Modeling water?

Thanks for all of the great sugestions. Now all I need to do is try a few of them and see what works best for me, trial and error. Hopefully in a couple months when I'm done I can post a pic to show everyone how it turns out.

There are a venerable plethora of commercian items you can use, but some of the most commonly used in modelling are resins. If it's opaque water you wish to portray, then your options become even more varied. You can use almost ANYTHING to form the groundwork, then either glaze it with a layer of resin, clear gloss paint, or some other material that will provide a clear, glossy surface.

I will soon do another base with clear water, most likely I will be using acrylic gel as I don't need much water but need to to be crystal clear(no tint).
I will also be adding some moss and a few other goodies under an area from which some water will drip/fall.

I used Enviro Tex Lite and I thought it worked great. On page 7 of the forum I posted a topic called Now, Then, Forever Follow Up / Help & Water, you might like to take a look at it. My first diorama is called Now, Then, Forever, also on page 7 will show you how my water came out, might be of some help. Good Luck.

There are a variety of products that can be used.

EZ-Water and it's brethren ilk need to be heated and thus care needs to be taken when pouring it as it can warp bases, destroy detail, etc(talking form experience).

Other like acyrlic gel and similar, don't generate heat but need to be poured in thin layers and each layer needs to dry.

Your local arts-supply and and Model Rail Road store should have plenty of goodies to work with.

Two more thoughts:
Depending on how clear/muddy you want the water it might be better to work with putty, texturing gels or similar. No using buying stuff for clear water and than painting it so that the translucency is lost.

Rather than tinting the medium or painting the medium in the water colour, I have found that I get better results painting the base prior to adding the water(muddy water works differently though).
The clear medium will still show the colour and at the same time you will get a better feel for depth, plus you can add items into it like fishes, etc.

In the end what medium you use will also depend on the amount of water you want to create/simulate.

HTH.

There are a few products out there. Woodland Scenics has a two-part compound for water, I haven't used it, I hear it is O.K. I personammly like using fiberglass resin. Can be bought at Wal-Mart or any auto parts shop in the body repair area. It is two part and mixes 10:1. Just have to be careful, it has to be poured in thin layers, 18" or less ata time or it can crack. It also gets hot if too much hardener is added and can deform plastic. Another option, especially for glass smooth water is glass. Simply tint it with stained glass paint and you have a ready made smooth body of water.