Hi Jason: You're welcome. This also makes the rocks recessed into the terrain, which I think looks more realistic. Good luck with your project.
Is there any general consensus as to which product retains the fine details of molds the best? I'm seriously considering getting some of the Bragdons molds, because some of them are totally gnarly, but they're expensive and I want tom ake sure I can get the full detail out of them.
Hi: Greg, everyone seems to use what works for them. From what I've read and from my experience, it appears that the finer the material, the better the detail will be. Hydrocal Lite is a very fine powder and I think it would give fine detail, no matter what brand mold you use. That's just my opinion.
My last project was done with Bragdon Foam and a Bragdon mold. There's a bit of a learning curve for Bragdon, more than for plaster casting. Actually doing the work is more labor-intensive, too. But, after doing the job and seeing the results, I think this is a great product that gives great results. There's a picture of my Bragdon rocks on the first page of this thread. They look even better in person.
The Bragdon molds are expensive, but they are also large. Mine is almost a foot square. The castings come out thin and pliable, so you can curve them around features in your landscape. They harden as they cool, but you can soften them again with a hair dryer. You can also easily cut them with a pair of scissors. The foam also picks up very fine details in the molds.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I found that sheetrock (brand) Easy Sand 20 picks up alot of the details, takes stains well (when its wet) and creates quite a variation between the colored surface easily. It takes overnight to develop its strength, otherwise it breaks and chips easily. Its very cheap too, $8 for a large bag. It also has a small shrinkage factor and is easy to carve before it sets up (overnight).
I don't know if anyone else has used this, but I found it to be nice stuff in WS ruber molds and some laytex molds I build at home.
Here are som pics of my rocks. This is my second attempt at rocks. I should have vibrated the mold better to get more bubbles out. I used the easy sand in these.
Here is the rock wall
This is a close up of a rock
Here is a portal that I made from a mold and tried to scribe 09 into the key stone. You can see towards the left how I need to connect the rock face better, I'll update it via Grampy's method later.
Grampy, Here is a wall I produced utilizing your suggested method. It will have a waterfall coming from the upper portion to a pool down to a lower wider falls. It was much easier squishing plaster out from behind the rocks then carving it to match the contours rather than trying to add it later. Thanks for your help.[