Oh, dear.....flashback time....."fish in the water" is something you want to hear even less than "flooding in the bow compartment".
The WS Water bubbling problem has been around for a long time, and Woodland Scenics told Dave Frary they were "working on the problem" way back when, yet they keep selling the product without giving any warning or information as to why it was happening. I had a friend here in South FL who suffered the same bubbles in the harbor scene of his layout. The whole scene, representing many hours of work and many dollars worth of models and accessories, was destroyed by the bubbles, and ended up having to be ripped out. If the problem was caused by humidity, it certainly wasn't low humidity in South FL that was responsible (maybe low humidity is the reason that's given to modelers in places like Arizona and California). As a professional modeler, Dave Frary can't afford to come back and redo a layout under warranty because the basic materials failed, so he doesn't use the WS Water anymore, and warns others of the potential problems with using it. Save yourself the headaches, rip it out and use a different product next time. Bill in FtL
Just as a note, someone above mentioned latex as a base. As I recall latex takes even longer than acrylic to dry and can outgas. It seems like the trick here is quality paint and wait for it to completely dry. If you still don't trust it, there's always envirotex.
Absolutely, and I'd noted this near the beginning of the topic. Surely what we smell, when entereing a recently painted room is exactly this outgassing processing. If a person is locked into latex, perhaps a clear seal coat application, after significant drying time, might be worthy of consideration?
Absolutely, lesson learned on that. And again, it aggravates me that WS has known about this issue for some time, yet keeps selling the product. As far as ripping it up and starting over....wow...talk about a major project. For this particular layout I'll live with the bubbles, at least for the time being. The "ripping" would involve the structural base of my layout :wideeyes:
When I consider the facts: The latex paint was a quality product, underneath all the water, and had many weeks to dry first. The acrylic paint washes were cheep stuff with just a day or two to dry. The most likely fish are the “vinyl fillers” slowly reacting with the water and working their way to the top. Bob
I have been following this thread as I am building my first layout and I am planning on a small pond. I had planned on using WS realistic water, but now, not so much. That being said, what about the Magic Water product? Should I just head in another direction alltogether? Thanks guys
I used to be a believer in poured water products, until I had a very bad experience with Magic Water. Now I've found that a flat surface painted with acrylic paints topped with Liquitex Heavy Gloss Gel can be very realistic--in some cases more realistic than poured products, since you can model closer-to-scale features such as ripples and waves. Plus, it's way faster and easier than pouring anything. This is Z scale, by the way...
The gel can be applied in a number of different ways--brush, spatula, wooden stick--but I use a flat brush, about 1/2-inch wide. I can form ripples and waves by manipulating the gel while it's wet. It dries overnight and is quite durable, forming a tough, slightly rubbery surface. For added effect, I will sometimes dry-brush on gloss white paint onto some of the peaks to simulate white water; this was done in the first shot of the river, but not the image of the lake--that is just gloss gel over acrylic paint, and nothing more. That lake, by the way, was done twice, first using EZ-Water, which turned yellowish and cracked. The re-do is documented here: http://ganddinz.blogspot.com/2011/08/lake-redux.html The river was going to be poured, but after a disastrous experience with Magic Water, I switched to paint and gel. The Magic Water debacle is documented here: http://ganddinz.blogspot.com/2011/08/magic-disaster.html I've come to prefer this method over any other that involves a poured product. Not only does it offer much more control and (IMO) a more realistic effect, but all of the materials used are water-based, so the whole process is odor-free, and is usually dry within 24 hours.
This sounds very good for any maintenance, such as cleaning a bit of time settled dust. I'm going to give it a try, hopefully in a week or two. Is a craft or art store the best source?
Ah....no "former" about it. We always tell fellow SubVets to look on the back of their Dolphins. Is there an expiration date? Every one of us wants to "station the maneuvering watch" one more time. Proceed to "test depth" at 100 foot increments and report any issues. Battle Stations Torpedo. Dave
