Jungle Waterfall Pond (Tabletop game piece)...

[catdancer]

 

 

I'm impressed at how realistic the "water spray" at the bottom of the waterfall looks in the photos.

 

I'm also wondering how you actually created the waterfall itself - is it green stuff under there?

Hi Matrissa...The waterfall itself was made out of a clear piece of hard plastic stock (a broken baseball card holder)...measured to size...cut...the top heated so that it could be bent...and grooved with a hot knife...painted with acrylic sky blue paint and stained with (3 shades of artist inks)...dry brushed with acrylic cool white. The foam & mist at the base was created by individual foam core balls glued into place to create the look...washed with layers of white glue and finally painted with acrylic cool white...the mist is created by the addition of "hot stuff" and pulling the melted foam upwards for the desired results. 

 

 

Could you possibly share an extreme close up of the waterfall? I think I understand but if I could just get a closer look I'm sure I could get a better sense of the individual bits (especially the foam and mist).

 

Hi Matrissa...With my deepest regret...I can not take any real closeup photos...I use a small Canon A3100 Power Shot camera that allows me to focus the image to (21")...I try to take the photos that I post at the closest "clear" image that I can...I did try to take some real closeups of the waterfall, but they were trash and I would not post such images. Again, my deepest apology...but I can only do what my equipment lets me do.

 

Paul (Catdancer)

[Dr.Bedlam]

'At'sa fraggin' thing of beauty. 

[MatrissaTheEnchantress]

How large are the original photos? If they are a lot bigger than what you upload you could use a photo application to crop a rectangle the size of what you usually upload just around the waterfall and then all of the detail actually in the original image would be preserved. If you don't know how to do that, or don't have an application that would let you do that, just say so and I can give you some advice. :-)

[catdancer]

How large are the original photos? If they are a lot bigger than what you upload you could use a photo application to crop a rectangle the size of what you usually upload just around the waterfall and then all of the detail actually in the original image would be preserved. If you don't know how to do that, or don't have an application that would let you do that, just say so and I can give you some advice. :-)

Matrissa;

 

The original images that my camera produces are about (3 x 5 and/or wallet size)...I have tried to load (original photos); but the Reaper computer tells me that they are too large in pixel count or something like that...thus I have to resize all my images...so that I can post them on the site.

 

I don't have or use any photo programs on my computer that I can do stuff to photos with...also I do not have the computer knowledge to work with programs like (Photo Shop or other such photo programs).

 

Paul

[Mad Jack]

 Actually, I believe I can better explain how he made the waterfall...

 

He took a flat sheet of clear hard plastic (the same stuff they use for making the hard plastic deck boxes for Magic and Pokemon cards), and heated the top of the piece until it was soft enough to bend over to form the curve at the top of the waterfall where it comes out from under the rock.

 Then he took a hot knife and carved the grooves into it to represent the running water. He painted it - actually, he probably painted the backside of it  - blue, then very thinly washed the top surface of it with different shades of blue and drybrushed white.

He then took tiny white foam pellets and glued them into place around the bottom to form the rough shape of the frothing water. However, instead of a giant mass of roiling water, this would look like a bunch of little balls glued together. So he poured white glue over them, essentially using it as a gap filler. Repeated layers of glue would eventually fill in enough of the empty space between the balls to form a solid mass that, after being painted white, would look like the foam at the bottom of the waterfall.

 Then he seems to have used cyanoacrylate glue to melt the foam (It dissolves foam the same way it dissolves plastic) and then picked at it with a toothpick or something to lift the melted foam up into little strings that formed the mist.

At least that's what I got out of his explanation.

 

 Also, Catdancer, all Windows computers come with Windows Paint, which can be used to crop images to just show certain parts (it always crops the from the bottom and right side, so you have to rotate the image and then crop it again to get something in the middle of the picture, though)... You can also download Paint.NET for free, which is a very basic and easy to use photo editor program - resizing images is a simple matter of three or four clicks (usually you just find "image" in the menu, click on it and it will bring up a list of options including resizing), and there is a forum on the download site with very easy-to-understand tutorials for beginners.

Any sort of photo program like Photoshop or Gimp is very easy for anyone to use for really simple stuff like cropping and resizing images (pretty much every task has it's own button) - it's only the really complex and complicated stuff that takes time and patience to learn...

Edited April 21, 2014 by Mad Jack

[catdancer]

 Actually, I believe I can better explain how he made the waterfall...

 

He took a flat sheet of clear hard plastic (the same stuff they use for making the hard plastic deck boxes for Magic and Pokemon cards), and heated the top of the piece until it was soft enough to bend over to form the curve at the top of the waterfall where it comes out from under the rock.

 Then he took a hot knife and carved the grooves into it to represent the running water. He painted it - actually, he probably painted the backside of it  - blue, then very thinly washed the top surface of it with different shades of blue and drybrushed white.

He then took tiny white foam pellets and glued them into place around the bottom to form the rough shape of the frothing water. However, instead of a giant mass of roiling water, this would look like a bunch of little balls glued together. So he poured white glue over them, essentially using it as a gap filler. Repeated layers of glue would eventually fill in enough of the empty space between the balls to form a solid mass that, after being painted white, would look like the foam at the bottom of the waterfall.

 Then he seems to have used cyanoacrylate glue to melt the foam (It dissolves foam the same way it dissolves plastic) and then picked at it with a toothpick or something to lift the melted foam up into little strings that formed the mist.

At least that's what I got out of his explanation.

 

 Also, Catdancer, all Windows computers come with Windows Paint, which can be used to crop images to just show certain parts (it always crops the from the bottom and right side, so you have to rotate the image and then crop it again to get something in the middle of the picture, though)... You can also download Paint.NET for free, which is a very basic and easy to use photo editor program - resizing images is a simple matter of three or four clicks (usually you just find "image" in the menu, click on it and it will bring up a list of options including resizing), and there is a forum on the download site with very easy-to-understand tutorials for beginners.

Any sort of photo program like Photoshop or Gimp is very easy for anyone to use for really simple stuff like cropping and resizing images (pretty much every task has it's own button) - it's only the really complex and complicated stuff that takes time and patience to learn...

Hi Mad Jack;

 

Isn't what I communicated to Matrissa about the waterfall construction (the same as you stated herein)? I'm just kidding with that statement; but you got the process down correctly.

 

As far as the Windows Paint goes...I have had this computer (a gift from my wife) for going on 3 years...I still don't understand (paint) or how to use it or what to use it for...and as far as other photo programs go...I do not have the computer skill to attempt to use any of them...My computer knowledge is basic to the point that (I know how to turn it on and hunt and peck afterwards for things that I try to do)...it took me nearly 4 months to understand how to do stuff on this Reaper site (and I still only know about 20%).

 

Paul (Catdancer)

[ub3r_n3rd]

I still don't understand (paint) or how to use it or what to use it for...and as far as other photo programs go...I do not have the computer skill to attempt to use any of them...My computer knowledge is basic to the point that (I know how to turn it on and hunt and peck afterwards for things that I try to do)...it took me nearly 4 months to understand how to do stuff on this Reaper site (and I still only know about 20%).

 

Paul (Catdancer)

 

 

I can attest to this, I've been helping Paul out when he has questions. 

 

BTW Paul, you are always welcome to ask computer-related questions whenever you need help I'm there for ya buddy.

[MatrissaTheEnchantress]

Thanks Mad Jack! Your revised version helped!