Which Woodland Scenics water?
It depends on WHICH Woodland Scenics water you use... they have two completely different products
. First - don't touch the "melt in place" pellets (E-Z Water) with a 10 foot pole. Simply put - it sucks. It's a terrible idea.
Second - Their "Realistic Water" and "Water Effects" are GREAT. Basically, "Realistic Water" is artist's Thin Clear Gloss Medium, repackaged. You only need a VERY thin layer of this over color to do it right. An eighth of an inch is plenty. If you want it thicker, you can do that, but let each pour dry for at least 2 days before the next.
"Water Effects" is Thick Clear Gel Medium, and is wonderful for texturing the water surface to get away from the "plate of glass" look.
These were done with those products:
The waterfall is laid down on a piece of plastic from a small zip-lock retail bag. It was textured over a piece of paper drawn to fit the shape I needed with the Water Effects, then painted with white and a little earth tone to match the landscaping.While that as drying I painted the rock with a slightly darker color where it would be "wet", and then painted some of the "Realistic Water" over the dark area to make it shine. When the waterfall was dry, I trimmed it to shape from the bottom up, leaving a few "feathers" sticking out the sides, It was then glued to the rock face at the top and the water at the bottom with more of the Water Effects.
The final step was to use more of the "Water Effects" to blend in the falls to the stream surface, and work in radial wave patterns coming off the base of the falls. I use an artist's "fan" brush, and push the Water Effects for this - the wide, thin profile of the brush is great for creating ripples.
The river was carved out of the 1" thick foam base of the module, and SEALED WITH LIGHTWEIGHT SPACKLING AND SANDED BEFORE PAINTING.
Yes, that is a VITALLY important step. If you apply the Realistic Water over bare or even painted foam, it'll look just great... for about a week. Then bubbles will form and work their way up through the acrylic, and it'll look like a pool of carbonated water frozen in time. I learned that less on the hard way, and had to cut out my first try and start completely over on the river.
That river is only about 1/4" deep in total. The illusion of greater depth comes from the painting. I used craft paints, in 4 (?) colors... light tan, brown, grey, and a deep black. All were applied wet, and blended with the brush, starting from lightest to darkest. Yes, that means I had to paint the entire river in about 10 minutes, but it was pretty easy - I used a 1 inch wide brush. Keeping the colors wet (mist on some water if you need too) made it simple to blend the transitions to get uniform gradations.
I poured the river in several layers, because I was playing around with a couple of ideas... I embedded a few rocks in the river hear and there, and after lower layers dried I painted on weeds in a few places, then poured more water, then some more weeds, then more water... You get the idea.
When the river was dry and glassy, I got out the Water Effects again... First, I put in the smaller riffles over the entire surface of the stream, then the "V"s former by the water going around the rocks... and don't forget the bulge on the upstream side . A little drybrushing of white highlights where the water would be foaming, and it's done.
One thing other thing (besides the bubbles) to watch out for. This product takes a LONG time to COMPLETELY solidify. It's hard to the touch in a couple of days, and perfectly safe to work with... but it will still "creep" for months afterward - not in normal circumstances, but let's say you stood a module up on end for storage... Fortunately, I was able to turn it up on the OTHER end when I discovered the problem, and all ended well.