Painting the river, part 1

My next project was to paint the riverbed.

I toyed with a lot of ideas and wasn't happy with any of the options I looked into. Then I remembered watching one of Boomer's videos and how he painted his.

If you haven't seen it, it's worth a watch, while it's kind of long and rambling, like most of his are, it's chocked full of good info.

https://youtu.be/uSXTAMBIhOM?si=8GRIdlU9RouiebZ3

The first thing I did was to paint the river using Tamiya's XF-58 Olive Green.

It goes on kind of bright green, but darkens as it dries.  This is only the first coat.

Next I wanted to give a shallow water look near the sand bar so I watered down some tan colored craft paint so I could do as Boomer did and tried stain painting it on, but when it dried, I wasn't happy with it. It came out too blotchy because I think the pigments weren't as fine as good hobby paints are.

So I repainted that section with the Tamiya Olive and redid it using Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth. 

I tried something a little different and painted it on full strength and did the same with the Tamiya XF-58 Olive, then I blended them together. This worked much better.

Most of this might be somewhat covered when I start faux painting the main river, but I know it'll be there. 

Covering the banks

The next step was to work on the sand bar and river banks.

I spread a thin layer of glue and using a fine sieve I spread out a thick layer of my Mocha grout.  I let it dry over night and then vacuumed up the excess and rubbing with my finger, I worked more excess loose.

I glued a thin layer of  multi-colored ground foam to the banks to help blend the colors so it will eventually add to the depth of the undergrowth.  

I used a mix of 2mm & 4mm light and medium green static grass for the weeds on the sand bar, leaving enough room for the River Rat's camp site and some tents.  I also sprayed hair spray over it and sprinkled on several colors of fine ground foam.

Once everything was dry, I took Woodland Scenics Poly Fiber and stretched it out very thin and applied it to the river banks, the fine ground foam glued down previously helped to hold it in place while the glue dried.  This will become the base for the 3D undergrowth. 

It's not very thick but thick enough that when the next layer of ground foam is applied it will take on a of look deep, shaggy weeds and tangles.