I am trying to find some instructions on how to make Sceenery with plaster.
Tunnels, Mountains, etc. I am trying to complile a HOW TO instructions for my site for others to reference for arts and crafts. Any help would be much appreciated.
If you have the instructions in PDF you can email them to me or send me the link to the site with the instructions. Thanks
It is very basic, a real no brainer.
Cut some contour boards (vertical) from scrap plywood or corrugated cardboard. Some weave corrugated strips over this (or even without it) and cover with plaster cloth. I prefer window screen because it can be hand modeled into whatever shape you want.
IMPORTANT! if there is to be a tunnel, install the tunnel liner and portals first!
I just make a thin gruel of regular paster of paris, put on rubber gloves and smear it around. Apply just enough pressure to get it to protude through the openings in the plaster cloth or screen for good adhesion. Next a finish coat. The easiest method is to to hand smear it again, only a thicker mixture.
Then texture it, very few do this but it is well worth it. I finish with a white wash brush and a thin gruel like paint. While wet, I sprinkle it with dry paster through a strainer to create lumps and bumps and hide all the smearing marks. Finally, mist the whole area to set the lumps and bumps.
Then I spray it with brownish latex paint, and maybe splotch it with some greens.
After that dries, the fun begins with rock castings, ground cover and foliage. Ain’t scenery fun?
[#ditto]
With the exception that instead of corugated strips, I use 1/4" metal screen stapled in place.
I did a Google on “plaster scenery” and came up with the follwing link:
Here is a PIECE OF CAKE simple technique; it is going to require you to accumulate newspapers, the purchase of industrial strength paper towels - case lots (9000 towels) can be purchased from a janitorial supply house; individual packages can be found at Smart and Final and similiar outlets - and Hydrocal® plaster found at building supply centers. You are also going to need something to mix your plaster in and I use a flexible tub such as those used in hospitals. Why flexible? Because when the plaster dries you can flex the tub and it will break loose from the bottom.
As soon as I have my benchwork and trackwork and structures complete - and covered with thin plastic - I string a lattice of masking tape from the underside of my (platform) benchwork; I then crumple newspaper and (loosely) cram it into the pits in my platform until the shape of the newspaper gives me an approximation of what I want my scenery to look like. I mist the newspaper, mix a SMALL amount of Hydrocal® to a thin gruel, soak one of the paper towels in this gruel, and lay it over the newspaper form. I build up a thickness of about one sixteens to one eighth of an inch with multiple layers of plaster impregnated paper towels. When the plaster is dry I pull the newspaper out from underneath leaving a plaster shell standing.
The above outlines procedure is for an open grid tabletop; if you use solid benchtop construction then your newspaper will have to stay in place under your plaster hardshell.
PIECE OF CAKE!!