Carving Rock cuts in Plaster of Paris


NWCanuck

NWCanuck

Tip&Ring
Well I have put it off long enough. I needed a mountain in the corner of my layout for a coal mine. I have put off building this mountain because I was intimidated by the whole process and I wanted it to look right. I wasn't sure how do it so I have been watching Joe Fugates video on rock cuts over and over where he uses patching plaster and Portland cement. I made the basic shape out of rigid foam in 1 inch pieces hot glued together. I tried the patching plaster mix, but found it took way too long to dry.

I figured I would try regular Plaster of Paris mixed with a little black tempra paint to help reveal the detail (so please ignore the different colours, I will paint the rock later) in full strength smeared thick with a 1" putty knife. This stuff sets very quickly but does not cure right away which makes it perfect for carving it with a Paint scraper. I used the sharp pointy end of the scraper. Yeah it is a little extra work and you will find yourself starting to feel like Andy Dufresne in "The Shawshank Redemption" but I think it looks pretty good. Please let me know what you think.
 
Looks good. I actually think that first picture with the PoP and black tempra paint looks very close to real rock. I would fill it in with some clump foliage and a little ground foam but keep as much of the rock exposed as possible.
 
I agree with Jim. The first photos are better at depicting 'rocks'.

Here is my own attempt to model a rock cut using plaster carved with a sharp carpet cutter. If you feel that I have managed to capture a realistic looking rock face, then please return to your first images. I think you should look on them much more favourably, as we do. You did well there! :D

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It looks great. I think it looks very realistic with all the crevaces on the rock. I especially like the effect of the darker look (smoke) on the top of the tunnel so it looks like the real tunnels do! We did that with ours and many customers comment on the authentic look. Great job!
 
You did very well, Brad.
Suggestion: ask your dentist to save you the old dental picks: not the long sharp needle ugly looking ones, but the ones that have a little flat sharp point. They will sterilize them for you and the picks are great for carving more detail in your rock facings.;)
 
If I may make a suggestion, use a wash of 70% alcohol with a few drops of india ink per pint. You need very little india ink to give the effect you want. Use a broad brush (a foam brush is good) and flow on the alcohol/india ink wash. The darker india ink will settle in the cracks and crevices of the rocks and really highlight the dark shadow look that you see in rock cuts. Use just a little india ink to start, since it's easy to apply too much and impossible to get off if you do. It's much better to apply several very thin coats than try and do it all in one pass.
 
West Virginia Midland Man said:
Is there any way you can make the mountain higher? The rocks look fine, but the mountain's height needs to be higher (unless you can't make it higher for clearance reasons).
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Thanks for the tip Jim, I was thinking the same thing and then maybe some dry brushing or weathering power.

As for the overall height of the mountain it will he covered with ground cover and then heavily treed so I don't think you will see much of the landscape on top anyway. The masonite in the picture is just proped up and is not attached to the layout, just there to block the clutter around the table for the photo. I was really trying to stay away from having peaks. All I really was trying to show was two drastically different ground levels and maybe the hint of a mountain in distance, in a very small space, only 3' wide by 4' long. :)
 
NWCanuck said:
Figured I would post a few pics of the almost finished product. I airbrushed the rocks with some left over Badger Erie Grey acrylic. All I have left to do is detail and weather the portal and everything else around it.:D

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Are there two different mountains or am I looking at two different angles? In the pics with the tipple in place, the mountain looks more than tall enough and once the foliage is in place, it should be fine.
 
West Virginia Midland Man said:
Are there two different mountains or am I looking at two different angles?
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They are all photos of the same mountain. I took the tipple out of the picture to just show the rock detail. I contemplated the dip down to the top of the portal after I was done and thought it was a little low. I thought of going back and bringing that portion of it up to a higher grade and then thought... wow, it would be so much easier to just cover it with trees there and move onto something else (I was a little tired of carving and laying plaster cloth at the time). I agree it looks a little weird now but I think I can mask the visual dip to the portal with scenery.
 
looks good brad for a first attempt, like all aspects of the hobby you will get better with practice I recently started using a product from sherman williams called dura-bond 45 its just like hydrocal but easer to finde inn my area 25 lb bag is 12 bucks and it dries to carving time in an hour it's also about half the weight of plaster. then I use sculptamold to fillin the gaps and bring it all together. I have some pictures of my mountain on facebook under my profile I am listed as shawnmyers63 let me know what you think if you get a chance to take a look . p.s. cant get my pictures to upload on this site I think I need to reduce their size new to this computer stuff.
 
Just wanted to post a few pics of the finished rock. I airbrushed the entire rock with left over Badger Erie Grey (not a fan of the Badger Paints). Then I airbrushed Polly Scale L&N Grey on the high spots and random areas. I ran a wash of Pollyscale Engine Black and an India Ink wash over the rock. The last step was dry brushing some Golden brand acrylic paint on the edges of the rocks.

I don't know what else I could throw on there but I think this has got it.

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Wow! Nice work Brad!! I'll be borrowing heavily as this is almost the exact set up I have laid out for my mine.
 
Excellent work! And thanks for the pics and how you did it. I'm building my first mountain too, I hope mine comes out as well as yours.

I was at Caboose Hobbies yesterday, and they have the same WS rubber molds, that's what I'm getting too.
 
Motley said:
I was at Caboose Hobbies yesterday, and they have the same WS rubber molds, that's what I'm getting too.
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Just a heads up, this is not done with WS rock molds, this is just regular Plaster of Paris slathered over ridgid foam and then carved with a small flathead screw driver and the edge of a paint scrapper. I did origionally buy a WS rock mold but found this was easier than trying to piece a bunch of castings together.

Give it a shot, it is easier than you think!
 
Here's a photo of my recent carving experiment in N scale. Done with xacto knife and a small stiff brush. After I put a glob of plaster over the form, I let it sit for about two minutes and then start carving away.
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