The River

A river of some sort was essential to my layout. Originally it was going cut transversely across the pasture and turn to run parallel to the track along the edge of the layout. However after some thought, and head-scratching it was decided to keep it simple and go for  straight traverse.

I had some pictures of bridges in the local of Hauzenberg, over the Erlau.



Faller produce an ideal model of such a bridge. This was inset during construction (as described else where). At this time I was not certain how to achieve the water effect.


In the basic kit form the bridge was to high, I thus raised the level with some 6mm ply wood on some shims, the surface of which had been sanded as smooth as I could get it (so that the grain didn't show through any subsequent effects).



Scenery building continued, and I still hadn't decided how to achieve the water effect, however reading around the options it was obviously going to be essential to paint the under colour. Water reflects it's surroundings, the reflection being darker in colour. This is near impossible to achieve in a model and it's necessary to 'fiddle' the effect. I painted the river bed with a mix of water based acrylic paints, using a range of greens and blues.



After much further thought, and reading up on various water forming compounds, I went for the simplest option, high gloss varnish. Approximately six coats were applied to build up some depth and to achieve a super high gloss.



As the layout is generally set in spring/summer I didn't want a roaring torrent, nor a dry bed as in the actual photo above, so I have gone for a healthy full but gentle flow. Further detailing will be added to the river bank (which currently looks a bit like a canal tow path). A further coat of varnish may be applied and some ripples produced (still thinking about that), I am also searching for a suitable fisherman.

The river bank becomes less sterile once a bit of foliage is added, and some debris under the bridge.



And with the start of some weathering to the bridge...