The Summer of Scenery: The Sludge Pool

First: You may have noticed a new look to Dead Dick’s Tavern. I’m experimenting. I’m open to suggestions…

More important: I finally finished up my submission for Dave Stone’s Summer of Scenery over at Wargames Terrain Workshop. Behold: The Sludge Pool!

While waiting for my Vallejo Still Water Texture to arrive in the mail, I did a bit more highlighting and texturing to the base piece. I weathered the barrels and the machinery with MIG rust pigments and a bit of Citadel Typhus Corrosion and Ryza Rust. I added some Vallejo Diesel Stains to the base of the machine and gave the whole thing a blast of Dullcote to lock the rust dust in place. I highlighted the green water coming out of the pipes with some Vallejo Yellow Green.

Then it was time to add the water. I could delay no longer. I was pretty nervous about using the water effects, as the only stuff I had ever previously used was “Magic Water”, a 2-part floral product that requires precise mixing to cure properly. The last time I used it was several years ago, and the swamp scenery I made is still tacky. But my friend Dick Garrison swears by Vallejo Water Texture, and he has achieved some amazing results with it, so who am I to argue with success?

I poured some into a plastic cup and added a few drops of green craft paint, the same kind I used to paint the basin. It mixed together perfectly, and I poured it out and moved the base this way and that until it covered the bottom. It flows like thick water, kind of like motor oil, so it was quite easy to work with. My first layer was done.

I noticed a problem about 12 hours later. Vallejo Water Texture is a “self-leveling” fluid. My workbench is level. The bottom of the piece is level. I found out the hard way that the inside of the basin, where I was pouring the texture, was obviously not level, because the water effects began to pool on certain sides of the basin. Dumb, rookie mistake. Since the mixture was still fluid enough to flow, albeit slowly, I quickly mixed and added more water texture and paint to shore things up. Then I played around trying to get the stuff to flow where it was needed. I wasn’t entirely successful, as you can see.

I added a second layer of clear (no paint added) texture out of the bottle, hoping that would obscure the uneven bottom layer. It didn’t.

Don’t get me wrong: I love this product, and I think it looks amazing. But it took more like 48 hours for it to cure before I added the next level, and then another 48 hours before I thought it was ok to touch.

Overall, I can live with how it looks. I think the Vallejo product is pretty impressive and easy stuff to use. After 2 layers (3 mm thickness or so), I have about half a 200 ml bottle left. The area I covered wasn’t small, though. Note the Space Marine for scale. The bottle cost me 17 dollars (US$).

So…I’m thinking of adding one final layer of clear water, but I’m not sure if it will really do anything aside from make the basin look deeper. Thoughts?

7 thoughts on “The Summer of Scenery: The Sludge Pool

  1. Dick Garrison

    Hi Kieth, I think it looks great myself, my first layer took 48hrs to dry but from then on 24hrs was generally enough, though it was pretty warm here at the time, I too discovered that you need a level place to store the piece while it dries, which is a bit of a pain in the arse to be honest, luckily as it didn’t seem to smell I was able to let the layers dry indoors which made it easier, know when it is dry was also a bit of a pain as first time I touched it with my finger and left a blooming fingerprint! from them on I gently used a the back tip of a paintbrush.

    Not sure about another layer or not as I quite like the “rippled effect you have now as it looks like wind or something is moving the surface of the water, but your choice.

    All in all a great entry for scenery month!

    Thanks for the shout out, and I like the new format, but you need to add your angry dwarf pic in the corner!

    Cheers Roger.

    1. The Angry Piper Post author

      Thanks, Roger. WordPress isn’t my friend lately…all my pictures on my old theme were looking pretty elongated and wrong…so I just fired up this theme. I’ll have to play with it a bit to see if I can put my BattleLore avatar somewhere. I may just go back to the old theme, or find one that doesn’t fuck with me.
      Funny you should mention the fingerprint…I almost touched the surface with my bare finger, but then I decided to grab a nearby piece of bubble-wrap. I found out it was still wet that way, but avoided the fingerprint.
      I love Vallejo water texture, though; so thanks for the heads-up!

  2. Dave Stone

    Like the new background for the blog Keith, great colour and texture.
    Your scenery piece looks excellent, and the water effects turned out really well, I think the only person who can say if it needs another pour would be you as it looks good already, unless you want to add any colour bleeds or rubbish floating in the pool then another layer would blend it in.
    Excellent entry and thanks for taking part

    1. The Angry Piper Post author

      Thanks Dave. I just wish I could have done more, but the slump hit. Maybe I’ll get something else done by the end of the month. I think I am going to give it one more layer, but floating trash might be beyond my skills. I briefly considered adding some leaf flock, but I envision this thing being underground in a chemical plant, so no leaves. I also thought about adding a tentacle to the middle of the pool, rising out of the water, but I decided against it mainly because I didn’t get the tentacle painted in time before I poured the water effects. Oh well.

  3. Matt

    Nice work on that chunk of scenery! The water looks great, nice and slimy. I can see where’s kind of pooled but it gives some motion to the surface, which think looks better than a perfectly smooth surface. You could try another layer, but if your’e happy with how it looks now you’re probably better off saving yourself the effort.

    1. The Angry Piper Post author

      Thanks, Matt. I think I might add another layer after all. This was the first time I used this stuff, so I count it as a learning experience. It just never occurred to me to check if the interior of the basin was level. I just assumed it was. D’oh!

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