ponds

[Anonymous]

can anyone give me some tips on how to make a small pond for a park, it won't be real but i want the shimmer effect. any suggestions
[?]

[88gta350]

there have been lots of articles in Model Railroader about making water. Try searching the main page for how-to articles on it. A number of companies make "water". Everyone has a preference and an opinion. I happen to like Enviro-tex, but there are lots of other products out there.

[88gta350]

as for a few tips, build your surrounding scenery to make the river bed, or pond bed. Paint it an earth color, then blend in some darker shades in the middle. It all depends on how "deep" you want it to look. The deeper the water, the darker it should get in the middle. Water is rarely blue, unless it's reflecting th sky, so you'll want browns and greens and colors like that.

Once the paint has dried, pour on whatever material it is you're using for :water" and allow it to dry. Of course, there will be more detailed instructions in the package of whatever product you use. This is just a quick sysnopsis. MR should have some articles with more detailed instructions.

[jwmurrayjr]

Some folks use Gloss Medium to good effect for the water, after painted as described above. It's relatively inexpensive and easy to use and repair if necessary. It would seem suited to a small pond.

Of course I haven't actually done this myself.[:p]

[MAbruce]

I was waiting for “railimages” to come back up to reply to this topic. Here is a pond I did on my N-scale layout:



I previously posted this step by step description on how I did it, so I’ll copy it over to this topic. It’s similar to what has already been described by Dave & Jim. This is not the only way to model water, but it’s the only way I have tried and I liked the results:

Here was how the pond was done. First, the whole thing is in a hollowed out Styrofoam base. I used one of those one inch thick white bead Styrofoam insulation panels you can purchase at a home center like Home Depot. However, I would not recommend you use the white bead material because it can get quite messy when digging out the area of water. If I did it again, I would use the pink or blue foam board, which will probably cost a little more, but would be much easier to work with and far less of a mess. I think I was vacuuming up little white foam beads for a week, and picking them out of my scenery for a couple of months! They got everywhere!

1. Hollow out the area of the pond/lake. Do not go further than a quarter of an inch down. Make sure that the pond depth is even (don’t make any part of the pond deeper than the other).

2. The entire pond/lake area should not have any holes that go through the foam. You can test it out by putting a little water in it to see if it holds. If you find a hole, you need to plug it (I used some cheap white caulk I had around). I actually had to seal mine because my pond fell between two prices of foam, and the seam between had to be sealed.

3. Apply a thin coat of Gloss Medium (I used “Mod Podge Gloss-Lustre”) to the bottom of the pond with a brush. This will seal everything and act as a good base for the paint, as I discovered that the paint didn’t cover evenly on type of foam I used, and I’m not sure how it would spread on the other types.

NOTE: The Gloss medium looks like white glue, but will dry clear.

4. Once the first layer of Gloss Medium is dry, paint the bottom of the pond. This is where your artistic abilities are exercised. I first recommend that you look over pictures (or observe in person) the type of pond/lake you want to model. Note the base color. Most look like a murky brown/dark green.

I used Apple Barrel water based acrylic paint #20756 – English Ivy Green as my primary color. I also used white and black in order to lighten and darken this color as needed. You can really start with any primary color that you feel would make a good body of water (experiment a little!). Start with a lighter shade of your primary color on the outside edges of the pond/lake, and then darken it as you paint in towards the middle. The lighter shade gives the illusion of shallow water, and darker for deeper water. Don’t panic if you don’t think you got it right the first time, because you can always wait until the paint dries and try again. You can even add some small rocks, and other debris in the shallow end to enhance the detail.

5. Once you are satisfied with the painting results, and the paint is dry, smooth on a thin coat of Gloss Medium with a larger brush or putty knife. It will dry clear and leave a glossy surface that looks wet. Once dry, a second coat may be necessary (It all depends on if you like the way the first coat turns out). If you don’t like it at all, you can actually paint the pond again and repeat this step.

I hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

What I wonder is how to make those little ripples on the 'water' surface. False water products, when poured in the pond/lake cavity will tend to just even itself and give a smooth surface no?

[jwmurrayjr]

Bruce,

That's a very nice looking pond. As I understand what you're saying and what I've read about using Gloss Medium, the pond bottom must be very level and smooth. (With a liquid water product like the WS products the bottom can be irregular and the product will cover it to about 1/8" and the surface will level before hardening, I think.)

Are the ripples made by stippling the surface of the gloss medium as it begins to harden?

Thanks,

[MAbruce]

I must confess that the ripple effect occurred by accident. Because the bottom of the pond was bumpy (by using white bead Styrofoam), it translated through the layer(s) of Gloss medium (thins layers do not self-level) to create the effect you see.

So maybe using white bead Styrofoam was not a bad idea after all? [:I]

[Anonymous]

I dont have any cool pictures or anything, but on my layout I just took a piece of glass threw a tiny bit of sawdust on it to simulate floating debries, and then painted the glass pond scum greenish brown. If you then turn the glass over it looks reflective, but it isn't like some of teh pond products where you can see all the way to the bottem. The thickness of the glass also makes it look 3d. And the best part is for a poor highschool student like me it's pretty darn cheap. I just set the glass on the benchwork and build teh banks out of polaster cloth and all that other stuff

[Anonymous]

my only issue is that the board is only 1/2 inch thick wood on horses and i am trying not to dig into the board

[Anonymous]

Hydrocal or plaster of paris can be used to create a surround in which to place a pond. Start out with a putty knife at least 4 in. wide hold one side about 1/4 in. above the table and press the other side against the table This will spread your plaster into a hill. now simply drag it into the shape you want and then the pond method above is as good as any I've heard of .
You may want to vary the angle of your new hill to make it more realistic.
Best of luck

[MAbruce]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dltforce146

my only issue is that the board is only 1/2 inch thick wood on horses and i am trying not to dig into the board

Yeah, that would be a problem. But it sounds like "mikewhite" came up with a great solution. I'd give it a try. [tup] Good luck.