Using ceiling tiles for mountains?

[mikesmowers]

  I have a neighbor that has an old house that has been used for storing ceiling tiles and he is willing to give me some if I can use them. I was wondering if they could be used for making mountains instead of the pink or blue foam? I think I can remember something on the forums about using it but am not positive. Tha tiles he has are the 2'X4' ones, some are the fiberglass with the thin vinal covering on one side. The ones I am thinking on using are the ones that are sort of a pressed paper. Will these work? I am going to build an N scale and in another room, I will build an HO scale.     Thanks,                   Mike

[loathar]

Yep! You just break them to the size you want and stack them up. Paint the broken edge a proper rock color. They make nice looking shale type rock walls. (you want the pressed paper ones)
I wish I could find some for free. I need about 50 to do my drop ceiling.

[R. T. POTEET]

You can, indeed use them as you are proposing, but these wind up being pretty heavy; where they have been traditionally used is to form striated scenery; break them up and then blend them into your other scenery; they look great in rock cuts.

WARNING: mike, I don't know how long your neighbor has been storing these but keep in mind that these used to be made out of asbestos if you are fearful of that.

[Chuck Geiger]

These really only look good for rock outcroppings, not entire mountain or hill bases, go with foam!

[Greg H.]

These really only look good for rock outcroppings, not entire mountain or hill bases, go with foam!

I'll second the motion, ( no offence to those that have actualy used the stuff ) I have yet to see a entire mountian made of ceiling tile, that while it looked alittle like shale or slate, it mostly looked like a stack of broken ceiling tile, that had been painted.

And depending on how old the ceiling tiles are, there is a very real danger from asbestos.

 

[tomikawaTT]

The MR newsletter (3/1/07) that I used as a portal to the forums a few minutes ago has as its lead article, Using Ceiling Tiles for Rock Outcroppings.

I don't see any reason why ceiling tiles (or pieces thereof) can't be used as a subterranean base for alternative geologies (aka rock molded plaster) and/or ground goop.  The stuff is heavier than blue foam, but so is almost every other kind of scenic material.

My one ceiling tile will be broken up and used to model rock strata when I find a suitable location.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[tgindy]

I have successfully used broken ceiling tiles for shale/out-cropping/cliffworks as many others have noted above.  You break them and/or you can score to then snap them with a unitily knife on one side apx. 2-3 inches wide and use "an Elmer's Glue type" adhesive.

Only one side of the pieces need to have that jagged look; a thickness of 2-3 inches really helps by the time you break off one edge, and; that 2-3 inch thickness will be appreciated the higher you stack the cliffworks.  You also will end up with pieces and shavings of all sizes by the time you are done which can then be inserted where you might have "some holes" in your cliffworks.

You also need to build your shale cliffs as if you are building a fieldstone wall in real life.  So, be careful that all of your pieces don't look like "lego blocks" or "lincoln logs" as if they are a uniform assembly-line final product.

A light spray paint base, air-brushing, etc. and then weathering type techniques will follow.

The tiles can potentially suck up quite a bit of spray paint, but also look better than plaster where you want that shale & sedimentary rock appearance instead of the rockies/shield look.

If you are modeling an "east of the Mississippi" like a coal hauler with trackage surrounded by green foilage - this scenery technique can look quite convincing when mixed in with the local greenery.

• REMEMBER:  Talus rocks at the base of a cliff with tile scrap bits and/or smashed up plaster bit weathered to match mixed in with "woodsy bushes" and the sometimes jagger-bushes & locust tree sapplings on rock out-croppings.

• CAVEAT:  Something dark behind the jagged rocks, such as a black roofing tarpaper, will prevent train headlights, hidden staging lighting, etc, from little moonbeams seeping through any small or large gaps in your finished cliffworks.

• GOOP:  A quality ground goop blended at the tile edges won't hurt one bit.

[pcarrell]

You mean like this or this?  (click the links!)

[Greg H.]

You mean like this or this?  (click the links!)

Now that looks more like rock formations than stacked ceiling tile!!!

[tgindy]

You mean like this or this?  (click the links!)

Now that looks more like rock formations than stacked ceiling tile!!!

To quote Ben Browder's famous line from "Farscape" and "Stargate SG-1"...

"Now, that's what I'm talkn' about!" 

[pcarrell]

Harold (hminky on this forum) does an awesome job, doesn't he?  I love reading all of the stuff he does on his website.  Here's his homepage: http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/

[R. T. POTEET]

You mean like this or this?  (click the links!)

Nope! like that or that!

Whoever did that scenery has it down to a science and I hate him! The hobby press covered this subject with quite a few articles back in the '70s and '80s and all were presented with impressive photography.

Availability can be an issue I understand, a fact which was brought up several times in these articles. The authors of several - indeed probably most - of these articles acquired their tiles by visits to construction sites - particularly residential construction sites - and carrying off broken pieces; you cannot, I believe, just walk into a store and say, "I want five ceiling tiles" although I am sure that boxes do get broken and that retailers may well sell individual tiles out of these broken cases. I seem to recall having seen advertising which says "SALE! CEILING TILES! 79¢ APIECE! Sold by the case only!" and that brings the price to twenty dollars or so a case which may or may not be expensive depending on what your budget looks like.

If Mike has free access to these I would probably take at least a few and figure out how to use them. I have never used this material but I have always been impressed with the outcome and probably would give consideration to using it if I found that tiles were available for individual purchase. I'm not, however, accustomed to rummaging around construction sites so, unless I were to come up with some free source, I will continue to use hydrocal for my rockwork.

Mike, I have a feeling that this is one of those a-little-goes-a-long-way situations so I would at least grab a few of these things!!!

[tatans]

Those photos are great, the best looking outcrops I've seen yet on a layout, as opposed to the stacked "rock wall " effect,   one of the keys is: a lot of geological formations do NOT remain horizontal, the angles are a very natural look. Great work ! !

[Greg H.]

Those photos are great, the best looking outcrops I've seen yet on a layout, as opposed to the stacked "rock wall " effect,   one of the keys is: a lot of geological formations do NOT remain horizontal, the angles are a very natural look. Great work ! !

You have that right!   I have seen plenty layers that curve - even curve sometimes more than 270* of curvature in less than 100 yrds, and I bet that we all have see what happens to angles when sand dunes are fosselized and cemented into rock - angles going every which way.

[john1947]

Just be careful and use some type of breathing device when breaking,roughing up the tile as some of them have silicia (sp) that can do damage to your respitory (sp) system.

I found this out at my place of w**k when we started changing the old tiles with new ones. 

Just my

John

 

[loathar]

RT Wrote- you cannot, I believe, just walk into a store and say, "I want five ceiling tiles" although I am sure that boxes do get broken and that retailers may well sell individual tiles out of these broken cases.

My Home Depot sells individual tiles. They had a few broken ones just collecting dust the last time I checked. Probably get those for next to nothing.

 

[Budliner]

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/rockfaces/

[pcarrell]

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/rockfaces/

That is one of the links I gave earlier in this thread.  That really is some good modeling, huh?

[Budliner]

I didn't see that link the first time

I has some tiles but they got wet this summer

ah new england

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

My layout has no mountains, but I do have rock strata. I used the ceiling tile method along with some rock castings as part of the scene on the east bank of the  Mrs. Hippy River.

Next is the scene with rock strata with the reefers on the track above it. In that case, I used the broken plaster method. I make sheets of plaster trying to keep the thickness down to 1/4". next I break it and then glue in pancake fashion. I fill gaps with spackling compound, and then stain with washes of acrylic paint. Advantage of broken plaster are texture seems like real rock and thickness varies. I prefer borken plaster over ceiling tile.

[Greg H.]

I realy love the way cork looks when used to make rock - http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/thin%5Frocks/

[GUB]

I've used a wire brush to do additional shaping once they have been glued in place. This works well, but it is quite messy. I think if i was to use them again I would do most of the distressing or shaping off the layout first, then install the tiles. Just my .

GUB

[ho modern modeler]

They're much heavier than foam, you can layer them 1/2" and they look kinda cool when broken apart.

Just a heads up-you used "old house" and "stored" in the same sentence-ceiling tiles (like vinyl floor tiles) manufactured pre-1981-ish MOST CERTAINLY CONTAIN ASBESTOS!!!