First Layout Scenery Question-Advice Greatly Appreciated

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I'm attempting my first model railroad layout. I've been lurking here for a little while as I've been gearing up to begin. I'm using the WGH Madison Central layout as my model (the one on video narrated by Family Ties' Michael Gross). I've got my benchwork set and glued down 2" pink Formular foamboard on top of my 4X8 plywood. Following the directions I cut out the shape of my lake in the foamboard. In the video they use 1" thick foam. Unfortunately my local Home Depot only had the thicker 2" variety. Now that my 2" thick foam lake is cut out, it really looks "too deep" compared with the rest of the foam on the layout. Making matters worse, I did try to make the banks slope toward the "water" but with a big part of my track resting very close to the lake's edge, I didn't have much room to work with. My question is whether there is any material/product that I could put into the exposed wood/bottom of my lake to help raise it up a bit compared with the height of the tracks and help not make the lake edges look too steep as well.
Thanks for any advice you might have. I greatly appreciate it.
Gregg

[hminky]

I have a web article on making a pond, including misadventures along the way:

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/4x8/pond/



Anything can be corrected in making scenery

Thank you if you visit
Harold

[dehusman]

Put a bottom on the "lake", either foam or wood. Seal the seam between the bottom and the sides so they are water tight (caulking, Playdoh, spackle, etc).

Mix up a very soupy mix of plaster of Paris (like clam chowder) and pour it into the lake to raise it to the depth desired. It should cure with a smooth flat surface. You can seal and paint that for your lake.

Dave H.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Dave,
Just a quick question. Are you giving two different ways of doing it, or would I do both things: the foam or wood bottom and the plaster mix on top of that?
Thanks,
Gregg

[simon1966]

Gregg, you don't want the plaster to be too thick as it can shrink a bit and crack, so you would want to build up the pond with foam or wood as described by Dave and then use a thin layer of plaster to fill in the gaps and smooth it all out. The reality is, that there is not really a "right way" to do a lot of these things, improvisation works fine. Once you paint and put on ground cover, you can hide a lot of mistakes and changes. One of the nice things about foam, is that if you cut off too much, you can always glue another bit on and re-carve the feature. Plaster can then hide the joins.

[cheese3]

I would go with the foam. it will be easier to shape and cut to fit the lake.

[BRJN]

Maybe we can make lemonade out of a lemon.

In my town, there is a gravel quarry just a few hundred feet from the river. If it rains a lot, and sometimes during spring thaw, the quarry floods. It is usually just a foot or three deep, but one year they lost a dump truck down there.

Perhaps you could have a "temporarily flooded quarry" with a layer of water at the bottom of that too-deep lake scene. The higher parts of the quarry could still be a paying customer. [:)]

[nfmisso]

Alternatively to Dave's very workable suggestion is Durham's Water Putty, it works better when it is thick. It expands a little bit when it sets - unlike plaster which shrinks a little bit, resulting in cracking.

[Anonymous]

I did he same thing... I created a lake that was more like some oceanic trench. I fixed it in a two-step manner....

First off, I cut a piece of foaf to take care of the worst of it... I also glues some foam under the cut-out foam sheet to support it.

Secondly l took some of the WS foam putty and used that to fix/smooth some edges, fill in some other smaller areas, general touchup. The foam putty might be a bit pricey, but I've used it to fix all sorts of things and really like the product.

The only problem is late at night it reminds you too much of that marshmallow stuff your kids eat on PB sandwiches, however, it doesn't taste as good [;)]

Speaking of fixing anything in your scenery, we're just doing that. My master layout planner (he's 6) decided we needed a road from an upper level of the layout to the lower town. He's probably right...so out comes the dremel tool, a little more foam, glue, putty, and we're ready to plaster up a (albeit steep) road.