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Carving rocks from foam

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  • Member since
    December 2007
  • From: Gateway City
  • 1,593 posts
Posted by yankee flyer on Tuesday, December 26, 2017 10:27 AM

Hi

I don't have any great insite on rock carving, but it can't all look alike.

I started with a medium grey and added the highlites.

Some will have a lot of vegation in the cracks.

Some will have soft material wash out from under the hard stuff.

In the Rocky mountains there are a lot of outcroppings that are tilted and in rows.

Just some more ideas.

Cheers

Lee

  • Member since
    October 2017
  • 92 posts
Posted by Andy110675 on Tuesday, December 26, 2017 1:34 PM

I think my problem is that they look like the grand canyon with big steps and should be painted in that rusty red colour,i will post another video of my progress and let us know what you think.

  • Member since
    March 2017
  • 11 posts
Posted by Geomaticsdude on Thursday, December 28, 2017 12:46 PM

I followed this method https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ_PF27nA4s

which was pretty simple and worked not not too bad for my first "real" layout. Nothing professional mind you, but I liked the simplicity of it. I tried different knives but ended up using 25mm and 18mm boxcutting blades. In retrospect I should have started the heavy cutting with a 25mm blade and finished the finer work with a much thinner 9mm blade for the curves and details. One mistake I made was that I didn't spend enough time eliminating the tool marks that weren't that obvious when carving, but became obvious after painting.

Painting took some experimentation because of course foam is not porous and does not absorb pigment which is what makes painting hydrocal cast rock so easy and foolproof. What I ended up doing is to paint the entire rock face with a slightly thinned gray acrylic flat latex paint to cover all the nooks and crannys and let it dry. Then I simply followed the standard "leopard wash" technique using ochre, then brown followed by a full overwash of black. All I used were watered down dollar store latex paints -- nothing fancy here.

The results are what I would call "good enough" for a first layout. I would definitely use this technique again, but would spend more time developing my carving skills.

  • Member since
    February 2017
  • 59 posts
Posted by originaldirtguy on Thursday, December 28, 2017 5:41 PM

BATMAN

Andy, foam rock doesn't need practice as random is good. After you get the basic rock colour down just fly at it with some dry brushing. One thing about painting, you can just add more if you don't like something. 

The more numbers/variety of colours the better it will look. Don't be fussy, it is not paint by numbers.

After I had the paint done, I sprayed some different washes over them as well.

 

I agree with Batman. I had never done this before and just decided to take a flyer at it. 

Then, I used a razor knife, steak knife, and exacto knife to round edges and cut deep grooves. Then I covered it with sculptamold, used a dremel to get a few more smaller cracks/fissers, then I painted black in the shadows, light gray in the highlights and medium gray as the base. Final step was to dry brush on some brown.

Hope this helps...

On YouTube at It's My Railroad

  • Member since
    December 2015
  • From: Shenandoah Valley
  • 9,094 posts
Posted by BigDaddy on Thursday, December 28, 2017 6:11 PM

You need to read the sticky on posting photos as none of your links worked. 

I didn't write the rules, but you can't cheat on the rules.

 

Henry

COB Potomac & Northern

Shenandoah Valley

  • Member since
    February 2017
  • 59 posts
Posted by originaldirtguy on Thursday, December 28, 2017 6:13 PM

BigDaddy

You need to read the sticky on posting photos as none of your links worked. 

I didn't write the rules, but you can't cheat on the rules.

 
 

 

Now I gotta figure out how to keep them from rotating :)

Thanks,

s~

On YouTube at It's My Railroad

  • Member since
    December 2015
  • From: Shenandoah Valley
  • 9,094 posts
Posted by BigDaddy on Thursday, December 28, 2017 6:22 PM

You are getting warm though.

 

Henry

COB Potomac & Northern

Shenandoah Valley

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