Water and Fire effects

Wow! Thank you.

Casting in clear/tinted resin is another option, albeit more expensive and difficult. Basically, you sculpt the flames/water in whatever modeling compound you normally use, then make a mold of it, and cast it with the transparent/tinted resin to get the desired effect.

I've used transparent plastic sheeting (from toy and soft drink packaging), cut into flame/water shapes and arranged in a 3-dimensional fashion, in the past as well. The water spout for this elephant figurine was made using that method:



You can sculpt water and flames as solid, opaque objects as well, but transparent/translucent ones usually look better. Here's an example of sculpted solid flames (yellow base coat with some orange/red dry-brushed on top):

Hot glue is good for both but it's quite difficult to portray them in static form as they are both constantly moving. But yeah hot glue and clear paints or extremely watered down paints for the colours.