10/11/16 - Yes, I will redo the pond. 

Last night I started adding snow to the hills behind the houses. It's going to be a multi-layer process to get it just right. I want to make sure I pay attention to how the snow "falls" on things so that it really looks like fallen snow. It's almost ashamed to cover up all of the landscaping, but hey... that's winter.  If I had to do it over, I would also add more deciduous trees into the mix, and I would make it thicker. I may still add a few more trees just to try to make it more lush.

The pond... yes, the pond has been a pain in my arse. I've learned a few lessons about water features. First, don't use any slope in the stream or creek if you want the water to have any depth. If you have a slope, the Realistic Water will just run down to the lowest level and not pool. What I've had to do to get around this issue is add dams to sections of the stream so the water collects instead of running off. Second, make sure you thoroughly cover the water feature in plaster. The Realistic Water will seep through any holes or other porous areas of the layout, and make it difficult to build up any depth. And speaking of depth, they really only recommend a 1/2" or less of Realistic Water. You might think that's not enough to make it appear deep, but it really is.  Woodland Scenic's makes a product called E-Z Water that you heat and pour and it can be used to make deeper pours. Unfortunately, I can't use it on top of the Realistic Water, but I can use Realistic Water on top of the E-Z Water. So I think I'll raise the pond back up some, and then use E-Z Water for the main pour this time, then maybe add some Realistic Water over the top. E-Z Water has to be used in one pour, you can't go back and add more or it will leave a transition line in the water, so the pour needs to be planned and setup ahead of time. 

Icicles will be my next first time part of the project, but that will be easy, and  I will use a product called "Water Effects" to create those. You simply get a piece of wax paper and with a toothpick, draw out of lines of Water Effects on the wax paper. Once they dry (and they dry clear), you peel those off and tack them anywhere you want icicles.

I'll have more pictures tonight as demolition begins on the pond. 🙂

I added more plaster to the pond and covered up the water I put down. I needed to raise the bottom of the pond by about 1/2", so I mixed up some plaster and covered everything  up. I'll let that dry and then paint it a darker color before re-adding water. I do think I'll use E-Z Water on the pond so I can get it a little thicker. If I need to, I'll give it a top coat of Realistic Water mixed with a little white pigment to make it look like ice.

Two days of snowfall in the mountains... 🙂 I'm starting to get a better accumulation of snow now. Not sure how deep I'll go, but I have a real desire to have a blizzard. 🙂 Of course that's probably just my own personal "what I'd like" kind of thing but hey... who's building this? 🙂

The water in the stream is starting to look good and get some depth to it. At some point I'll add a little white pigment in places so it looks like certain areas are frozen. 

The last image in this group shows the house with some snow that I added just a little around the base just to show how the edge around the base of the houses will be covered up. It looks really good too. 

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