How to make a miniature waterfall for your diorama - Part 2

In this part of the tutorial we finish making the waterfall then we trim it, glue it in place and add the details. If you have come directly to this webpage from a search engine the first part of this tutorial (start) is located here: Make a miniature waterfall for your diorama And I have a video tutorial showing this whole process here

Glue waterfall to plastic Now glue the caulk waterfall to the plastic backing that you previously bent. You have a few different options when it comes to glueing. You can use a glue gun, or you can use a glue called "Cyanoacrylate" This works the best. But, you can try other glues and see how they work. You might have to experiment a bit with glue because some glues might not take to the caulk very well.

You can experiment with this and it was a great idea to lay out a few extra waterfalls with the caulk.

Cyanoacrylate glue

Here is some cyanoacrylate glue I got at a hobby shop.

Amazon has it too: 1/2 oz. Hot Stuff Cyanoacrylate Glue

Glue waterfall in place

Trim the waterfall to the desired size and then glue it in place. You can use your DAP crystal clear or you can use the cyanocrylate or even a hot glue gun. As before you can experiment with various glues. But you want something that will dry clear.

Paint white accents

Now you can accent it by painting small vertical bands of white on it. Use watered down white paint and apply it sparingly. You don't want to cover the waterfall. You just want to add accents as if there is foamy and frothy water.

Bottom of the waterfall

You can use the caulk at both the top and bottom of the waterfall to get the textured bubbling and wavey effect. And once it is dry you can paint it.

Just apply some of the DAP and then sculpt it a bit with a brush.

OK, your waterfall just needs to dry and it is done! Nice job :) But I do have some advanced techniques if you want to make it even better and even more realistic.

Continue on to advanced Waterfall Techniques

Realistic Water, 16 fl oz

This is the water product that I use to make the surface water of the pond and the river. It is pretty nice stuff and very easy to use. You just pour it in and let it dry. No mixing required. But, you can only pour it to about 1/4 inch thick. Then let it dry and pour another layer. You can speed up the drying process with a fan.

Water Effects, 8 fl oz