
@@thegamingtome You can even get it at the dollarstore. Just mix it thoroughly in a separate cup mix and mix and mix (if you don't it'll cure badly, be sticky or crack)
You can also add a tiny spec of paint or ink as you mentioned. Although the best is Clear epoxy. A bit more expensive but it goes a long way and looks the best. Love your videos man, keep them coming.
I've always been nervous about pouring resin and such. But I have an interest in water bases for large scale model ships and submerged submarines. Where glue won't cut it.
I wondered if this would work… thanks!
a gloss Modge Podge would help make more natural ripples in all 3 attempts. you can find Modge Podge at Micheals as far as i know. and you can use it to simulate ripples on 2-part epoxy casts as well.
Thanks. I need to look into that. I have a few more water effects projects planned for down the road.
Great 👍
I believe The Red Baron has a video where he uses some kind of clear caulking stuff that is amazing, it doesnt shrink, I made a couple ponds using it and for the base i used those clear plastic sheets from a projector
That is a creative use for those projector sheets. It is amazing how many things end up finding their way into miniature art.
Another test one could do would be to mix the clear pva glue with the varnish as one compound glue. might provide the Clear pva with a relatively water protected structure
Look good to me. another option for making water using glue.
Most time I use resin. not thick resin. more liquid resin because less bubble and cheaper
Water surface effect I use mod podge glossy. Its perfect for small scale water surface effect
Nice to see this. I've dabbled at it, with clear glue, before. I find the shrinkage is about 80-85%. Not great, for water effects, but plenty good for creating a gloss effect. As for the warping, Beardclipper has had good luck with clamping down the edges, during curing. Really enjoyed this in-depth experimentation
Thanks. I am working on a few more experiments in trying to bend this material into a water effect. I feel very confident that clear glue will work for deeper water effects. I just need to find the right approach to properly apply it.
I change my mind. These pools really are pushing the limits of PVA for water effects.
👍
There are more effective water effects you can buy from most model paint companies.
Dude! You can use a hobby resin at yur local game and hobby stores for a quicker, maybe easier water effects with yur terrain! Yes PVA glue has limits bcoz it's water soluble but resin is not,but is somewhat toxic. Cheers!
You could airbrush gloss varnish to avoid brush marks. I'm not convinced clear pva is worth the struggle for me though.
These terrain pieces are probably already pushing the limits of using clear PVA in the place of resin. My further off-screen attempts have been troublesome.
Hi I'm Italian. I wanted to ask you if you have found effective methods to simulate water. Thanks in advance. Greetings from Italy.
I use tinted hot glue.
The gloss varnish method would definitely work better on pools more flush with the table. The advantage to using this method is it requires less "geo-forming", and it takes less time to cure.
As for the glue method, you might be able to combat the warping by clamping the edges of the pool down to the sturdier surface, like a table or a solid block of wood. That way, as the glue contracts, the surface it's applied to will be forced into its final, flat shape.
I agree. A thinner, less dramatic slope before the surface of the water would look better.
I would like to try making larger ponds using these methods in the future. I should try clamping the pieces down when I get around to making them.
Try some cheap dollar store epoxy with resin dye added for color. Hey, great channel! Just found it and am now subscribed!
-John
Thanks for the tip and welcome to the channel!
try 100% silicone
well thaer the vids ok yes tryed this in past to do a river its ok but with all the new water stuff out thare might do mix but the PVA glue thing not olny old school but the cheeper of all the stuff the water paint job to lok as DEEP water shud have na a onbray look from a dark blue to blue green and so forth up sky blue and you put sand just on ege why you see thew that moly if go to real lack then do what did yes layer it hek i do last three 3 layers yes like a laerd jelo and adding colol to it as layer and if can get toy or scail fish are fun to pre paint if do not what bother or other sea beast and you ues spy gloee clare and on top that flat clear and yes last plaints round the poool or fun bit the radashen pol an armrm or two or tencel LOL see if post new