Making Water on the Manitoba & Minnesota Subdivision

A photo of the Rushing River, which was made
the old-fashioned way.
With an open house for the NMRA Thousand Lakes Region annual convention coming up, I have begun to spruce up the layout—fix a bit of scenery here, re-patch a crack between the layout and the fascia there, re-ballast a bit of track here and there.

I'm also re-finishing the water by giving it a fresh coat of Gloss Medium. There isn't a lot of water, but what there is helps define the layout's setting along the rugged Canadian shield. One signature area which seems to draw a lot of attention is on the upper level, where a bridge crosses the Rushing River.

When it comes to making water, I made mine the old-fashioned way: With paint and gloss medium.

First off, it goes without saying that water isn't blue, at least not in the northern part of the U.S. and Canada. It is various shades of green, brown, gray and anything in between, depending on the geological conditions and weather.

To make the water on the CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision, I start with either a piece of plywood or hardboard. After giving it a base coat of cheap green paint, I then apply Delta Ceramcoat Black Green and Deep River Green acrylic paints—the Black Creen in the middle and the Deep River Green on the edges where it is shallower.

When dry, I brush on a coat of Liquitex Gloss Medium & Varnish to make it shiny. The results look pretty good to me.

There are a lot of great products on the market today to make great-looking water, but for my purposes, the old way was once again best.


Another shot of the Rushing River.