RE: hills and deserts and rivers

G'day,

> Paint base of river dark 
> blue, and gradually drybrush over other shades 
> of blue. For artistic merit, stick a few pebbles 
> along rivercourse and do some white water 
> swirling around them (for geological 
> correctness, all eddies from stones should 
> seem to go in roughly the same direction....). 
> Finish the river by applying 2 or 3 layers of 
> gloss varnish. Gives depth, looks AWESOME. 
> Might even wash final varnish layer with thin 
> layer of blue ink. Thus, rigid, durable, easily 
> transportable river sections. 

Another trick is to flock the river bottom with model railway "sand",
stick
down any rocks you want as rapids. Once that's all dry mix up PVA:water
=
1:3+ add some blue ink to that, until the PVA/water mix is a light blue
colour and then paint that onto your river bed. This will then take 24
hrs
or so to dry, but when it does it'll dry clear, with thicker areas being
deeper blue and shallows being clearer. There will also be waves and
ripples
etc. Over the water in the rapids you can dry brush some white etc.
Looks a
treat.

Cheers