Looks good! To keep the rocks looking dry because the resin always creeps, I install the rocks or boulders after pouring the water but before it sets so they can look submerged. Your layout really looks amazing!

ha ha thanks Stephen :) You pronounced my name perfectly! Thanks for such kind words, the pond is looking fantastic by the way! And I'm sure you'll be happy with the 'Flexi-Edge' as well. A quick tip on using the 'Flexi-Edge'... It's really hard to get nice straight lines but if you turn the 'edge' on its side it will be much easier to get a straight line. It does an amazing job for curved lines!. You'll know what I'm talking about when you get it :) Also if you use the line stripping pen be sure not to press down too hard, it can leave a groove in the plaster road. I found dragging it lightly worked well and capillary action draws the paint down onto the road surface. Thanks again for the shout out :) I always look forward to watching your updates! Cheers Luke

The water looks fantastic!

Your scenery is some of the best I’ve ever seen on a model railway! Really inspiring !

Thoroughly enjoy your weekly updates, great attention to detail, btw the pond looks great, being a pond it reflects the right depth etc. bloody good!

The pond looks great! can't wait till I can see the reflection of the bridge in it! Thanks!

Very nice work ! That's one hell of a project ! I love your pond water.

Pond looks great. I plan to something similar on my layout; and some great comments on your pond has given me more ideas. Hornhospital must be a government worker. "NOTIDY"! Gov't workers love their acronyms. Being an engineer for the Navy, I get overwhelmed with "acronymees". Haven't made my first video yet, layout in its infancy. Love watching yours.

Thrilling Updates :-)... Thanks Steve I enjoy watching all of your videos. Giving me lots of help on ideas for when I have time to get back into modeling again.

Stephen The possible solution for the wickking up of the water on the rocks, would be to heavily clear coat the rocks first with a flat finish clear coat prior to setting the rocks on the pond base before adding the water. The natural porosity of actual rocks or plaster rocks would be sealed with the clear coat and would eliminate the wickking. My other comment is, Where is the origin of the culvert pipe? A similar situation exists at Auvil Yard on the NS at Iaeger, WV. The entrance for the drainage pipe is a concrete drainage box in the ditch line on the mountain side of the yard. The only visible portion of the box is a concrete top 8"x 36" rising out of the ditch line level with the ties and a grating 12" x 36"in the ditch line pressed against the concrete box edge. The collection box is actually 3" square and 4" deep with edge facing the tracks 12" higher than the other 3 sides, but since it is buried it would not be modeled. This culvert feeds into the Dry Fork River not a pond. Your pond looks great and its location would break-up any wind that would be needed to cause visible ripples. Sid Bailey

Great work on the pond , looks cool

Man, Your scenery is exquisite, Thank-You for posting!

Awesome work!

Wow, it's awesome

Really like the bridge! I love how weathered it looks. It all looks great as a matter of fact!

pond looks great you did a very good job.

Excellent work here. Love seeing rivers get poured, colors used, etc. Great video.

Rob (?)/Stephen, The pond looks perfect to me. I have not done anything like that yet but it looks just like a deep pond would (to me) with an algae growth under the water and the bank sloping in toward the center. Very realistic in that respect. The only problem I see is the wet rocks. Short of having waves washing over them about all you could do now is paint them. I don't know how applying them some time after pouring the water would have worked but they might not have gotten the 'wet' look by doing that. Painting the rocks will work fine if you can match the colors or come up with realistic colors for the rocks. The icing on the cake is the tree laying on the bank and partially submerged. That is perfection beyond perfection to me. Well done. Keep up the good work and I look forward to more videos. Dale

It looks great don’t mess with it.

Nice work, thanks.

wind effects are easy, gloss modpog airbrush straw coat with a brush then blow across it it will create ripple look. I use a slight blowing motion to get small ripples only on some of the bodies of water because there are still calm spots when the wind blows.

Incredible! Very colorful. From the broken pavement on the edge of the dead end road, to the different foliage and texture. The landscape along the tracks are perfect. The pond is beautiful! I love the blue tint of the pond. It's reflecting the blue sky of a sun shinny day. Great Artwork.

Awesome pond. I like how you can see how the culvert run off moved the dirt deeper into the pond. Nice touch. Wouldn't have thought of that.

Stephen, your pond looks good...the best technique I have come across is blowing through a straw to create the ripples...and I think I saw Luke Towan do it...it would take a little more wet water added...

That's the best foliage I've ever seen

Nice job, The pond looks great!

Looks good. . . I like the pathway around the shore.

The depth in the water turned out great! Fantastic!

I think your pond came out great! I watched your video so I could get some idea of how my river should look. I'm no expert as well, so I really appreciate videos like this. Nice layout!!

Great pond . I think it's perfect... I would leave the rocks alone maybe little wind waves other then that perfect... Through a canoe in it as well. ..

looks so real! Wow, great work!

I know this video was made quite some time ago, but I learned a lot from this and my wife is building a Kentucky Horse Ranch with a pond and enjoyed it very much! She likes the Kitten giving you some encouragement LOL The work is very well done and it looks great. You mentioned the wicking effect of the water effects liquid rising up onto your rocks. I have found that if you rinse the rocks off and let them dry before using them, the dust or dirt particles that absorb the water and help to create that wicking effect is far less or doesn't happen. Also although you have probably come up with a plan already, I use pigment powders rather than paint on objects like that that need a dry look to them and are near other objects such as water where you don't want paint to get onto them. the excess powders can be picked up with a damp cloth or paper towel or even vacuumed up. The paper towel idea was a modification of The Great Luke Towan showing how to absorb excess glue in one of His video's. Great Job on the pond and surrounding foliage! I hope my own water scenes come out that well on my next layout! So far I have only made a small oasis, as the little lady in my life likes Palm Trees, and I wandered/Backpacked the Desert's all over the Southwest U.S. so I made one in the corner of my layout from what I remember of one of my favorite spots I found, literally in the middle of nowhere! take care and again great job! thanks for sharing the knowledge and experience :) .IF you should happen to see this can I ask where you got the scenic backgrounds/Backdrops from? they all look awesome around your layout as well the way you have bended them in!

I love your models and your videos! Thanks for sharing this.

Great video and excellent work. To be honest i didn't even notice the water on the rocks much until you mentioned it. Your colors for the underlying dirt/banks and pond water look great! I know that this video is a couple years old but I am slowly getting back into the hobby and I was glad to have found this. Thanks

Hi The pond looks great :-)

Love the color. Looks good on your test.

Thank you for the advice it going to help me!! I apperciate it.

I have been watching your videos from #1 building your layout.... I hope one day my wife and I can build our own, but watching yours just keeps y dreams going.

Stephen great work as usual, my only comment is usually under a structure there is a definite rain/ light shadow where not enough moisture and light get to for plants to grow. Have a close look at similar structures and you will see what I mean there will be some area of bare ground usually with a tapering edge in a triangle shape.Keep up the good work.Neil

Pond looks great, some ripples would add some great effects. Woodland Scenics water effects works great, dries clear but a little dry brushing and it looks good.

I think it's a great job. Don't over think it. Lay out is looking good! The for your time and video. Sam

WOW...It really looks good so far. I'm glad you didn't just color the water black as I see so many others do. The shading in the base paint really gives it a 3-D effect. I would just dry-brush the top of the rocks but leave the wet look on the sides to highlight wave action. Once you are done with the super detailing that you do, I'll bet it will be Fantastic!!

looks great

Great work on the pond, prep work before hand makes it all come out. What i learned afterwards was that if you pour then set the rocks they dont wick as bad.

I really enjoy your videos. They're inspirational and they motivate. Layout looks very realistic and I like your attention to detail. Keep up the good work.

Ooooh laaah lah. When I saw this I about had an out of body experience. For years I modeled railroad scenery 3d on my PC for a transportation engineering firm. Your thought process about how the scene should look mimics my own. In addition to all the praise you've gotten I just want to add one thing... the foresight you had to paint the silt extending from the usual shallow areas of the shoreline directly in front of the culvert. That phenomenon is spot on! I can't wait to watch more of your videos as I prepare to model my own HO bridge layouts.

Pond looks great. The water does wick up on things in a pond just like your pond looks. I think a pond or lake looks best when there is no wind and the water is calm flat just like yours. great job.

Hay Rob, something you might try for the road lines is what I found. I use automotive pin striping. For the double yellow lines I found "Prostripe R41022". It's 1/16 inch yellow stripes with a 1/16 inch space between. It came in 150 ft roll for $20 on ebay. For the white lines I went to my automotive store and bought the 1/16 and 1/4 inch stripes. I put it down then remove the 1/4 inch leaving the 1/16 inch. I think they look pretty good. Just a suggestion. I love what you're doin'! Keep it up.

Awesome! Looks great!

Fantastic layout. Your scenery is some of the best I have ever seen. You did a great job on your pond also. I just subscribed recently and have watched all of the videos. Can't wait for #107.

phenomenal!

Pond area looks great to me!

woww the way you blend everything is next level ..

Pond looks great, if you want to blend it maybe try adding a fairly transparent coating but use a brownish tint instead of a a bluish tint, layers just like shrubbery helps with the blending. Look great, two thumbs, thanks for sharing!!

All looking great, like the transparent pond gives a sense of depth, my view leave it as it is

A great video mate. I used to make scenery for Games workshop years ago. Now my 3 year old son wants a farm to play I'm going overboard with the detail. This video has rekindled my passion for this art. :)

Hey Stephen your pond looks great with the slight tint it really shows depth of the pond I just recently done a lake on my layout and mix my water tint too dark I think.. I mixed an award blue with marsh green and mine has a really dark green tint not transparent but i have not really seen any lakes that are.... So Great Job!!! Keep up the good work!!!! This modeling is a real learning experience that's the joy of it!!!

Sometimes, less is more. Looks great, the reflection off the scenery makes it look authentic.The lapping against rocks adds a level of detail that real water offers, without the real water ;)

looks great !

I love the river. Don't need more layer. You work.

that looks great! Nice work

Don't sell yourself short, great work as always.

As a fisherman who loves finding random, out of the way ponds, yours is dead on accurate! Less is more sometimes. As for the "wet" rocks, maybe just some dull coat. And for the partially wet rocks, some dull coat and now you have realistic different colored rocks, ma nature does it, why can't you? Thanks for another great video!!

Great video......Thanks

I think I'd come back and paint the rocks grey if it were me. But it looks great, I especially like the fallen tree in the water. Loving your videos, keep them coming! :)

Great work

A famous architect once said "less is more", don't overdo the pond, it looks great. The fallen tree is a good touch of realism, might need a turtle on that trunk near the water's edge :) Could add a little color to the rocks where the resin wicked up on the top. Thanks for walking us through your project, very nice.

I wouldn't worry about the wicking as this is how I see rocke in ponds sometimes. It really looks great. I'm not a water guy but this makes me think about it again and I just might find a place for water on my layout. I don't know about the ripples. This is a small pond and ripples might be to much.

Around some of the wet rocks you might want to add some kids swimming, that way it explains the wet rock. Other then that it's looking really good. I wish my layout would turnout at least half as nice as yours.

Hi, recent subscriber and have been catching up on many, many updates. I really enjoy your in-depth coverage of your progress. Nice one :)

Your terrain is very realistic. :))

The black dirt you are referring to in your video is slag dust from the ballast, from the steel industry

The only thing I would say with the pond is that I personally rarely see a perfectly clear pond. A majority of the time their is some sort of Algea or lily pads on the top.

The butane torches they sell in auto parts sections for shrink tubing, also kill bubbles in water pours. Treat the tip like a spray paint tip, and "paint" the bubbles away. Also works to spread/direct "foam" and "waves." Pro tip: paint in a Bass or two...and pour in another half inch. 🤟🏽🐻

The pond looks very nice but the thing that I thought was about the wet look on the rock portions that are out of the "water". Like you said being that the tops of those rocks were out of the "water" exposed to the "sun" then they should not have that wet look to them. Maybe if you dropped the rocks in after the Magic Water was poured you might have gotten a better result. I do like the water coloring before and after you poured the Magic Water though. It shows the depth perception of the pond which is very realistic. Fantastic layout by the way :-)

Looking Good Steve! Also go out to a Little League Baseball pitchers mound and pick up some dirt off of it. Its very find powder dirt.

Everything looks fantastic! Would you do a video of some Operations Session on the layout in the near future?

the pond looks very realistic for your first time

It looks great!! At least you HAVE a railroad, I live in an apartment and have no room for a layout.

Hi Stephen, as a Brit who Models British outline, you Railroad looks great. Please stop trying to triple guess yourself, sometime less is more. I just wish I could get my scenery to look as good as yours.

Lets be honest. Those are drone photos ! Next thing you know some kids will show up to fish & sail on a home made raft. You are truly an artist. LFOD !

nice work

you sir are a pain in the butt. You keep trying and doing all this great modelling and then I have to go and try the same thing, LOL. Your videos are the best, your modelling superior. Please keep em coming, Bob

I think the colour and transparency are fine....its just that mirror finish surface that does not look natural. I would definitely look at doing something about putting those ripples on. :)

The pond looks good to me. I think once the bridge is in then the main reflection you'll see will be the bridge and any reflection from the back scene will be invisible unless you look for it, if you get my drift. I've never done water modelling but Everard Junction's canal scene is worth a look for reference and inspiration.

I've seen a lot of your videos and never seen this one... Awesome.. I want to do the same but with a tug boats and bardge... I can not find a train bardge in $ my price . I bought a tug but bardge is not happening so far . I have the apron.. again I'm trying to redo my layout, soooo much work... Didn't even start yet, pond is awesome. Get some coneaoes ( how ever you spell it) and little fishing boat.. SET... people fishing and swimmers then your St lol , joe

looks great to me

How on earth can there be 25 dislikes ??? Wth is wrong with people ? Great video !

I like the sediment flowing into the pond - you do need to use some Water Effects or something to show the water flowing out of the culvert. Look up Kathy Millet's culvert modeling series here in KZfaq to see what I mean. I'd also say the pond is too small and to far below grade to get wind driven surface waves - again a little turbulence by the outfall is probably all you need to do.

the dirt ( the black color stuff) your talking about is the durbis form under cutting operation used to clean ballest on mainlines its also used as industal road ways as a top layer as it packs very well

the pond looks really great along with all the other scenery , only thing missing is a fisherman with a 60 lbs catfish.

If a railroad line has been present in the area for decades running diesel-electric over the tracks then quite a bit of diesel exhaust (unburned hydrocarbons) probably wind up collecting along the tracks.

I'm not sure what the rocks you're modeling look like but you could add some moss to break up the dark edges. Your layout is wonderful and I love the videos. Thanks!

I thought of a nickname for your railroad......NOTIDY. It has nothing to do with it being tidy. It's the acronym for None Of This Is Done Yet. haha. Great work on the pond. You need water coming down from the culvert to help the effect of the muddy outflow in the pond. Other's have suggested adding the rocks after the pour, and using dullcoat to remove the 'wet rock' look. The blackish dirt from the actual right of way is perfect. You need many more jars of that. If anything stands out on your fantastic layout, it's that the ballast is too clean. Even freshly placed or cleaned ballast is dirtier than yours. I know....it's not done yet. You have made tremendous progress in a short time. I have a friend building a similar-size layout that's been at it for 12 YEARS and isn't as far along as you are. Keep up the good work. I've used your videos to build a fire under him, and it's working!

Hi Stephen. long time viewer, first time commenter. Firstly have been watching the work you have done and it's looking amazing. secondly, I don't know if you are subscribed to 2 KZfaqr's one is called terranscapes and the other is called the terrain tutor. Both have done work with water and water effects. both are excellent at what they do (and a shout out to Luke Towan at Boulder Creek Railroad, he does awesome work as well). Mike from terranscapes has done an entire ocean board set and used a lot of water effects, well worth a look. I'm sure you'll find some tips there. Thanks and again, it's looking great.

man that pond looks great i would leave it as is maybe some ripples

To get an approximation of the volume of ‘water put in dried rice to the depth required then vacuum it up and measure.

The pond looks great as is, but if you want a bit of surface movement try extra thick acrylic and check out troelskirk's O narrow guage waterside railroad for his technique in applying it. Even if you decide not to use it it's worth a look anyway. Great use of real dirt too

10 out of 10!

Looks great. I'm sure you've long since finished this, but I think subtle ripples would look great and add a touch more realism. Especially since the rocks are wet, some light wave action could account for that. For avoiding the wetting of rocks and the log in the future, couldn't you pour the epoxy and then use tweezers to place the scenic objects in after? A little twisting action should get them to wet just enough at the water surface, but not too much, I would expect. The cloudiness you've achieved by painting the bottom is incredible. Actually looks like cloudy water mixing with clear water. You should add a touch of water inflow from the culvert to really sell that disturbance.