Wanting to emulate some of the gnarly rocky cliff face challenges the Canadian Pacific faces through the Rockies, I dug out the pink foam. I actually got some work done on it recently though there is lots left to do.
There are about thirty different colours used and I was worried about blending the new with the old rockwork but I think it will be okay once I’m done. Still, lots left to do.
Thanks for sharing your techniques and photos, Brent. What material did you use to ‘butter’ the foam with to give the stone contours? Spackle, ground goop, drywall mud, etc?
Regards, Ed
Well, there’s four hours of your life you’ll never get back again. [swg]
That actually looks really good, Brent! I don’t have the patience for that kind of detail. I tried it for about 20 minutes a couple of times on two different layouts and than gave up.
Have you had to work up to this, or was it just part of a planned day’s modeling? You made very good use of your time. [tup] I hope you’ll show us again when you have it finished to your liking, complete with a choo choo.
Potentially you could include a geologic cross-section of a volcano.
It looks like he uses Cheerios.
The bottom grayish part is a mish-mash of thin-set and different colours of grout spread over 1/4" wire screen. With my ongoing curiosity of trying different methods of doing things and with all the renovations we were doing in the house, every time I had some grout or thin-set left over in the bucket I took it to the trainroom and mucked it on thus the different colours. I then decided I wanted more height to my cliff after seeing photos of the Kicking Horse Pass East of Golden B.C. so I slapped a sheet of foam on top.
With the foam, it is just stab and break, saw, scrape, and cut with whatever tool happens to be handy at the time. I am not too fussy about it.[(-D] To fill the cracks I just use drywall mud/spackle we buy that stuff by the large bucket around here. Also if you do a light skim over the carved foam it really roughs up the service and gives a much better appearance after the paint is applied.
I watched some videos and read some articles on painting Rocky Mountain granite and the end result was the more colours you use the better it will look, they said a minimum of thirty colours should be used.[:|] A trip to Walmart and an armload of their cheap $2.00 craft paints and I was in business. I have a great sound system in the room and so the tunes went on and I made like Bob Ross painting my pink foam and tiling leftovers for hours.[(-D]
Lots of colour in those rocks.
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Well, there’s four hours of your life you’ll never get back again.
I’ve mostly used foam layers to create vertical rockfaces but on the last one I did, I used broken ceiling tiles layered on top of each other which is a great way to create stratified rock formations. I haven’t painted mine yet but the internet offers lots of picture samples of such formation in nature and there is a wide variety of coloring to choose from. I haven’t painted mine yet or I would post some pictures.
Will it end up looking like this?
Who is someone that has never been in my trainroom?
Hmmmm… I see I didn’t get those rocks quite right, better start over.[(-D]
My cliff faces are all small, perhaps only 4 inches from top to bottom. They’re also not very wide, so I typically use either hydrocal castings or Bragdon Foam castings. I have accumulated a lot of casting molds over the years, so I can keep my rock faces from looking repetitive.
For front-and-center scenes, I really like the Bragdon products, both the foam itself and the finely detailed molds. They are a longer process, and there’s a bit of a learning curve, but the results are worth it.
That’s some rock modeling right there Brent! Looks like the Canadian Rockies some 350 miles North, brought to Vancouver.
Less than a handful of people world-wide, have a Fireplace Mantel even close to that[bow]
Certainly will be looking forward to watching your Trains go over, (as Bob Seger says) the “Fire Down Below” [oX)]
TF
That is Cliff”s face.
Here ya go Brent
Some good Ol’ Bob for ya! [;)]
TF
Just back from Alberta and ran some trains across the new rock work. Lots left to be done like ballasting, dirt, and greenery.
I also use extra foam.
Someone at a train scenery clinic suggested using the ceilng foam.
Digging the cheap and easy route for scenery b/c attention ought to be on the train(s).