Modeling canals, any suggestions for the water?

[Black Sheep]

Thanks Black Hat,

 

do you have any photos that you could post please?

 

does your canal come to the edge of the board at all?

[amdaley]

Here's one I have on my layout.

[Black Sheep]

Thanks for posting the photo,

How did you stop the water flowing over the edge of the baseboard?

[amdaley]

Thanks for posting the photo,

How did you stop the water flowing over the edge of the baseboard?

 

The black fascia panel across the front of the photo is made to come off & was pre shaped before pouring the water. I taped a piece of card across where the water is & then screwed the black panel on to support the card. When the water was dry I took off the panel & removed the card & tape.

I then put the black fascia panel back on again.

[Campaman]

Another method not mentioned is to make the canal bed from hardboard, shiny side up and then varnish that. You can adjust the colour of the hardboard with a few washes of brown acrylics first if required.

[Black Sheep]

unfortunately I already have plywood down as the base,

 

could try putting clear plastic sheet down after putting a base coat on, then a couple of washes on the sheet to kill off a little bit of the shinyness.

[Tim V]

Water is highly reflective, so no need to kill the shinyness.

[Black Sheep]

Just to update people and to let you know I've not forgotten about you all, I've started putting the banks / queysides in place on the canal section, although I got distracted by laying track, and then distracted by building scalescenes shops.

 

My sample section of canal, painting the plywood and chucking a lot of PVA glue on it has finally gone clear and, other than a few bubbles, looks really quite good so this may well be the route I take,

 

My main aim at the moment is to get track laid soon so that I can run something at long last, then I can form the hills etc and start doing scenics. The canal will be done at some point in amongst the track laying and the hills, although the canal bed has been painted rust colour today.

[Black Sheep]

well, the canal sides are in place and I've started painting the bottom of the canal a nice muddy brown,

 

 

 

the next stages are:

 

1: finish painting the muddy brown canal bed

2: get the airbrush out and give it some thin layers of green and brown to break up the colour

3: paint the sides of the canal

4: apply thin layers of pva and wait for it to dry

5: actually lay some track

 

anything I've missed?

[Revolution Ben]

Hello Black Sheep,

 

On Horseley Fields, the NGS Northants and Cambs area group layout, we depicted the canal in the following way:

 

1) A very thin layer of DAS modelling clay was rolled out and placed on the flat bed of the canal, and then a finger and the rounded end of a pencil (eraser end) were used to create "ripples."

 

2) Once all was dry, the DAS was painted with emulsion in a dark, sludgy green colour. There are some useful colours in some of the "contemporary" ranges, especially by Crown, and I bought about 3 or 4 matchpots to mix with.

 

3) The dried paint was then given two or three coats of brushed-on Johnson's "Klear" floor cleaner to give a hard, easily wiped high gloss finish.

 

I am reasonably happy with the results which can be seen here:

 

 

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

Edited December 15, 2011 by Ben A

[Gravy Train]

hi Perspex sheet works great for stagnent water on a canal as used in the past at Pendon.

[Black Sheep]

I'm looking at going down the PVA route, I've got the canal bottom a nice dark sludge, which looks correct from across the living room, however whenever I try and brush the PVA on, it starts to peel away again, as though the pva is setting while I'm spreading it

 

should I be watering it down, or perhaps giving more than an hour or so for the brown paint to set?

 

will have another try in the morning, if not, might have to go with varnish, but will that react with the Revel acrylic that I've used?

 

thanks,

[bigwordsmith]

How wide is a typical canal?i have 3” between a station and an engine shed and am tempted to squeeze in a canal...

[Joseph_Pestell]

30 minutes ago, bigwordsmith said:

How wide is a typical canal?i have 3” between a station and an engine shed and am tempted to squeeze in a canal...

Forgot to ask where your layout is set.

 

In some parts of the canal network, the narrowest parts, such as under a bridge, would be 7'. In other parts, it would be 14'. So just about possible within your 3" footprint allowing at least 3' / 12mm for the towpath on one side.

[JSModels]

37 minutes ago, bigwordsmith said:

How wide is a typical canal?i have 3” between a station and an engine shed and am tempted to squeeze in a canal...

 

Depends on which area of the country you're modelling. A narrow canal (such as the Huddersfield Narrow Canal) has locks that are just 7' wide, and the parts in between around 12-15' (so two boats can pass). The Rochdale canal, which runs from Manchester to Sowerby Bridge, is regarded as a 'broad' canal, and the locks are 15' wide (so you can fit 2x narrowboats side-by-side in them, or one wide 14' boat) with the bits in between anywhere from 12 to 30 feet.

 

Plus you'll need a towpath, around 3-4 feet wide.

 

Edit: Joseph beat me to it!

Edited May 10, 2020 by jrb

[Tim V]

In open countryside, bank to bank would be 38', towpath 7'6", this on a narrow canal.

[simonmcp]

In town or urban areas the canal would have to squeeze in whatever space was left, and branches Could be quite narrow, but at least two marrow boats and enough room to pass width.