"Modular river board, 2x4 MDF and foam dual layer" Topic

I found this technique for a modular river board from this fellow;

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He's had this tutorial up forever, first saw it back in 2003 and I always wanted to have a similar set of boards but was daunted by the technical aspects of the project.

I also used 1/2" MDF as my baseboard, but I used thicker battens, 1" instead of 5/8" and also 1" insulation foam instead of 1/2". I had a devil of a time with the MDF and warping. Mostly due to Home Depot's horrendously bad quality in their building materials, I could scarcely find a piece of batten that wasn't warped to some degree. The tricky part of screwing batten to MDF to make it flat is that you have to make sure you do it "opposing directions", so that when it's screwed down both materials are "forced" into flat position. Essentially you're going against the warp or curve of the MDF and forcing it flat.

I had one piece where I didn't realize that the warp of the MDF and the warp of the batten were screwed along the same curve, and so the materials just kept their warp even after screwing them together!

It did eventually work, but I had to toss out two sections where the MDF just would not cooperate. Got the technical aspects down finally though and got three good sections for a 4 x 6 board, will be adding a fourth section soon.

I also decided that 1" batten would be thicker and better for driving screws into. MDF takes screws very well through its front surface.

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I sawed away the batten where the rivers pass through it and used 45 degree angles for the river banks. The foam layer was carved down to the baseboard. The river was actually the simplest part! After discovering Mod Podge I will NEVER go back to using resin water effects products! This stuff is amazing, water cleanup, easy to apply and it just looks like real flowing water, I love this stuff!;

More photos;

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Very effective. Do you ripple the Mod Podge as it dries, or does it dry all wrinkly by itself?

@warhawkwind,

Thanks for the positive feedback!

I ripple it as I apply it, with a back and forth dabbing motion with the brush across the frontage of the river. It sets up really quick, so the ripples don't collapse back down as its drying. It's just wonderful stuff. And when it dries it is as solid as iron.

All I have to still do on them is apply a layer of gloss varnish to seal it and that's pretty much it.

I've been very impressed with all of your recent terrain articles, Baranovich.

Nice work.

John T

@John Treadaway,

Thanks so much! Glad I can share with the community, you guys are all a huge inspiration to me!