The only real tip I can offer when using Magic Water is to try not to sneeze when pouring it.
I was using some during allergy season and sneezed while I was pouring it. As a result some of the adjoining bushes and vegetation got a nice glossy sheen I hadn't planned on. It was easy enough to fix up, but I wish that I hadn't had to.
Anywhere else I've used it, it's been perfect for over six months now- it dried hard and is still nice, clear and shiny.
Mixing it isn't particularly tricky- I've just eyeballed the proportions every time and gotten good results. I was just certain that I stirred it well enough and paid attention not to introduce bubbles into it while I was stirring. If anything, I may have stirred it longer than I needed to.One of the things I like best about it is that it flows so freely. This keeps it from climbing up the sides of embedded rocks and trees as much as other brands I've used in the past.
Magic Water's free-flowing nature startled me a little bit the first time I used it, because of the scenery base I was using. The ground forms on the layout are made using a geodesic foam method- sheets of foam-impregnated nylon screening which starts out flexible, then sets up firm. This method leaves air pockets and other voids in the material, but ones which are easily covered when adding ground cover. My first pour of Magic Water left me a little surprised the morning after I poured it. After I poured it and turned in for the night, it seeped into the underlying ground form and dried there. None of it went through to the floor, but it looked like it had pretty much disappeared, leaving the pond bed just looking moist and without the 1/8" depth I'd poured.
What had happened is that as it sought its own level, it filled in the gaps and voids in the underlying ground form, as it should. The second layer I poured went more the way I'd expected it to, since the first layer had done the sealing work I'd neglected to do earlier.
