how do you all make your rock out cropings? do you just use those woodland scenics molds? seems to me they would not be random enough with those. I have not tried that yet. I had heard some folks use drywall cement, but I am not so sure how you would form the cement into the rock shapes. Im sure it all takes practice.
Thank you all!
Well there are a lot of different molds you can use, and you can take the castings from one and turn it upside down or on it’s side or break it in half etc. Depends on how many outcroppings you’re doing I suppose, if you’re doing a mountainside that’s all rock you might need to make your own molds. Doesn’t need to be anything fancy, an old pan and some crumpled up aluminum foil will do !!
I use WS molds, and Plaster of Paris. You’d be surprised what you can do with a couple basic molds.
These outcroppings where made using three molds:
The formation to the left of the tunnel is all the same mold, just one casting is tilted.
The formation to the right is one mold in the center, and a second mold (I think three of the same casting) surrounding it.
This one is the same casting repeated also:
Remember…outcroppings, particularly, man made ones, aren’t totally random, and can have repeating patterns.
Nick
I use Mounatins in Minutes Flexrock castings painted with an array of Poly-Scale acrylic paints (earth tones).
I use the molds but also have had good luck with real rocks and petrified wood. I also have found that you can carve the blue foam pretty well. For lime stone, pieces of ceiling tile works well.
I’m biased…
I want what I model to be unique so I start out with looking at the geology of the place to be modelled and try to figure out what the rock is and how it got like that… both naturally and as man has altered it.
I also try to focus very carefully on exactly how the rock breaks out of the surrounding ground… whether it is a ditinct break or it merges. Later there will be how grasses and other plants get into the picture and change it.
Again, I’m biased… I think that a lot of model outcrops of rock lose out because , like buildings, they are often not totally blended into the model world they are set in. A modeller can do so much to improve the image created by a very little work to “hide the join”.
That said… how to make rocks? Well… is it sandstone, shale, granite, limestone…? Is there a clear strata? Which way does strata lay? Is the rock barren or fruitful of grasses, bushes,trees…? Are there birds’ nests? Traces of small animals? Big animals? Humans? The details are as varied and important as making a depot building look right.
That’s one reason I love the hobby… it makes me look at everything and appreciate how diverse everything is.
Don’t forget an outcropping doesn’t have to be Mount Rushmore. It can be a couple of feet high and a few feet long. The question is “why is it there”? It might be better to ask “Why isn’t the rest of the ground around it more there… as in, if the rock was once fully buried what has dug it out”?
If man, especially a RR has exposed the rock one thing that is most likely is that the rock that is left will have been cut back to where it is stable and/or stabilised. Where this can’t be done because the rock is too friable or brittle a RR or a highway dept will have had to take measures to manage the fall of further material. These days ground anchors get put into rock formations. They are
I make talus(broken rock found at the bottom of a cliff) and rock fill by dyeing a batch of plaster with RIT fabric dye,which doesn’t affect the set. Pour it into a plastic pan then bust it all up into peices with a hammer after a 24 hr set. Screen it into various sizes if you like, place it with larger peices at the bottom of the fill and smaller to the top. Fasten in place with dilute white glue and there you have it.
Flat/slab like talus and rip-rap can be made with the limescale washed out of a boiler wash-out if you’re lucky enough to have a steam railway near you and talk nicely to the guys covered in soggy mess. (I’m sure they should be able to do it and keep dry). Mugs of hot tea/coffee help.