How to recreate this...


goscrewyourselves

I'm the one
Hi Guy's,

The following pictures were taken within a 10 minute drive of my home and what I would like to replicate for my G Gauge layout. On the face of it, it should be pretty easy; however, everything I have tried has failed miserably. As such, I am hoping that some of our Scenery Guru's can give me some ideas of the best way to make these rock faces.

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The last picture above is how I would like the end result to be but am more interested in how to create the "rock face" for the vegetation to sit on and in.

Thanks and looking forward to the advice and suggestions.
 
im thinking build it useing layers of constuction foam and then use a drimel tool with a wire brush on it and grind the face of it in straight lines useing different pressure on it as you go to get the irregularitys of depth
 
Don't know if you can find them now, but I saw similar formations modeled wit pieces of broken ceiling tiles stacked glued together then the exposed edges brushed with a wire brush latex paint did the rest
Cheers
Willis
 
Break off pieces if ceiling tile and stack them.

Or find a deposit of shale and make rubber molds of the shale.
 
There is a heap of shale at the foot of the faces that I photographed. Most of them are a little too thick for the scale though, without sorting through them all, and trust me, where these faces are - I really don't want my butt hanging out over the road :)
 
You can always make molds from big pieces of coal. I have a piece in my yard that is about 2.5'x1'x3'. I think that I can get about 100 molds off of it, before I need to break it apart for more surfaces that are different.

Course, I'll never need that many molds. I'm actually just gonna get 5-8 off of it.
 
Never thought of using coal - that would save time and make it easier. As the weather was lousy here, I tried a couple of things myself. One thing I did try was using Dental Stone with a little concrete coloring in it then (as was suggested earlier) used the dremel to cut the lines etc. Once it had dried I broke t up with a hammer then laid the broken piece (like a jig saw) back on layer of plaster.

It didn't come out too bad (I'll post some picks for comments) BUT takes for ever to do, so I think Carey's mold idea is the way to go.
 
This what I ended up with using Dental Stone:

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It's a bit "rough" but I think it looks like rock, more or less. If this does work, in that the Dental Stone (once treated/sealed) will stand up to being outside as it is (apparently) supposed to, then I will make molds 1/8" (3 1/2"), 1/4" (7") and 1/2" (14") thick by 2". That will give me the ability to make "plates" that I can then layer to get (hopefully) a truer representation of the actual rock faces around here.
 
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Don't know if you can find them now, but I saw similar formations modeled wit pieces of broken ceiling tiles stacked glued together then the exposed edges brushed with a wire brush latex paint did the rest
Yup, that is what I was going to suggest. The problem with ceiling tiles is the "rows of rock" end up being too straight and too even. At the club we got some wet and split other horizontally which broke up the straightness a bit more.
 
Well, it was a good thought none the less Horseman. Despite what I have done, I am still looking and working on getting that stratification.
 
I found a "formation" of mud dried into stratified layers along a creek. It was perfect for HO, might work for larger scales. Except that it was in a wildlife park and getting permission to cast it would have been difficult.
 
the only other thing i thought of was the broken edges of slate, would be the proper color and it has a tendency to have stratified edges when broken. the only concern would be weight
 
Tree bark.

I've seen a few articles where tree bark is used to make very convincing stratified rock faces.

Here is one of them. Click on his photos to see larger versions.

http://cprailmmsub.blogspot.com/2014/07/more-tree-bark-for-rocks.html

- Jeff

Jeff,

Darn, that does look good and I have 1000's of acres of trees for bark all around me :)

the only other thing i thought of was the broken edges of slate, would be the proper color and it has a tendency to have stratified edges when broken. the only concern would be weight

I was begining to think that I was going to have to start trolling the road sides for shale to use, which is what I think you might be referring to. Weight wont be an issue though - whatever I use will be sitting on the ground, the real ground. :)
 
I was thinking about this. Because of fractalization, and the fact that it's outdoors, why not use real rock with a similar texture. Because of the "sea shore" effect, the smaller features of the rock will substitute for the larger features.
 
OldGuy,

Your absolutely right about using real rocks, and in my own defense, I will be using real rock throughout the layout for the most part and for all rocks that do not replicate slate faces. For the most part, the striations in real life vary from about 3" up to about 15" on ave, so that would leave a scaled version ranging from around 0.1" to 0.5", 1:29 scale. The 1/2" (0.5) is easily doable. The 0.1" not so much.
 



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