How deep my lake should be ?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hi Guys,

I have the intention to add a small lake to my layout that would be connected to a river. After desining my piece of water on the plywood, I have cut it and I am now ready to fix it at a lower level like they show in one of the Kalmback book. The only problem is that they don’t mention how deep it should be. Is it 1, 2, 3 inch ?

Thanks.

Patrick.

2

One answer (there may be several) is that you paint the the lake bed, darker in the middle, gradually getting lighter towards the edges, and then put a thin (1/4 in or so) transparent coating over it. This coating could be one of the commercial “waters” (Envirotex, etc), or clear polyurethane, or whatever. So, with this method, the depth of your hole would be determined more by the banks going down to the water surface than by the depth of the lake.

3

The answer depends upon how much exposed shoreline you want above the water’s surface. Think of each inch as an approximate 8’ of height.

4

I had to disconnect before I could finish my earlier response. Anyway… You also need to think in terms of how steep you want the shoreline. That will be determined by the water’s surface area. The more area of water surface, the steeper your shoreline will be; the deeper you place the water’s plywood subsurface, the higher the shoreline will be.

5

Thanks Mike !

6

Thank you Bill !