"Return to Mod Podge Rivers, water on your gaming board..." Topic

Hello all.

At long last I was finally able to get a new gaming room set up in my girlfriend's house, so that I have an alternate place to do games with friends or solo games.

I set up my first 6 X 4 board, and was finally able to see some of my modular river sections on the tabletop.

I have absolutely fallen in love with Mod Podge! Absolute miracle material. Makes the best-looking running water I have ever seen, and so easy to use.

You can find tutorials of this on Youtube, but essentially the technique is to simply paint a water channel with a dark color like black or blue, or brownish blue or brownish black. Then you just apply the Mod Podge with a paint brush, going in a back and forth motion across the width of the water channel, and following the contour and direction of the water course.

In the right lighting, I swear it looks like real water. It has a perfect gloss, and truly looks like running water that has been suspended in time on the gaming table!

Photos of my table:

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And the Mod Podge product itself. This stuff if designed for sealing pictures and puzzles, but the gloss stuff is a wargaming terrain makers' dream come true. And it's very inexpensive, comes in two sizes, the small goes for like I think $8.00 USD and the larger one is like $15.00 USD. It goes a long way too, one big container was enough to do about 10 feet of rivers and I still have some left.

Photo:

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Mod-Podge seems to just be a 'cheaper' version of acrylic gloss medium which works great for water. For others, no need to click through all the link, very repetitive. But might be worth checking out one link – or the last link by itself which shows a bottle of the product.

Some use the matte version for a 'glue' for trees but I'd question if it is strong enough to provide any durability.

Clicking to see what he has done with the product is kinda the point, isn't it?

@Early morning writer,

Ummm…..no need to click through the links? Well YEAH, it's different angles of the same river board section, so you can see it from different angles with the light hitting it.

Sorry if I bored you with my photos. :-(

But yes, Mod Podge is indeed a cheaper version of acrylic gloss medium, which makes it superior to more expensive resins, which are not only not water based and quite toxic, but far more difficult to work with. Mod Podge wins in every category in terms of cost and ease of use for the average wargamer.

I like rivers. I have MOd Podge but haven't got around to using it yet. I must start soon, your work is great.

Baranovich, thanks for the tip and photos. You have some amazing work on FLICKR, including excellent Tabletop World buildings.

Can Modpodge be used to layer, creating depth, or is it better if only applied thinly in one layer?

@Condotta,

Thanks for the compliment! I'm way critical of my own work and never think it looks really good or as good as others' work. Very nice of you to say so, and you're welcome for the tips!

That is an excellent question.

I have found that yes, Modpodge can be used in layers to achieve actual physical depth of the water. However, it takes MANY, MANY layers to achieve any kind of measurable depth.

I attempted to do that on some early test boards, and after about four or five applications, it was only about 1/4" deep if that. And I found that when side by side with the rivers that are just the single layer of Modpodge over dark paint, they look practically the same.

Now, having said that, one thing I have NOT tried yet with Modpodge is actual pouring of it and using it like a true water effects resin. I am honestly not sure if that would work with this particular product, since it is designed to be brushed over puzzles or pictures as a sealer in very thin applications. It would be interesting to experiment though and actually do a heavy pour of this into a cavity and just let it dry and see what it looks like.

I would also be concerned with air bubbles if it was poured that deep. Even just a thin layer of it caused some air bubbles, and I painted the MDF pretty solidly, I thought I had sealed it well, but air still managed to creep up through and cause bubbles.

One thing I am sure of though. If you did do a very deep pour of this stuff, it WOULD dry clear and so you would be able to see down into the depth of it. And if you poured it that deep, you might be able to do some cool things like suspend rocks underwater or like tiny model fish or trout or something like that. That kind of effect would be very cool if you could see those features below the surface!

My hunch is that it would work to an extent, perhaps poured maybe an inch or less deep, to represent a very shallow, very clear and clean stream or river. But beyond that depth, you might run into issues of the very bottom never fully drying or curing. I honestly don't know!

Air bubbles do occur in natural bodies water, so don't let that stop you.

A couple of videos on using the product to make rivers:

YouTube link

YouTube link

including one on how to make your own "Mod Podge":

YouTube link

Bonus:

Make your own gesso:

YouTube link

Wow…that does look great, and with little effort, too.

I use the matte Mod Podge for my basic flocking glue. Thin it about half with water and drop it on the scattered flock with an eyedropper until flooded. (It's best to use silicon paper under the model for this, in case of overflow.) It dries clear and matte and cements everything together nicely. It also makes a pretty good white glue straight, not shrinking as much as regular PVA.

I had an aunt who made decoupage items with Mod Podge. Multiple applications do give a very nice depth effect.

Baranvich, no need to apologize I just didn't see 'new' information in the varied angles – even to the point I had to look twice to see that it was just changing angles. That's all.

For those thinking of achieving depth – very doable, at least with acrylic gloss medium. I mix a bit of color, greens, blues, tans, browns, as appropriate into the gloss medium and layer the applications. How they get layered depends on the desired effect – clear, blue, green blue; or brown, tan, green, blue; etc. Best to experiment a little but keep each layer a distinct color for best results, mixing the colors together just muddies it up – and not in a good way. Gives very nice results. I've even inserted small items into the gloss/paint mix to add some 'spark'. Just use a clear coating, or two, on the top. Very durable and easy to return to life my just wiping away any accumulated dust with a damp cloth.

Weddier – have you tried using Mod Podge as 'glue' to hold ground foam onto plastic tree armatures (think Woodland Scenics)? If so, how were the results?

Very nice.

Great river pieces, Baronovich!

Thanks for the positive feedback!

I like the tip about painting width wise – it looks like rippling water! came out great

My experience with Mod Podge has been pretty good for the most part. I will say that if you put it on thick, it can take forever to dry, so more thinner applications tend to work out better.
I would suggest stipling it (dabbing the brush in random patterns) for smaller bodies of water to get more realistic ripples (the first video link above shows this).
Be warned, it will remain tacky for some time (I had some that were tacky for weeks), so don't store anything on top of it or it may stick or mar the surface.