Introduction

Lake Film, item 60850, is a sculpted and textured flexible plastic sheet by NOCH for creating a body of water. It eliminates the need for any mixing, curing, and smelling. Let's dive into this review.

Lake Film

Lake Film is a flexible thin sheet of plastic. One side is glossy smooth and the other side has a translucent grit to it. The film is tinted a faint blue. Surface detail is gentle low ripples. Being flexible, I was able to make rolling swells that looked acceptable, although I suspect it would require some clever gluing and sub-coloring to actually anchor to a diorama.

NOCH packages it by rolling it into a tube and holding it together with its "box top", a sheet of paper glued together. While that saves NOCH expense and minimizes the shelf footprint of Lake Film, it does not help the modeler. The film is flexible yet doesn't like to reform. Per NOCH's instructions, I tried rolling it into a tube opposite from its curl and giving it time to release its curled tension. It did not. I secured it to a vertical surface and weighted the lower ends and let gravity work. Lake Film held its curl. I weighted it under layers of poster board for a couple of days. It wrapped back up like a coil spring.

Fortunately, the film is thin enough that glue and pressure held it to the base I have mounted it on. I used NOCH Spray Glue (Sprühleim) the first time and ordinary white glue the second time. Both held the film flat after drying overnight. However, while Spray Glue has always dried clear for me when used on foliage and such, it was cloudy where it dried under some of the concave pockets molded in the Lake Film. The white glue dried clear.

Modelers need to be careful to use a glue that will dry clear. When I removed the sheet from the spray glue, it tore off some of the background grit. That has resulted in a difference in appearance when the sheet is set. That is authentic for some surface conditions and yet it may bother some modelers who want a uniform appearance.

Size

What scale is this water sheet for? For those of different genre I present it to demonstrate the water surface in popular sizes:

1/35
1/48-O scale
HO-1/87
N-1/160
1/700

The sheet measures 16 inches (410 mm) x 10 1/4 inches (260 mm), large enough for a fine pond or small lake, and big enough for a dock areas modest or large, depending on the scale. It is long enough to hold a 1/350 Fletcher class destroyer with more than 50 feet to spare off both the bow and stern. For HO-1/87 thats 116 feet x 72 feet, an area of:

1/5 acre
928 square yard
776 square meter

Not many ponds are rectangles so happily this film is easy to cut. If you cut and calculate that HO size as an ellipse, then your water surface area will be 0.15 acre, 729 square yard, 609 square meter - still large enough for a fine pond or small lake.

For O scale-1/48 that is 64-ft x 40-ft;

0.06 acre
285 square yard
238 square meter

Even 1/35 has potential at 46 by 29 feet. Each sheet of Lake Film provides great potential for a quick and easy surface of water.

Instructions

NOCH explains how to use this product through several languages. These instructions are printed inside the "box art" wrapper.

Setting Sail

NOCH Lake Film provides great potential for a quick and easy surface of water without mixing, curing, and smelling. It even solves the need to sculpt ripples. It is easy to use. The size is sufficient for most scales and uses.

Being packaged rolled up makes the film difficult to uncoil; precise positioning can be tricky. Modelers need to be careful to use a glue that will dry clear. When I removed the sheet from the spray glue, it tore off some of the background grit.

Lake Film offers modelers a quick and easy way to create a good looking aquatic surface. Recommended.

Please remember to mention to vendors and retailers that you saw this product here - on RailRoad Modeling.