Hi. I need to say something. I'm a railway modeller and love your videos about scenery, very skilled. If you want to know about scenery watch a war gamer! Just be careful. I've used PU adhesives in my work for 37 years. The catalysts are the cross linkers (hardeners). They polymerise the resin. They are used regardless of solvent or water based adhesives. I got sensitised to isocyanates. I cast wagons. They are simple no nonsense and cheap to make, I do the CAD, 3D print models, make silicon moulds and then cast in PU resin (SG2000 mostly), very simple one sided moulds. I did a load of casting about 3 years ago and developed what I thought was flu, high temperature 39, disturbed night etc, much better in the morning? ... so thought nothing of it. 3 weeks later did another load and had the same again. This was because I have become sensitised to the cross linker (the hardening catalyst or what ever you want to call it). So I just need to say, water based or solvent based, even if it doesn't smell, if it says "contains isocyanates" please please use ventilation ... a cooker hood vented to the outside is good enough (not the ones that just filter), or do it in a room, open the windows and put a desk fan against one to get a flow. That's enough. But over time you can become sensitised and its not much fun! I love casting but I now have to be very careful about ventilation. Don't want to be alarmist or anything etc but always read the label. Resin cast wagon: flic.kr/p/eMQwiA

Use a heat gun, blow torch or even a hair dryer to lower the viscosity. You could also try warming the resin beforehand in a tub of hot water. The blowtorch will annihilate those bubbles for you too.

Hey, thanks for making such great content and tutorials Lukes. All your videos are a godsend to me and I happily use your reference code for both geekgaming and cfs. I've been looking for a tutorial like this since I just got into water scenics. Thanks again and glad that you're getting sponsored content, well deserved!

Bought the epoxy resin and got to say it’s brilliant and thanks for all the help you’ve given me mate 👍

Good video as always. Seems like you covered all the bases very well (pun unintended!). I like the way that you're happy to disclose your favourite without seeming to influence your estimation and description of the other products. Hope your face heals up soon mate!

Great video . Thanks for testing these , i come back to this stuff all the time

Great work mate and just what I needed

Nice vid, I am just starting doing some boards with my son and I love watching your vids for very good advice.

Great vid, love all the work you do.

Great video mate. Good info and again talking about prices. Thanks.

its been a while since ive watched your channel this was awesome cheers .... p.s digging the beared bro welcome to the club matt

Awesome dude thank you iv just started thinking of giving water effects a try and this helped alot. Iv just been looking places up here in Aus that sell the polyurethane and the pigments for it as well. $44 for 950g and dyes are $18

Thanks Luke, I liked this video and it was helpful,

Cool as always! Thanks for the great video! Everyone loves water!

In case you don't follow the Facebook page CFS told me today the 'Fast' catalyst no longer works with the green labelled Polyester resin. I rang them after failing 3 times to get mine to cure. Luckily I was just testing and not pouring it on a scene. CFS were great by the way and are replacing my order due to my wastage trying to get it to work. They said the standard catalyst is pretty fast anyway.

Very instructive thank you.

So useful. Learnt alot. Thanks

On Poly and Acrylic resin pours I just blow on them very close and softly and bubbles all pop and vanish. Also a hair dryer on low works as well.

When I was working with resin (I used to pour over my photographs for a high gloss finish on those) I used to use a hairdryer on the bubbles. Turn it on hot and just waft it over each bubble and they evaporate. Try it I don't know if I was using a different resin...

Thanks for the video bro'... I do want to start working with different water effects in the near future so, this is very helpful...

The smell with polyester resin is actually styrene. Its not just a bad smell its actually harmful so please be careful. Good ventilation and don't spend hours working with it. If you start getting a headache then you need to pack up for the day and head for fresh air as you've had too much. But it is really good resin.

Hi Luke. Love the videos and just ordered some of the polyester resin (tried the £1 stuff and it wrecked my piece! Came out yellow-y white and VERY suspicious looking...). Where did you get the spout that it pours from? The one I saw has a flat lid. Thanks in advance!

Luke, really helpful videos thanks. Using my son’s toy castle ‘upgrade’ moat as an opportunity to learn, before exposing myself to 15mm terrain! Do you recommend ‘sealing’ the river bed first with varnish or watered down PVA, or apply straight on? Thanks!

Hello , I´m a long time viewer , almost from the start I think . Hope you´re recovering well from the cyanoc. mishap . What inks are you using on the poly ? normal acrylic inks ? like the ones used for painting models ? love your vids man , keep them coming cause they help people a lot .

It was helpful to learn resin options and contrasts. I'm gonna share this vid. :)

Great vid mate,I'm a newbie and want to set a model u boat in about 15cm depth of resin,what resin would u recommend? Any tips on process will b greatly appreciated,Thanks

Loved this video! Gave me a lot of insight to what I want to try. I'm a person who likes value for money so I am going to try the Polyester resin. In the past I have use 24gbp per kg type art grade epoxy but am frustrated with the curing time for 3d build up pieces. I'm hoping mica pigments will work on CFS clear cast resin?

Good vid mate

can you blow the surface or use a hairdryer to remove the bubbles also? I think heat will pop them...

Excellent tutorial, ordered the smelly one. Take it that the smell goes away when it's cured ? Have bought some resin tints so will use them. Question is: Will it be okay on top of acrylic based paints on the river bed ?? Can you add extra layer on top if you want it deeper ?? Thanks for the knowledge.

Great to know thanks :)

In other videos I've seen people use a torch to pop the bubbles. Are those all non-flammable?

Thanks Lukes! My fellwater troggoth will be awesome! ;)

Ordered the cheap one. Any experience with doing deep resin with it? Layers, time between pours, final finish etc? Thanks

Luke where did you get your paint racks m8ty please.

Very useful as I am about to build my first diorama with water and waterfall so I know what I will be using can I paint the Base where my water will be and it won't pull the paint up

Hi Luke what colour ink are you using in this video? Thanks.

Hey Luke, do these go cloudy if you leave them to cure in a high humidy atmosphere? I'm wondering if I can pour and leave out in the shed overnight, and you know it rains up here most evenings, or seems to at least.

But it smells bad even after it cures or just during the first 2 to 3 days from making the river?

Has anyone got any info on shelf life? How long does this stuff last in its bottle before it goes bad?

Hello, Is there something else I can use in place of resin?

Great video, very informative. I've never tried water effects before and was literally about to push the button on some Woodland Scenics stuff so I reckon you've saved me a few quid cheers!! One thing I'm not sure about though, I plan on pouring onto materials like plastic, cork and DIY filler, these will be painted with acrylics. Do I need to seal them with anything before I pour the water effects? I'm planning on trying the Polyester stuff you suggest. Cheers!

Great info. Have you tried UV curing resins?

To remove the bubbles, hit it with a heat gun.

Great video, looks like the links to the epoxy and the polyurethane both point to the epoxy.

Thx to you, poor people like me can make good scenery lol.

Are u alergic to it? Looks like you've gone twelve rounds in the ring

I have Woodland stuff and my main problem with it is that it takes ages to dry if I pour more than one or two mill thick... like weeks or more. Which basically means it only really works on already level surfaces.

Does the polyester resin smell even after curing or just whilst it cures? So for instance if I did a (fairly) large river with it, is that river just going to stink forever more? Cheers for this video mate, much appreciated as always. Dom

I use acrylic resins for baths, tables and floors. It costs even cheaper then yours, about $50 per 15kg. I think most of those crafty hobby companies just re-package this exact construction stuff since most of the people won’t go look anywhere beside craft stores, so they make it 10-15 times more expensive and sell.

Doesn't look like they ship to the US, anyone know of a vendor on this side?

Doing for first time submerged 1/350 scale typhoon sub diorama. Don't want to use scale. Need easy using resin 50/50. Do they sell CFS in The U.S What ink do I need

Hey dude are you alright you look drawn and red and puffy around your eyes in the video? thanks for the video's thinking of doing an art project of things in resin, if I do multiple pourings do either of them show join lines or is there a good time to do this before they are completely set?

Great video, but I just got £100 of resin from CFS last week and now I see your discount code !!!!!!!!!!!

No need to apologize. That's all part of trying something new for the first time. Also another way to get rid of surface bubbles is to lightly touch them with a flame.

Luke, lots of good info here. But I have to say, looking at your 10% off note for more than 30 seconds is very off putting. Good stuff and you've given me lots of tips so thanks for that.

Does it still stink, when it is hard? (The cheapest)

'Give it a hand'... Oh man, you just pushed me into a Beavis & Butthead mode *huh huh huhuhuh*

If you are struggling with the links there is a new web page made for this video direct to the resins shown..... www.cfsnet.co.uk/acatalog/Water-Clear-Resins.html

Thanks for the great overview. I'm in Canada so I may not be able to get the brand here. Will the color of my river/lake foundation be affected i.e. lifted, discoloured, etc? What kind of paint should I use on the river bed?

I don't know if it is of interest to you but there is another type of polymer that you may like to investigate. Not like your hard ones, UV activated polymer is a very thick, sticky gel used to make craft stamps (I have a load of videos on that) but it could possibly be used for water effects. It sets to a rubber like finish with use of a UV nail lamp.. Colop UK make one VX55, it is a light green colour. Clean up is with detergent and water. I recently tried a resin like your usual one, for coating art work. Gave up with the smell - even with the windows open it was unbearable!

Slight segway - Which would you suggest for casting? I'm making some SciFi stuff for a kiddie and I want to replicate some items because they take a lot of modelling. Never tried resin casting, could be talking out of my proverbial - Cheers.

I live in the United States and it won't allow me to purchase this :(

You can just breathe on the bubbles. No need to add open flame to something flammable.

Does the resin smell after it is set?

How do these products compare to the video you made last January 007 evostick,mod podge etc ?

Hi Luke, trying to use the discount code and it doesn't seem to work...am I getting it wrong? LUKESAPS 10...hope you can help buddy?

Just blow on the bubbles with a straw they should pop...On Epoxy Resin..

dude, we all know its ok do make some advertisement (expecially for your own stuff) but make the font a bit smaller. it really does get in the way sometimes^^

Apparently, the reason blowing on bubble bursts them is because of the carbon dioxide, so a quick way to burst alot or bubbles at once is to hold a flame above the resin

Another question I'm afraid Luke! I've got some CFS clear cast Polyester resin, the same one you use. Using it for the first time last night on a diorama, I mixed up the correct amount using army painter soft tone quickshade ink to darken my mix to the appropriate murky colour and poured....it looked mint! That is until about 30 mins into the curing process and the pigment and the resin seemed to separate which doesn't seem to happen in your experience? Am I missing something very obvious? Any help would be greatly received!

Handy video ...im off to cfs tomorrow to buy a load of equipment to make a coffee table finshed off with epoxy resin...my first one ....if i mention your name do you think cfs will give me that 10% off 🤣🤣

£35 postage to finland totally kills any deal. Still cheaper to buy from ebay.

Love the video, very informative. But do take care of your health, you look incredibly tired this time around.

Dam you Luke just put an order in with cfs and then hoped on KZfaq and you just put up ya vid cool video fella as normal and just so you guys know that on there website if you use PayPal fast check out make sure that you have the county section of your address filled in so what happened to me won’t happen to you as there is a bug on the cfs website that will automatically charge you the highest postage amount I phoned them up and the corrected the problem as it charged me £27odd for postage when it should of been £7

Bro, do you mean odour free?? Ha😉

i guess it smells

It weird that I kinda like the smell of the Polyester resin?...

Just remember that this is, essentially, an ad.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.... DON'T PUT ANY MUSIC.... I wish I could watch until the end your video because I'm highly interested... but that music....

Hi Luke what colour ink are you using in this video? Thanks.

Hi Luke what colour ink are you using in this video? Thanks.