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madmike3434
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DAMN, THAT ROCK CASTING AND COLOURING IS FANTASTIC.
MIKE
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titus
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| Joined: | Thu Aug 21st, 2008 |
| Location: | Colorado USA |
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Don,
I intend to come back in a few months and to study the heck out of this thread, and how you did those vertical rock walls because they look amazing (and I want to learn how to do that!).
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Paladin
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| Joined: | Tue Jan 24th, 2006 |
| Location: | Berwick, Australia |
| Posts: | 2403 |
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Here is shot of the UGLY SIDE of the rock castings. This will never be seen when more rocks are placed.
This method starts at the TOP and works down
Start out by selecting the height you require the rocks to be. Now cut some 2 x 1 to the chosen size and fit them in place. ( nothing critical about placement)
Choose the castings you want to use, Place the mold in to a box that has a couple of inches of sand in it,Now nestle the mold into the sand giving the shape required. Make sure you have about 3 inches of the mold at 90 degrees to give a area that can be hooked onto the 2 x 1 uprights.
I have used casting plaster, Again use what you chose, I am sure it will not make any difference. I would suggest that you use the same substrate for the entire exercise, Some substrates may have different surfaces that may re-act differently with your paints
Now its time to start hanging the castings, make sure they are well supported on the 2 x 1 uprights. Fix them in place using paper towels ( Cheap single ply ) saturated in a plaster slurry. Don't worry to much about the castings not fitting each other, just get them as close as you can. If the fit does not work well now is the time to play around or even remove it from the scene, once the plaster towels go off it's going to be harder to correct. The gaps can be filled with paper towel again soaked in a plaster slurry, Then go over it with some plaster that is about to go off. push it into place with your fingers then pick at it with hobby knife or similar
Now the upper layer is done move down to the bottom and work your way up.
By doing the top layer first you can build the lower molds in front thus working your way down and forward.
As you can see in the photo you will only need about 4 inches of depth for each layer.
If you are doing large area of rock such as I, Get a mate to give you a hand. When plaster starts to go off it all starts at the one time. It can be a little rushed. If you are on your own I would suggest doing small areas at a time until you get comfortable with it
The molds I used are home made with couple of commercial ones. My friend Peter has made about 50 molds and he kindly let me use them. They are latex rubber and appear to stand up well. Don't be in a hurry to remove the casting from the mold, do it carefully and you should not damage the mold. The first time I attempted to remove the casting from the mold I was not game to apply to much force, but it does require some effort, just a little bit at a time.
Hopefully I have explained things well but if not fire questions at me.
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Don McL
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titus
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| Joined: | Thu Aug 21st, 2008 |
| Location: | Colorado USA |
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You're right, that is the ugly side.
So, when you setup the mold in the sandbox, are you saying you actually bend the top back at 90º then in the box? How exactly does that work?
How adept do you think this method is to moving, for example, if the section of layout was moved from one side of the room or put in a moving truck and taken to a new location?Last edited on Wed Dec 7th, 2011 10:17 pm by titus
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Paladin
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Titus
The latex/rubber molds are very pliable and they allow you to roll the mold up the side or end of the sand box. This not an exact science, all you need is to have a part of the mold that will allow you to hang the casting on the 2x1 uprights. If you can not get the curve how you want it it can be cast in 2 lots, that is pour the hook section and when that goes off re-position the mold and pour the major section
As for shifting or transporting I would guess it depends on the size. The amount of plaster will determine the weight . Also the joins between the castings may not be very strong. As the whole thing is connected to the super structure you may not be able to move it.
In short I would not like to try shifting or transporting. Keep in mind plaster is heavy, in my case about 300 lbs, also it is not flexible, and I suspect it may snap at the weakest points
Bragdon molds are made using Latex/Rubber and they bend quite well One advantage of using some of the larger molds is you can cast portions and rotate to give different affects. The rocks on my layout are about 4 feet tall and we only used 5 or 6 molds. when painted it's hard to pick the different casting or the duplication of castings.
Don
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Don McL
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chasv
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very impressive i like what you are doing i have seen a few layouts but they didn't match what you are doing. i hope when i get brave and try this i will have learned enough to make mine look good.
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Charles
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Paladin
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Titus
I have been thinking (It hurts ) about making things transportable. If you built a base structure out of timber and made the whole shooting match portable. That is the frame work is portable including the plaster casting it should be do-able. Again this would depend on the size. Not sure how much bouncing it would stand in a van but it should be OK relocating on your layout.
Don
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Don McL
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titus
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Don,
That's a bit like what I have setup now. I have a handful of 6-7ft sections of which the legs can detach off of. If it came to moving I would probably cut the rocks between sections and then just have to do repair at their new location.
I suppose too at the end of the day if the rocks did break it would just be a great opportunity to improve them with a new version. I'm not quite at the plaster scenery stage for what I'm working on, but I'm going to keep this technique filed away for a few months down the road.
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Sullivan
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| Joined: | Mon Aug 4th, 2008 |
| Location: | Garland, TX |
| Posts: | 624 |
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O-M-G! (OK...everyone's really tired of that acronym). In this case...well...
I didn't realize from the frontal shots that you had only supported all those mountains on 1x2's. That's just amazing. Everyone I know around here uses some sort of supporting medium be it chicken wire or cardboard strips or whatever.
I am duly impressed!
Also, I don't know about others but I really like to see the skeleton of a layout; the behind the scenes stuff. I know the mags have to show impressive finished scenes but once in a while I wish they would show the "here's where I started" or the "in the process of" shots.
Thanks for sharing.
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James Sullivan
Move along...nothing to see here...
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