good evening
while barbecuing the other day i got to thinking (?) has anyone tried using new lava rocks for rock scenery? if so how did it turn out? they are light enough and could be broken up for different sizes, also you could use light weight spackle to fasten them where needed.just a thought.
Sounds expensive!
I suppose it would work if you’re trying for a miniature-lava-rock -effect…
mabey if you live in Hawaii. It’s free over there [;)]
It’s also free in northern Arizona where I used to live, there are mountains of the stuff. It depends on what kind of scenic effect you are trying to create. Lava rock breaks down real easy.
The lava rock that I use for a gas grill seems to give off quite a bit of dust and seems to crumble somewhat spontaneously – judging from when I open up the packaging. I wonder if that gritty dust would find its way into gears and journals if used on a layout.
Also when looked at from a scale and prototype perspective, what would that hard foamy texture represent? I don;'t think much looks like that when expanded to 1:87 or 1:160.
Dave Nelson
Careful!!! There’s an old but enduring superstition among Hawaiians that one must never remove lava from where it is. Such as action will arouse the ire of the volcano goddess. Since Hawaai lays claim to the most active volcano in the world there may be something to this . . .
My grandparents lived there a while ago ( honalulu ) and they said kids got lava rocks all the time to play with, and even make collections. My cousin brought back one from hawaii last year. I havn’t seen any eruptions…[^]
You can get tons of the stuff in this area. Lot’s of lava rock formations. The stuff can be crushed for coal or dark ballast.
Yeah, large scale folks can use it as a replacement to the plastic coal in their tenders.
Just imagine that mountain on your layout starting to spew rock and lava on the layout!
The gods will get even…
Bob K.