I wish I remember who on this forum first suggested foam to me. I had such bad luck with plaster I hesitated to try, but back after 25 years away from the hobby, I gave foam a try. I learned a lot by expermenting since then. As some of you have noticed, I fell in love with foam and have now used up more than 20 sheets of the stuff, all gotten from dumpsters at construction sites.
For those who have not been bored to tears with my posts, I have a lot of pics than can be accessed from my sig. All of Yellowstone Canyon and the Superstition Mts are foam as is most everything else. I thank all the people who were expermenting at the same time and posted their progress and discovereys.
Art,
That is great looking rock!
I messed around the last couple of days with a small area. I sculptamolded the cliff and attached rocks, some overhanging the track bed on purpose. The rocks were made of hydrocal in commercial rubber molds. Let it dry over night, then took a hobby knife and sliced off the fronts of the rocks for a blasted look. I then took the hobby knife a carved thin, spaced drill holes. I just finished painting it and it looks ok, but not like Art's.
I need to rethink my system and give foam a try.
Yours In Model Railroading,
John
Littleton, CO
Bill, thanks for the compliment, but the point is anyone can carve rock out of syrofoam. You do not have to be an artists. It is not like carving out of plaster, which I have done, though never succesfully. I had a group of cub scouts carve good cliffs out of foam in an hour. The key to success with foam is to not try to be careful. Both the carving and the painting respond well to gross carelessness.
First off,Art,You underestimate yourself as an artist.
Second, I have had prety good luck making rock rubble from Plaster of Paris. I pour a plastic tray 3/4" deep with plaster colored with rit dye. When dry,allow a couple days to get all the water out. Just break it up with a hammer and screen out your sizes. As for drill holes,Wow, What era are you modeling. Drill holes usually weren't too evident until after the fifties. I have to admit I can't help you much there. BILL
This is the problem that first got me to styrofoam. I carved it in an afternoon, and painted it that night. I am no artist either. It was way too easy. I put the drill marks in with a hot knife, but a hack saw blade would have been easier.
I will post two pics.
John:
Sounds like an interesting project. Wish I could help, but out here in the hard granite/basalt of the Northern Sierras, most of the railroad rock faces were blasted out by hand, using shallow hand-made holes and either dynamite or nitro, which elminated the drill holes as the rock was blown away. It's very seldom that you'll see any remnants of drill holes except possibly on the roofs of granite tunnels.
But the idea of using short rods or pins attached to the inside of the rock molds sounds as if it might work pretty well.
However, since you say you're using Sculptamold (which I've used very successfully for rock castings, BTW) and it has a good working time once it starts setting, I'm wondering if a small, thin straight pin pricked into the rock might not work as well? They really don't have to be deep, I'd say that most drill holes left in blasted rock might not be much more than 3-4 actual inches deep. In HO, it would mean just a gentle little jab into the surface.
Just a thought. BTW, and you probably know this, but mixing the Sculptamold 50-50 with water and letting the mold 'cure' for about 15 or 20 minutes before you apply it, lets the Sculptamold really settle into the mold better. It's slower, but it sure seems to work for me.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
Make some rock molds, aluminum foil or rubber.
Cut some pieces of stiff metal wire or rod, coat them with wax or oil and lay them in the mold.
Cast a rock over them.
When the plaster sets, remove the mold then chip/pry the wire out of the plaster.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
I would have said to cast the blasted rock in place using aluminum foil as a mold and then using carving tools and a stiff wire brush add detail to the casting. If you have already tried that, I don't know what else to suggest.
Hi Folks,
The blasted rock look I am trying to model and achieve is chunks of rock of different color and hues, with drilling holes embedded into the blasted rock. The blasted rock face is not smooth. I have tried to free hand this look into Sculpamold but I am no artist, so it looked poor. I tried to make my own mold with aluminum foil but could not get this look either. Any ideas on how to model this look?
Has anyone used molded rocks and then shaved them off for this type of look?