Why so thick?

Are you planning to add under water detail for it to be that thick?  If you are making it that thick, I would enclose it in glass and then add a skim of envirotex or other water product on the top for texture of the water.  Thick coats of anything like envirotex isn't recommended.

Great Model Railroads 64 & 65

1' or 1" thick ???

How thick do you plan on making it?

You could use several 1/4" pours all tinted a slightly different color, lightening the tint as you get to the surface to increase depth.

I am not sure if it would eat the EPS foam or not. My construction method typically does not leave foam exposed, but I know a lot of people build this way.

What about the envirotex tendency to "crawl" up objects? The reason I ask is because you have a whole lot of really neat pilings to protect that bridge and they might not look as neat once coated with envirotex. That brings up another very important question about dusting... How will you clean around all of the pilings? Nothing looks worse than "water" with a fine coat of dust.

Finally, what about using some kind of acrylic on top of the envirotex for waves? Unless it is a dead calm morning, you water will probably not be very still.

Deep Water

Ok, this is not personal experience. I haven't done any water yet, but everything I've ever seen or read says that water depth is an illusion created by darker colors painted on the bottom of the lake/stream/ocean. That way you don't have to pour a foot thick. 

I know that if I painted the first quarter of an inch closest to the shore a nice sandy brown, and filled in the rest with black paint, once I poured the resin and it set, it would appear as though I had a lake with shallow edges that just dropped into a bottomless pit, because the bottom couldn't be seen, even if the whole thing was just an inch deep in reality, the illusion sells the depth.

Deep water

the effect I want to go for is something like a model I seen on youtube

Water Choices

Why is Envirotex the preferred product for water ?   I plan on modeling a river scene and have looked at the Woodland Scenics "out of the bottle pour" product, and I do not see much of a difference in final set appearance between the two.

Like Making Paperwieghts

http://www.michaels.com/Castin%E2%80%99-Craft-Casting-Resin/gc0509,default,pd.html?cgid=products-generalcrafts-basicsupplies-resincasting&start=10

BTW the submerged tank display is very cool.

Plexiglass/envirotex is what you are looking for....

There was a good article about 10 years ago in MR where a guy did a lobster boat scene like that. He cut the haul at the water line and glued the halves to either side of the Plexiglas. He had the anchor chain and ropes to the traps go from the boat to bottom.  He had several inches depth to the scene and the sides were the same way to get that lateral view. There was a nice side bar on how he did it.  

My stuff is still in boxes so I'm no help in terms of which issue.  Thanks for posting the U tube link it was a cool diorama

Steve

Challenges

Looking at one of your earlier threads with prototype photos  https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/gbw-fox-river-bridge-part3-12189783 , it would seem to me the best approach would be to use thinner and more typical coats of a product like epoxy resin (Envirotex) colored with something like Pullman Green or Olive Drab so as to be nearly opaque at the bottom.  You could also just paint the river base with an appropriate greenish or muddy color and apply ripples with Mod Podge or acrylic gloss medium (these materials would be needed on top of the epoxy as well since it sets up smooth).  The additional product needed to make your river an inch deep would require several pours of resin, which could be very costly given the area involved, and would likely not provide additional realism over thinner pours due to the nature or the prototype water.

It true that epoxy will creep up onto anything, and that the result can be unrealistic if not addressed.  Adding some flat finish and/or weathering helps, and much of the effect is hidden once you apply waves as per above.

The diorama you liked of the submerged tank in the Marianas showed some nice modeling, but the water didn't look like the murk typical of a midwestern river.  Copy that diorama and your Fox River bridge won't look like it's crossing the Fox River.

With all of the pilings and such around your bridge, I don't see a solid surface material like glass being an option.  There are too many objects that should carry all the way through the water to make that viable without a tremendous amount of work to make them look as if they don't stop at the upper and lower surface of the glass.

Take a look at the piers and water on Craig Bisgeier's Housatonic RR here http://housatonicrr.com/const_journal_3.htm .   He and his crew used epoxy at first, and then covered it with gloss medium.  The look is similar to the prototype photos of your bridge.

Unless you arer modeling an underwater scene,

there is really no reason to make clear water that thick.  The only time you will see something as clear as was shown in that tank diorama, is when you are modeling water as clear as it is in the part of the South Pacific that they were modeling.  If your river is muddy, you won't see any deeper than 12 inches or less in the prototype.  In HO scale, that is 3.5 mm only!

deep water

thanks for the input folks!

I can see their are allot of good ideas out there out there how to achieve the goal I am looking for

  I plan on painting  the bottom dark colors and I would like to tint the waters each layer. but I still would like the water to be thicker than any I have seen modeled in the past.

thanks for the comments guys I am really looking forward to this scene!

Paul B

http://www.youtube.com/user/rockton160807

If you can, check your prototype.

The water should not need to be any thicker than the transparency of the real thing.  If you can't see more than 1 foot into your prototype due to mud or whatever, there is no reason to go more than 1/8-3/16 inch deep.  If you can see the bottom 6 feet down, then you would want to go up to 3/4 inch deep.

polyester casting resin

I could be off the mark, but I believe the diorama was built with polyester casting resin.