I had a brilliant idea that didn’t work. I shaped a mountain (hill really) out of foam and covered it with drywall mud. The brilliant idea I had was: if you could make plaster casts out of aluminum foil, then I could slap the drywall mud on the mountain press crumpled aluminum foil into it, and my rocks would magically appear.
Now I have smooth mountain. That is okay for most of it because it will either be a road, town or covered with trees. But there is a large section that is cut away for the railroad and it should be exposed rock. I don’t have a lot of space to add on.
How do I get a rock texture on the smooth walls?
Chip,
“Chip” away at it[:)]. I have not used drywall (“sheetrock” here in the South) mud, but you should
be able to carve the desired effect. Good luck, Dave
If you can thicken it perhaps 1/8" or so, you might try the following:
- Get some LIquid Nails Lightweight Spackle (one of my favorite materials.)
- Crumple aluminum foil, spead it out & trowel on a thin layer of the DAP.
- While still wet press the DAP against the plaster.
- Use a pencil point to emboss any “cracks” or other lines into the foil.
- Allow to dry for perhaps 24 hours.
The foil wil give a rough, rocky texture & the pencil lines will create convincing lines representing cracks or rock layers. The material sticks well to the urethane foam contours I make so should stick well to the plaster. It will take the coloring used on plaster similarly well.
Wayne
(Misting the plaster may help bonding but probably isn’t necessary.
Actually, Wayne, you hit on a very important point at the last part of your post. Whenever I have had problems attaching plaster moldings to previously placed and dried plaster or hydrocal, it often fails to adhere due to the older stuff sucking so much moisture out of the stuff you are applying before it hardens. You touch the object next time you work on the area and it falls off with a clunk, or breaks up because it never set up! Good call.
Chip, a modeler in Victoria, BC. warned me about this problem, and when I remembered, I had no failures. When I forgot, I had about half of the castings fall off. He told me to mist the area well, and when I did so, I got good results. You’ll be amazed at how the older plaster sucks away the misted water in a second or less.
Looking again at the container, sitting in plain sight where I see it every day, I realized I gave the wrong name. It is Liquid Nails Lightweight Spackle that I’ve been using. (Perhaps DAP makes athe same material and I’ve used it in the past?)
My comment about misting the plaster possibly not being necessary is based on the latex composition of the material and the very slow drying time when used between urethane plastic foam & the aluminum foil, neither of which will absorb moisture.
I’ve never this material to plaster, but the directions for using it to patch plaster says to apply to clean and dry surfaces.
Wayne
Here are pictures. I think the joint compound is thick enough to carve as is.
You’ll notice that I loosely patterned it after Richard Dryfuss’s mashed potato mountain in Close Encounters.
So, asking a year later, what ever became of the Mud Hill?
Tater Mountain has become home of Rock Ridge and the Rock Ridge Mine.
IT is currently undergoing renovation to become Rock Ridge Canyon.
My wife says I should have shown Mongo.
I’ve used mud for roads. I worked well.