Thanks John. I first made a model of the hoppers tub from lexan then I used a resin base that I cut down and I insert it into the lexan copy of the hoppers tub then I pored the ballast and sand mix and I glued the fine ballast with sand mixed in so it looks extra fine and paint it all flat black after it dried. It took me a few tries but I think in the end it did come out pretty good.