A River Runs Through It -- ALMOST!! (II)

Picking up right where I left off in my previous post, next up is applying some Elmer's WOOD FILLER atop all the exposed foam removed to create the river channel, and also some patches on the surface of the border to break up the ballast and pebbles so the boards won't look too much like pure desert...

It came to my attention that the wood frame on one corner needed a slight addition in order to be truly flush.  I scrounged a 1/4" thick coffee stirrer and went to work...

Then I went to work with the Elmer's Wood Putty on the straight river section...

Puttying complete on both boards...

A couple of little touch-ups to fill in gaps where dry hot-glue was visible... 

And then it was time to start gluing down GROUND COVER...

I use full-strength Elmer's "Glue All" white glue and my trusty old Home Depot "Soil Erosion" ballast, with a smattering of larger pebbles from various Model RR landscaping companies and/or the park or my yard...

With the surface fully covered, time to add some scattered trails of ballast and the odd pebble here and there to help tie the riverbanks in with the ground-cover... 

Moving on to glue ballast and pebbles for ground-cover on the straight section...

With the ground-cover dry on one side of the river, it's time to use an eye-dropper to add some Woodland Scenics "Scenic Cement" atop it all, to help strengthen the bond and seal it all together...

With that done, it's back to the grind of spreading full-strength White Glue (PVA) atop the surface of the other bank...

Adding the Scenic Cement to the other river bank...

Construction complete!

Now it's time to start painting...

The plan here is to use the same paint scheme on the river rocks as I've been using on my rocky wood-chip HILLS for the past few years, so these separate terrain features will fit together as well as possible...

First up:

BLACK UNDERCOAT for the rocks only...

Next up the BASE COAT OF BROWN over everything, very heavily dry-brushed in the case of the previously black-coated rocks...

Next step: heavy dry-brush of HONEYCOMB - Folkart's caramel brown color...

Dry-brush of FAWN - drab brown -- on the riverbanks themselves...

(Used the same color on banks of Mundabad Ravine and the 3 nullahs for my Maiwand lay-out)

Last color for the ground-cover: light highlight of SANDSTONE -- Delta Ceramcoat's pale khaki...

With the ground-cover done, it'sback to the ROCKS to match them up with the various Rocky Wood-Chip Hills I'll be using for all the high ground on this lay-out...

First step after the heavy dry-brush of BROWN is another heavy drug-brush, this time of the homemade drab I mix up from BLACK and that caramel HONEYCOMB...

After that comes a dry-brush of Delta Ceramcoat MUDSTONE*...

(*Which I've heard is no longer sold but have seen listed as available online.)

And finally a light highlight of the SANDSTONE, tying the rocks in with the ground-cover...

With the nearby hills laid out so you can see the matching effect to good effect...

Last up before starting to tackle the river coloring itself, an undercoat of LIGHT GREY, to help my aging eyes follow a clean line as far as the "water" color goes...

WHEW!!!

NEXT POST:  Painting the river itself...