Lake sheet

The »Lake sheet« is particularly suitable for the styling of rivers, rivulets and lakes as well as small water bodies. Since we shall not have recourse to any liquids that have to be mixed or heated, the use of this product is extremely easy. Carefully read through the present instructions for use before starting to work. Step 1 First, make a coarse sketch of the contour of the water body you want to set up on your support. On doing so, it does not matter whether you are building onto a wooden supporting structure, a rigid foamed plastic board or any other type of support. Step 2 The next step consists in “digging a hole” for the water body. You may want to use a recessing and shaping machine, a cutter or, if you are building on a wooden supporting structure, a piercing saw. As a rule an embankment higher than 10 mm will produce an unreal effect. Step 3 Now, the contour can be transferred on the lake sheet. Step 4 In the next stage you have to give the embankment a slope. Its angle should be at least 45°. In any case, a lower angle produces a much more natural result. Step 5 Now, you can start designing the bottom of the water body. The simplest way is probably to use the colour sheet supplied with the kit. Choose the side with the colour that most appeals to you, and cut the paper to the size of the lake sheet. You can simultaneously cut out the colour sheet and the lake sheet if you have previously fixed both sheets to each other (e.g. using adhesive tape). Of course, you may alternatively want to style the bottom of the water body yourself. To do this, you may »dig« another 5 mm to obtain some more water depth. However, leave a narrow edge to serve as a bearing area for the lake sheet on the entire contour. Now, you may style the bottom of the water body using colours, tiny stones or even rubbish (bathtub, bike, car tyres, etc.). Always bear in mind that too deep a water body as well as glaring colours quickly produce an unnatural effect. Only a swimming pool is bright blue! Step 6 Now, you may model the embankment or some small islands using FALLER knifing filler (art. 180500) and thus best adjust the transition to the Lake sheet. Step 7 Style the bank area according to the environment you want to represent on your diorama or model installation. This can best be done by using brown dyed landscaping glue Colofix-Color (art. 170660). Then scatter the desired materials while the glue is still wet, e.g. FALLER PREMIUM cover material (art. 170728). You may also want to detach some parts from our landscape segments (e.g. art. 180474) and to spread them over the embankment. You will obtain the most appealing result by adding various grass fibres using the grassing tool »Gras-Fix« (art. 180691) in the end, while the glue is still wet. Step 8 The last step consists in working out the small details. By placing some swimmers, animals or similar figures onto the water surface for instance (to do this, swimmers can be halved with a modeller’s knife). You will obtain the perfect water surface through the graining technique. To do this, pass over the surface with a nearly dry brush to apply a delicate white colour layer. Make sure you use this technique merely on a few carefully chosen places since graining a surface all over tends in its turn to produce an unnatural effect.