River ups and downs

Following the last post on the experiments creating ripples, I applied the same techniques to the river and stream on the layout. Or at least, I thought I was using the same techniques.

I stippled on the gloss gel and pushed it into wavelets with the airbrush, using a cocktail stick to push it into the cracks between the rocks, but after 24 hours the waves were still opaque. 

This might be OK for whitewater rapids or surf on a beach, but wasn't what I was after! I thought it might be a disaster, but actually the gloss gel layer proved easy to peel off. Perhaps it wasn't fully hard. 

So, back to square one. This time I was careful to keep the gloss gel to a thin layer with the stippling much more fine. Again, a cocktail stick was used to push the gel between the boulders. 

The airbrush has minimal effect to be honest, but the higher peaks of the stipples take on a more wave-like appearance. I tried to make these wavelets in a broadly consistent direction. 

This time the gel dried completely clear, and the ripple effect was much finer and I think more effective than before. 

The water glistens nicely in the layout lights. I then thought I'd apply the Aqua Magic as I had on the test piece.

Another disaster! As I was applying the aqua magic, the gel layer underneath started to turn opaque again. I stopped after the first length of riverbank, but there was nothing I could do but wait and see what happened as it dried. This hadn't happened on the test piece?

Fortunately, the next morning the river had dried clear again. I guess the Aqua Magic softened the gloss gel, despite that having had over 24 hours to dry. This bit of river looks nice and glossy but not really noticeably different to the rest of the river that hasn't had the Aqua Magic, so I'll hold off applying that for now. Quit while I'm ahead I guess...