Diorama FX Water Texture Muddy Water

The murky water of wheel ruts

Muddy Water is a pre-colored water texture for places where the soil stays stirred up throughout the whole column and the surface never clears. It suits the ruts worn into a field track, a flooded crater, a ditch along a road and a ford a column has just driven through. The murkiness is carried by the compound itself, so the shade does not have to be touched up with color and it stays the same across the whole area.

A procedure that has proved itself

The hollow is first sealed so that the compound does not disappear into a porous base; a layer of acrylic varnish or thinly spread filler is enough. Then it is poured in thin doses and each one has to dry through before the next comes. A single thick poured layer will stay milky inside and may set for several days. As soon as the surface begins to go tacky, it can be pushed with a toothpick or a stiff brush into ripples, into a furrow behind the wheels or into a raised rim at the bank.

Properties and handling

The carrier is a water dispersion without solvents: it does not heat up, does not shrink like a two-part resin and needs no hardener and no measuring of a ratio. While the compound is wet, the tools are rinsed with clean water. Once cured, the layer is flexible and takes being gone over with a matte varnish, when the surface is to be calmer, or a spot of gloss poured where the water is to sparkle.

The surroundings of a puddle

The result stands and falls with the surroundings. A sodden edge is completed with earth pigment worked into the still-wet compound; around it, bootprints and splashed drops applied with the tip of a brush are added. Grass at the edge looks credible only when a few blades are laid into the water and the rest stays upright; a sharp boundary between greenery and the surface gives the whole impression away.