Hi there,
I too am a newbie, and had a similar idea. This is my second kit and first attempt at a dio. I opted for the 2 part resin (as described by renarts). Instead of using slightly more harderner, I mixed equal parts resin and harderner. Here are the steps I followed:
1. Prior to mixing the resin and hardener, I added a couple of drop of Brown
paint (Tamiya Acrylic).
2. I mixed equal parts of resin and hardener (for safety/health reason, in a well
ventilated area).
3. After painting the base various browns to simulate the rivers depth, I poured
the resin mixture.
4. Once the resin mixture settled/levelled, I used and icecream stick to
ripple the water up. I repeated this every half hour or so until the resin
started to stiffen (approx 3-4 hours) .
5. At this stage, I kept dabbing the icecream to get a ripple effect until the
resin was set (this stage took around 5-10 minutes)
Note: Do this in a warm area. If it's too cold, the resin will cloud up. In that case,
submerge the bottles of resin and hardener in warm water until they
clear.
Here is the result. Although I still have much to do here, it hasn't truned out to
bad.
Hope this helps.
cheers and good luck,
Jurgen.