I've gotten quite a few emails asking about techniques used on the cliff in my thread "new railfan spot" here on the scenery forum.

Carving is not really the best description for how to get a rock-like texture. What you want to do is take advantage of the fact that certain materials show what's called an irregular fracture when broken.

This irregular fracture is what makes broken rock look like broken rock. Fortunately, pink Styrofoam and semi-set plaster also exhibit this fracture pattern.

What you do is keep chipping various size pieces of foam or damp plaster away from the cliff. As you break away the pieces, try to form natural looking joints or breaks between large areas of rock. The texture will appear naturally. I think the foam is easier to work with, but the technique does work also on a very thick coat of plaster before it hardens.

Make some chips large and some small to get those deeper fissures in the rock. Just keep chipping away until all of the original smooth surface is gone. If parts of your cliff don't look real, just keep chipping. Varying the size of the chips is the key. Also, it will look a lot better after a good thick coat of latex house paint is brushed on.

I use a small serrated steak knife for the chipping process. A very light brushing with a stiff bristle brush will remove any small bits of Styrofoam that remain in grooves. The brush can also be used to produce some horizontal strata in the finished rocks, but don't smooth the surface too much. You are reproducing weathered granite, limestone or marble, not the regular layering of a rock like shale or slate.

Remember what they say about Michelangelo's technique. He just kept chipping away everything that didn't look like "David".

Luckily, rocks are a lot easier. There is no right or wrong, since the foam will break away in exactly the same way as rock does over time.




Jim

How about a video? We want to see a knife wielding train scenery fanatic shred some 'strene!

Rand

I'll have to work on that, Rand.

I'm just afraid the rating might not be "G" or even "PG" - violence and possibly objectionable language every time I poke myself (which is often!)

Jim

quote:

I'm just afraid the rating might not be "G" or even "PG" - violence and possibly objectionable language every time I poke myself (which is often!)

Jim, that's what editing is for.

After you fractured and chiped at the foam, what did you do next?

Did you create the mountain on the layout or did you create it elsewhere and install it afterwards? I'm trying to weigh the advantages of each.

Thanks.

Hey Jim,

That is pretty neat! THanks for the inspiration.

Do you take requests? Think you can use the same technique to make a horizontal strata shale-textured surface that is chracteristic of the Northeast US?

By the way, did you really finish that with just one color of Latex paint? You must have added some additional coloring/ washes later.

Not to steal Jim's thunder, his stuff looks great, but there is a YouTube series on working with this material here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1D4KBB_GC4
That is the first part of about a dozen in the series, but you can pick up the next in the series from the links on the side.

Andrew

quote:

a YouTube series on working with this material

Walt,
I did just about everything on the workbench with this project. I learned that was best when I was working on Red Rock NP. For that project, I had to go through all sorts of contortions to do a lot of the final carving with the foam in place.

This time everything except the "planting" of vegetation was done before the one big piece of foam was attached to the backdrop.


John,
For shale I would hold the knife horizontally and take small chips out to create the closely spaced strata in this rock. I would also finish with a more vigorous brushing horizontally.

You could also tip the strata from the horizontal to produce the tilted rock common here in the NE.

For coloring, I started with the heavy application of latex house paint. I used light gray and black. I put a couple of brush-loads of gray on the foam and then worked some black into it, mixing the colors right on the foam.

When dry, I used a wash of raw umber to darken the crevices. When that was dry, I went back and drybrushed everthing with an antique white.

For all of you who have never tried that final drybrushing step with rocks, please experiment! It took me years to get the courage to hit my nice "finished" rocks with a light color paint, but it makes a tremendous difference. Just be sure the brush contains very little paint.

By the way, that You Tube series is excellent. I watched it a year or so ago before I started experimenting with foam.

Jim

thanks Jim.

This is a great post -- can't wait to tackle my scenery with the techniques described

Jim, I admire your work and posts. I've always been tempted to ask: Just how many trains do you have???? If you don't want to tell (bragg) for security or something just give me a ball park. I've seen a array of F's, and two three layouts (2r and 3rail), and mag shots, and..... Joe

Joe,
Too many!!! But actually much less than I had in my "carefree bachelor days" over ten years ago when I was collecting postwar. (No, my wife never checks the forum! )

Now, I have a couple of dozen engines, 4 passenger sets, and about 60 freight cars. Most everything except all the engines fit on the layout.

The videos on my website (link below) give a better feel for the layout than some of the magazine photos. You can fool the still camera but not the video!

Jim

Jim, I've watched the Mainline video a couple of times and and find it very enjoying.
Great layout and nice job on the video!

Jim, all I can say is "wow"! Your video and photo skills, and your website are as good as your railroads. Very enjoyable tour.

All fun stuff. Just dont inhale.
Rock formations can be seen at Album
http://ogaugerr.infopop.cc/eve/forums?a=albumtopic&TOPI...81036674&f=453102703

most texturing done with a U shaped hot wire tho wire often is used when loose, not bowstring tight. Color is old acrylic artists paint, sometimes over a neutral interior wall paint base. Note concrete tunnel portals, alll foam, from some shipped object.

L