Now that the scenery at the rear of the layout and the backscene have been completed I've been able to make a start on the layout foreground. I decided to begin with the area immediately below the retaining wall. I built the retaining wall using Slaters Plastikard sheet as outlined in a previous blog entry http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1131/entry-16523-retaining-wall/ back in the summer of 2015. Here's a picture of the retaining wall and the baseboard surface below it.

Retaining wall Summer 2015

I started by painting the baseboard surface a dark greeny black colour, more black was added towards the centre to help give an illusion of depth. I wanted to use a clear resin to simulate the water and found a suitable product at the Telford show back in September.

Solid water resin

The resin was mixed together following the instructions and then poured on top of the painted surface to a depth of about 3mm. The resin takes approximately 24 hours to set, but as I was going on holiday the following morning, I left it to set for just over a week:-)

Upon my return the resin had indeed set as planned, but the surface was quite porous in a few areas and although reflective, it wasn't quite the appearance that I was hoping to achieve!

Poured resin surface.

While I was pondering on the best way to resolve the resin surface problem I decided to add a base layer of grass to the banks either side of the pond using static grass fibres, I used a mixture of green and buff coloured fibres and increased the amount of green towards the waters edge to give a more lush appearance.

Static fibres on pond banks

Once the static fibres were set in position I went back to resolve the problem of the porous water! I decided the only answer was to sand the surface of the resin down until I had a smooth flat base to work on. The porosity only appeared to be in the top 1mm or so of the resin, so it was a fairly easy job to remove this using a sanding block. Once I had a smooth flat surface again I decided to try to simulate the patches of algae and weed found growing in still water. I used my airbrush to apply a translucent green in the shallows and then used an old stiff brush to flick little blobs of green paint onto the surface in a random pattern. I was rather unimpressed with the Solid Water resin, so looked around on the internet for a suitable alternative. Hobbycraft sell a clear resin used for making paper weights and embedding decorative items. http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/crystal-resin-150ml/607011-1000 I decided to give it a go and once again following the instructions mixed up a batch of resin. This was again poured to a depth of about 3mm and left for couple of hours to thicken. Once the resin had become more viscous I used the handle of an old paintbrush to create a few subtle ripples and then left it to harden overnight. The next morning it was still tacky, but over the following 24 hours it hardened off properly with a nice shine to the surface.

Hobbycraft resin.

Encouraged by this result I decided to add some reeds to either bank. I cut some pale green fibres to length and glued bunches off them onto the surface of the resin using PVA woodworking glue.

Fibre reeds in situ.

Brambles and undergrowth were formed using theatrical postiche hair and assorted coloured ground foam held in position with matt acrylic aerosol varnish.

Brambles and undergrowth.

I thought that some lily pads would add to the effect and tried cutting some from green painted paper. I'm afraid they weren't a great success mainly due to the fact that although the paper was green on top, once cut out the edges of each pad were white! I was pottering about in the workshop when inspiration struck! During one of the bouts of decorating that Mrs Wenlock occasionally insists on, I needed to mask some paint and had used a product called Frog tape.

Frog tape.

Now as I'm sure you've noticed Frog tape is not only self adhesive, it's a rather fetching lily pad green:-)

Armed with a paper punch I set about the tape and produced a series of holes into its length.

Frog tape after hole punching!

The circles of tape that had been punched out were stuck onto a pice of silicone sheet and then a scalpel was used to cut out a narrow triangular section out of each pice of tape.

Punched out pieces of Frog tape.

Lily pad after triangular slice has been removed.

Individual lily pads were then peeled of the silicone sheet and pressed onto the resin surface.

Lily pads in position.

I also wanted to have a representation of the duck weed that seems to appear on still water. I painted areas along the retaining wall and around the reeds with Humbrol Enamel gloss varnish and then sprinkled a very fine ground foam onto the wet surface. Once this had dried any excess scatter was vacuumed up leaving a fine dusting on the resin.

I'd previously bought some white metal ducks, so after a bit of research into exactly what livery ducks wear I had an enjoyable hour or so duck painting:-)

Once dry the ducks were glued in position fulfilling an ambition that although my layout is firmly Great Western, I can say that Mallard appears on the layout!

I'll finish off with a few pictures of the finished article starting with an overall view of the layout.

Overall view.

I'm rather pleased with the reflections of my 517 in the limpid and tranquil waters of Sherton Abbas!

517 and reflections.

Until next time.

Best wishes

Dave